M1: 22 Oct 2016 - Workington

Overall, it was a great day; everyone had a laugh but learned the professional skills needed to move on to the next step - teaching someone else to ring!

At the start of the day we discussed the basics of teaching learners and the importance of getting handling right, which was really helpful. We then moved up to the tower to do some practical work in groups of threes. Staring lovingly into each other's eyes and trying to keep straight faces while teaching each other, had us in fits of laughter. Our group soon found out that sound effects makes the learning a lot more interesting.

By the time we had learnt some new skills in how to teach new ringers we had started to lose concentration as hunger overcame us. A break was due! During this we discussed the PowerPoint showing us the website and the some correct and wrong ways of ringing, and after finishing our lovely and warm teas and coffees, we once again headed to the tower. Then we had to change around the groups of threes to work with new people and teach ringing up and down in different stages. Each stage was easy enough to remember and easy enough to complete. We took turns in our different groups at teaching each step to someone else, as if they were the learner.

Demonstrations were the easy part of the day but trying to actually explain what to do was trickier than we all thought it would be.

At the end of the day, with everyone exhausted from the full-on day, we gathered in the conference room to discuss what the next steps would be. We sat and listened to what everyone thought and watched videos that are on offer for us on the SmART Ringer website. We discussed our ringing problems and how we think we can solve them and help each other improve on our own technique.

Overall it was a great day that I would definitely suggest anyone who is confident enough to start to teach others how to ring should attend this course next time it is run. We had plenty of laughing moments and a lot more serious ones throughout the day. We learned loads and came aware raring to go!

Sadie Slack

Teaching Bell Handling

Practical advice for teachers, right from the first lesson.