Bücher von Berwick Coates

There is much to be learned about teaching. But it is learnable.No beginner should be daunted by long words, psychology, jargon, or fashionable philosophies. Proficiency in it is not a Druid-like mystique which takes decades to master; it is not a rarefied skill accessible only to a gifted few. It can be done. So long as one holds on tight to gumption, common decency, and native wit. That does not mean that it is easy. It isn`t. And there`s always something else to learn. Keep eyes and ears open; you can pick up tips anywhere. Like here, for instance.

1095A city in the grip of crusade fever Innkeeper Albert dies - minstrel Bertrand asks why On Tuesday, 27th November, 1095, in Clermont, France, Pope Urban II made one of the most important speeches in history: he preached the First Crusade, and unleashed madness. Clermont had been pushed to the extreme of suffering by recent flood, famine, drought, and pestilence. Urban's speech drove it over the edge. In the midst of the frenzy, innkeeper Albert is found dead. Mayor Arnaud, desperate, asks his friend, the minstrel Bertrand de Montclos, to look into it, in an effort to stop the madness spreading...

Berwick Coates found it something of a shock when he worked out that he had taught over 40,000 lessons. However, with a record like that, it seemed not unreasonable to suppose that he might have a thing or two to say. Among others is the great truth that the classroom is not a democracy, a salon, a debating chamber, or a symposium; it is an arena, which is pervaded by a semi-permanent state of friendly undeclared war. Victory does not go to either side; you win some and you lose some. Survival depends on proper knowledge, awareness, flexibility, resilience, a willingness to learn, thinking on the feet, a sense of humour, and low cunning.

Here is a History teacher`s tribute to error - the error which defies correction, the error which has a logic of its own, the error which often deserves to be right far more than the truth does.Which port in Spain did the Armada sail from?El CidWhat was a toga?A rape-around robeWhat does the name 'Christ' mean?Something has gone wrongWhy was England dull under Cromwell?He closed the cinemasWhere was Hitler born?Burnham Thorpe, NorfolkWhat did men use to build the prehistoric huts on Dartmoor?Their hands.