Well who would have thought it, I got lesson inspiration from watching an episode of Big Brother... Yes, you read correctly, Big Brother...
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Teaching has officially taken over my brain.

But despite the unconventional source, this idea is actually a really great method of checking understanding in an energetic and kinesthetic way! Plus, it's a great way of helping your students burn off some those e-numbers after lunch...!

So, in a recent episode the housemates' challenge was to answer questions... (just like we do in school - and we all know how this can get boring and repetitive!). However, as this series is called "Time Bomb" (UK series) there is a time theme to most challenges. In this one, two girls were in a room full of clocks as seen below (although they were just printed clocks, not real ones!).

The concept was incredibly simple. The girls were asked a question and were given 3 options to choose from. The key was that each option had a certain 'time' allocated to it; the girls then had to work as a team to find the time associated with the correct answer! E.g.:
option 1 = 07.45
option 2 = 14:27
option 3 = 03:00

So how could we use this in the classroom? Well, you could also stick to the time theme as well if you wanted to review reading the time with your students - simply print out a variety of clocks on different coloured card and decorate your room with them! You can easily differentiate this by using 12hr/24hr options depending on the level of difficulty you desire. (I realise this is a secondary blog and you'd hope your teens can read the time by now, but believe it or not, one of the 25 year old women in this task was struggling......). Alternatively this would work great for teaching how to read time in a foreign language!

You can then do cross curricular learning by asking ANY questions on ANY topic and getting students to find the time associated with the answer! 
It doesn't even have to be a clock though, it literally could be anything. You could use props or have keywords related to your subject that are printed on card and blu-tacked/velcroed on the wall. These props/words can then be allocated to an answer instead! You see? And you didn't think trashy TV could be educational... ;)

You could get students to work as a team, or you could even have a group competing against each other to "beat the clock" to run and find the right answer first! (See what I did there?). The first group to bring back the correct answer wins! 

So, what do you think? What is your weirdest source of inspiration for a lesson? Leave your comments below!

Life as a teacher has evolved dramatically over the years: some of these changes include extreme testing, increase of paper work and rise in behaviour issues etc. But I was inspired to dig deeper in history and find out what life was like as a teacher almost 100 years ago and how it compares to modern teaching.

Check out this teachers contract from 1923!

Wow, ok so let's break this down...

• Teachers (all women it seems) were not allowed to get married.
  They had to devote themselves to teaching (well some things don't change!).
  In fact, not only were they not allowed to get married, they were forbidden from even talking to men or being near them... (No men. Men are bad. Teachers must be socially inept when it comes to men. Got it.)

• No hanging out in those seedy ice cream stores in town. How very dare they...

• Not allowed to even leave town without permission (is this is a teaching contract or a parole contract?)

• Forbidden from leaving their home from 8pm-6am. (Wait... what?!)

• No smoking and no drinking. Immediate sack if they try and unwind at the end of the day. 

• No bright colours - nothing that says "happy". Teachers are, and must remain, dull.

• No hair dye. Every strand of grey hair must be visible at all times. 

• One petticoat will not suffice. They must wear at least 2. This is to create a large barrier around them to prevent men getting close. 

• Feel free to show those ankles ladies! But if you even consider revealing a knee...

• Seeing as teachers were not allowed to get married and have families, obviously they should perform all their "house-wifely" duties in the classroom instead and be on their hands and knees scrubbing the floors. (Some still do this!)

• Oh, and all for $75 (£49) a month...

Sounds so appealing doesn't it?!
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Although, you might have noticed that there is no mention of actually teaching the students..! No lesson plans are required, no parents evenings or meetings mentioned, no testing or pressure of results, no reports to fill out, and no break duties!

What are your thoughts on this? Would you happily take all the extra paper work and other pressures of modern teaching over this contract? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!

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