archaeology

Fitzalan Eisteddfod visit 4/3/2016

Today saw a SHARE with Schools’s first, as 15 volunteers, 5 PG coordinators and a faculty member worked alongside 120 Fitzalan High School pupils. Fitzalan were running their ever exciting Eisteddfod event–a Welsh cultural festival–so the pupils were out of normal timetable and doing all sorts of exciting extracurricular or enriching activities. We ran three workshops in parallel, with each being delivered twice to different pupils. The workshops consisted of the brand new Religion in the Media Workshop, the STEM Archaeology Workshop and the Museum Curatorship Workshop. All went fantastically, with some brilliant work being produced by the pupils. They were a pleasure to work with.

Some of the nice things the Fitzalan teachers said about us included:

On the brand new RE workshop:

Excellent resources that engaged the pupils.

Excellent delivery by students

Students/postgrads were enthusiastic and confident in their knowledge

Pupils were fully engaged for the whole sessions. As librarian I often witness pupils are not able to remain focussed for an hour – but all were well behaved today.

About the STEM Archaeology workshop

The students were introduced to an area which they may never have an opportunity to experience. They were interested and inspired about archaeology.

Great team of people very at ease with delivering the contents. Great interactions, communication with comments. Especially the idea of the uni students go[ing] around and meeting/teaching each one of the groups.

The resources allow the pupils to visualise what is being discussed, and reach conclusion in their own times. (A lot of the pupils present today were EAL [English as an Additional Language] but they all were able to quickly understand and follow the lesson.

A big thank you to the plethora of student volunteers who made this visit possible and delivered so marvellously:

Gemma Bush
Hannah Coverdale
Benjamin Dillon
James Figgitt
Clara Freer
Jonathan Gilbert
Stephanie Hall
Hasnan Hussain
Rachael Mott
Kieran Murphy
Christopher Parry
Emily Radcliffe
Laura Rees
Molly Thompson
Liberty Vaz Townsend
James Pillinger

Fitzalan – STEM Archaeology

Fitzalan – Museum Curatorship

Fitzalan – RE

Fitzalan – Museum Curatorship

Fitzalan – RE

Guest blog from volunteer Lizzie Nicholson

Lizzie Nicholson: My SHARE with Schools

Hi!

One of the hardest parts was keeping the children engaged

I’m Lizzie Nicholson. I’m in my first year studying Archaeology BSc. I thought SHARE with Schools was a great opportunity to meet other students, help develop my skills, introduce me to a career in schools and to do something different outside my degree programme.

I did workshops for students years 7, 8, and 9. The workshops covered archaeological science and museum curation. First we had to present to the children what we were going to be doing and tell them a little bit about archaeological science techniques or museum curation. One of the hardest parts was keeping the children engaged, but I managed this by making sure I knew what I was talking about and engaging the students with questions.

The workshops themselves were really good fun because they were so interactive and it was something different for the children to get involved in. The museum curation workshop was good because it encouraged the children to do a lot of different things including drawing and research. They were really enthusiastic too, as it was very hands on and they had the artefacts in front of them. This raised its own problems though, as the children were easily distracted with having all the artefacts in front of them. It was difficult to keep the children on task, because I was just as interested in them all as the children were! An improvement in the future would be to encourage the children to complete the tasks before experimenting with the objects instead of experimenting with them!

The archaeological science workshop was a little harder because the children didn’t understand the methods so well so I had to explain that to them carefully, but it got them thinking a lot and using a cluedo-style game at the end was really fun.

I felt quite nervous for the first workshop I did because even though I knew what to do I didn’t really know what would happen. I overcame this quickly though because the first group of children were fantastic. Although the other two groups we had that day – for archaeological science – weren’t quite as enthusiastic, I felt all the workshops went well as I was able to engage the children with the help of other staff. This was one of the biggest challenges. The second set of workshops I did I felt much more prepared for as I already knew what was likely to happen. This was the museum collections workshop, so the children were much more engaged throughout this one as it was very practical.

workshops boosted my confidence a lot and helped me with public speaking

Overall, I think all the workshops I took part in went well. I enjoyed it particularly because the workshops I was delivering were on subjects I really enjoy and am passionate about, and communicating this and inspiring other people in the subject areas was a definite highlight! We had a lot of positive feedback, and the teachers who got involved in the archaeological science workshop really enjoyed it. I think the pupils enjoyed the workshops too, because they were engaging and practical and something most of children had never really done before. Plus it was different to a normal school day of maths and English which is always a bonus!

