Teachers Resource Force Blog

3 Fresh Lesson Ideas for Teaching Black History Month in Secondary School

20/1/2020

Are you looking for some fun, fresh new ideas for incorporating Black History into your classroom this year? In this article, you will find a range of games, independent research activities and calming colouring classroom decor - a bit of everything to suit your needs!

3 Fresh Lesson Ideas for Teaching Black History Month in Secondary Schools | TeachersResourceForce.com

1) Black History Guess The Hero Game

This fun Black History Guess It game works like "Guess Who". There are 24 Black History heroes in total, each with their own biography cards. Students can make up a board by cutting and sticking each person's face on the template (which comes in a variety of different colours) and the game can be played in pairs or small groups.

Guess Who Black History Month Game | Teachers Resource Force

Students take one biography card at random and then they take it in turns to ask each other 'yes' or 'no' questions about the others' identity. Questions can be based on physical characteristics or facts.

Each player folds down the people they have eliminated based on the questions they've asked until they guess the person correctly. This game works especially well as a review activity after they have researched the people in detail, but works just as well as an introduction to the people as well. The game can be played multiple times to give students an opportunity to learn about / review a range of different heroes.

The game can be differentiated for younger or less able students or for when teaching languages, as a simple characteristics game - particularly powerful for building vocabulary whilst familiarizing themselves with some of the most famous heroes of black history. Older / more able students can challenge their knowledge of these heroes by identifying their personal characteristics and achievements.

Download from TpT

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2) Research Activities for Black History Month

Black History Research Activities | Teachers Resource Force

This independent research resource is really easy to use in your classroom – there are 25 printable worksheets which have the name and picture of the same heroes of Black History as the game above: some are well known and others are unsung heroes.

Students can then undertake their own research (at home or in your lesson) to find out more about these people, and then reflect on why they think they are so inspirational and how they have made such a positive impact on Black History. There is also a blank version for students to research their own hero of choice.

Included are a set of 8 deep thinking discussion cards that students can work through in a group and would also make excellent essay prompts as well.

Download from TpT

Download from TRF

3) Martin Luther King Jr Quote Colouring Pages

If you want to create a calming, inspirational vibe in your classroom and simultaneously create some ready made Black History Month classroom decor, then look no further than these Martin Luther King Jr Quote Colouring Pages!

There are 5 different colouring pages to choose from, and all these inspiring quotes are by Martin Luther King Jr himself: great for teaching Growth Mindset on MLK day or during Black History Month.

Most teachers have used these to create a calming and inspirational atmosphere in their rooms by displaying the finished sheets on the wall, which students love.

So take some time out of a hectic day to give your students the opportunity to just focus, motivate and enjoy themselves while being inspired by the wonderful words of Martin Luther King Jr – they, and you, deserve it!

Martin Luther King Jr Quote Colouring Pages for Black History Month | Teachers Resource Force

Download from TpT

Download from TRF

I hope you have enjoyed these fun, fresh ideas for Black History Month and choose to incorporate them into your classroom this year!

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Students continue to struggle overcoming the pressures of social media. Help them see through the online facades of false confidence, and develop self-esteem the healthy way

16/11/2019

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Well, this is an interesting one!

Instagram recently announced they are officially starting to hide likes in an attempt to promote mental health.

I had a brief chat with a couple of my students about what they thought of this news, and the conversations were fascinating...

So, what did I do? I made a resource of course!

Students continue to struggle overcoming the pressures of social media. Help them see through the online facades of false confidence, and develop self-esteem the healthy way | www.TRF.one

I believe all students who are using social media need to talk about this, as the likes have a bigger effect on their mental health than even they might realise.

What's more, this particular discussion topic and printable is FREE for you so you can have these conversations with your students too!

DOWNLOAD FREEBIE FROM TPT

DOWNLOAD FREEBIE FROM TRF

While I was at it, I ended up exploding this into a full blown lesson that delves deep into:

• The true point of social media
• What social media is most often used for instead
• To reflect on why they use social media
• Why and how social media can affect mental health
• The effects of comparing themselves to people on social media
• The reality of why people really post what they post [VIDEO INCLUDED]
• The reasons people obsess about likes and followers
• Why likes and followers create false confidence
• What triggers affect them on social media
• Alternative ways they can respond to triggers on social media
• How they can use their social media to make the world a better place
• …and more!

I delivered this lesson to my students and I was stunned at the response from them and the conversations we were having. It's like they were desperate to share their online experiences.

You have to realise, our students don't have adults in their lives who grew up with social media.

Take that in for a moment.

They're trying to navigate through a dangerous new world with absolutely no guidance.

Their mental health and self-esteem is at stake.

They need to talk about this with adults who can guide them.

So if you want to be that adult in their life who can get them seeing the truth behind the façade of social media and how they can use it for good rather than for comparison and gloating, you literally can change the world.

If you'd like to go all in on this with your students using the full pack, you can download it below:

DOWNLOAD LESSON FROM TPT

DOWNLOAD LESSON FROM TRF

I hope you give the discussion a go, even if it's just the freebie part, because this is happening now and will affect their lives. I know you will get so much out of this conversation with your students and you will empower them to the next level!

How do you feel about Instagram removing likes? Do you think it really will help with mental health? Share your thoughts below!

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6 ways to teach personal development in schools

19/9/2019

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Personal development is FINALLY making its way into more UK schools, especially since Ofsted's most recent updates where they announced this will be a new focus for inspections. Character Education has been around globally for a while, but it's more important than ever that we all do our best to bring this into our classroom if we haven't already - not because of inspections, but because our students need it.

If you're new to teaching character education or personal development, it can be overwhelming at first to know where to start. So hopefully this article will give you some ideas for how you can easily implement this fundamental quality into your day.

6 ways to teach personal development in schools | Teachers Resource Force [TRF.one]

If you've never heard of Personal Development or Character Education, you can first check out this article which explains all you need know about it and why your students need it.

Once you're clear on what it is and why you want to teach it, here are some simple ways you can implement personal development into your classroom, or across the whole school:

1. The easiest way I found to begin with, is by slotting a short activity into your mornings: those first few minutes of the day when everyone is settling in are ideal. (You might call it tutor time / morning meeting / home room / form time / advisory period etc. - there are so many names for this!)

I've created a brand new website especially for this time of the day, called character365.com.

Character365 is very simple to use and completely free! Every Monday a new discussion prompt or activity automatically appears. Every prompt revolves around making students think about their character and work on their personal development to ensure they are always striving to be their best. Because the prompt is up for a whole week, you can choose a specific day to do these activities or come back and review the same topic a few times during the week to check on progress and keep the focus at the forefront of your students' mind. Make sure you check it at least once a week as you won't be able to go back to old prompts or forward to new ones!

2. Another option for your mornings if you'd rather have something new each day, are these character themed morning meeting digital PowerPoints and printable journals. There are 10 different characteristics, one for each month of the year: resilience, respect, courage, compassion, tolerance, empathy, self-respect, leadership, honesty and self-esteem:

You can use either the PowerPoints on their own for class / peer discussions or the Printable Journals on their own for written activities for your students, or of course you could combine the two for maximum impact! They're such an easy and effective way of having the right conversations about these topics and having a different theme each month will really help your students hone in and focus on building that one characteristic at a time.

3. If you're fortunate enough to be issued specific curriculum time for personal development, then you can teach whole lessons, perhaps in PSHE or some advisory lessons which are a bit longer. These Character Education resources are different than the previous as they include detailed guided PowerPoints along with printable activities and task cards, which are ideal for complete lessons. Again, these come in all 10 characteristics and they are self guided so you don't need to be an expert or a counsellor to deliver them, but please do seek guidance with your school if you are worried about delivering any topic!

4. You could also go the extra curricular route and start a club - even better if it's a student leadership club led by older students who could mentor the younger ones. The club could have a specific topic they would like to focus on, perhaps as individuals but also in including the whole school. For example a "Character Club" might want to encourage the whole school to be more kind to one another and they might lead an activity such as leaving notes of kindness in peoples' lockers or on their chairs and encouraging others to do the same. I'm sure your students would be able to come up with even more fun ideas in a brainstorming session!

5. Another useful way of impacting the whole school in a short space of time is through whole school assemblies. You can get the message across to the whole student body on a regular basis. Ideally you'd want to follow up with the things shared, perhaps in lessons or in future assemblies as character isn't a one-stop-shop you can hit once. It needs to be addressed, practised, reviewed and practised some more on a continual basis!

6. Finally, you could get some inspiring quotes up on display in classrooms and on walls in the corridors. While quotes are inspiring, they are only effective if you refer to them often and make them relevant to your students and their experiences. For example a quote on resilience will be great to refer to if your students are wanting to give up on some class work - you could point to the quote and use it to help inspire them to keep going!

When it comes to personal development, something is better than nothing! We just want to encourage our students to develop the characteristics to be the best they can be. How do you like to teach personal development? Leave a comment below!

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