Personally, the workshops boosted my confidence a lot and helped me with public speaking – I nearly always speak too fast. It also helped with team building a lot because, the archaeological science one in particular, I had to work with the other volunteers who would come round and add additional information to help out with identifying the skeleton. Leadership skills were something else I had to develop, because I was working with a group of 4 or 5 children and had to make sure they kept on task and moved forward when they needed to. Leading and working with children was quite different than with people my own age, so it was interesting to make that transition and appreciate the diversity within the group, such as their individual styles of working.

I really enjoyed all the workshops I took part in, and would definitely recommend it to anyone who knows they want to work with children or is thinking about it but isn’t too sure, to anyone who want to build a range of transferable skills, and anyone who is looking for [something] a bit different that’s still a lot of fun.

Cathays High School return visit to SHARE–pictures and more!

A really successful day at the School of History, Archaeology and Religion today, opening our doors to pupils from Cathays High School. A big thanks to our volunteers, Dr Jenny Benham for her really fun lecture on Medieval outlawry for making the day happen.

Take a look at our storify for more photos and comments from an exciting and educational day:

https://storify.com/majikmutton/cathays-high-school-return-visit

All photo credits on this page are SHARE photographic officer Rachel Roberts. Thanks Rachel!

Guest blog by volunteer Beth Cox

Beth Cox

providing kids with something different from their ordinary lessons and letting them handle genuine Roman pottery really captures their attention so I’ve rarely encountered problems with discipline

I went to my first ever SHARE With Schools Project event early in my second year and I was terrified: terrified I wouldn’t know what to say, terrified the kids wouldn’t listen; terrified I knew nothing about the Romans. But I loved it! I came home, signed up for ever other one that year and promptly fell asleep for three and a half hours. The enthusiasm from the kids was amazing and the feedback from the teachers (who like dressing up just as much as the kids!) encouraged my want to teach ten-fold. The teachers are really supportive and offer great advice if, like me, you want to go into teaching. Going into my third year at Cardiff University, I told myself I would only do one or two-naturally this turned into three or four. It became sort of addictive: not only to want to teach these children who you can genuinely imagine running home to tell their parents about us, but also the opportunity to talk to other students with the same love as you. Over the two years I have been involved, I have done most of the workshops including Roman Wales and Museum Exhibition. I went into this knowing nothing about the Romans at all and this worried me because how could I teach it if I knew nothing about it? But the crib sheet is easy to use and if you ever get stuck or lost, another team member will step in without even blinking. I have now taught all ages and in a variety of schools including one solely for children with special educational needs and Willows High School which is about to be featured in the latest in the ‘Educating’ series, Educating Cardiff.

For most of them I felt I was prepared, though I do feel the crib sheets should be available somewhere in advance rather than being emailed a few days beforehand but I’m one of those people who have to do things in advance! The latest project I was involved in was a series of workshops at Caerau Hillfort where the original activity we had planned couldn’t happen so we had to switch activities last minute. By the end of the day, the children were quite restless and I ended up doing part of my talk about medieval clothing relating it to Game of Thrones-either complete genius or I’ve ruined the series for them…But by providing kids with something different from their ordinary lessons and letting them handle genuine Roman pottery really captures their attention so I’ve rarely encountered problems with discipline. To improve on my role in SHARE [with Schools] (though I’ve sworn not to do anymore, we’ll see how long my resolve lasts!) I would read around subjects I feel less comfortable with such as the Romans.

this project was my most talked about experience and it fascinated all the interviewers

I’ve just come back from teacher training interviews and, though this project should not be considered solely for those who want to go into teaching, this project was my most talked about experience and it fascinated all the interviewers. It gives you first-hand experience of a classroom setting and being a reflective practitioner as well as demonstrating team work, thinking on your feet and organisation. For those who want to teach in Wales, it is also a massive networking opportunity. I was offered positions in a school after one session and I ended up doing a couple of days observation at this school-which worked out great at interviews as I could say I might be on Educating Cardiff! If anyone is thinking about doing this, it’s so simple to do, transport and the lessons are provided, you’re not in charge of discipline in the classroom but you get to genuinely feel like you’ve had an impact on these children. My personal highlight was after we were in a class of children with various personal difficulties and the teacher came up to us at the end and said ‘you have no idea how much of a change you’ve brought on these kids, normally it’s so hard to get them engaged in anything!’. If I could, I’d go to every session I could but it’s got to the time that I have to focus on my degree.

Thanks to this week’s volunteers delivering at Fitzalan and Mountain Ash

A big thank you is well deserved for all of our volunteers this week. We saw some fantastic efforts from everyone involved, and were especially impressed by those participants who were delivering SHARE with Schools workshops for the first time.

Delivering Romans in Wales, Medieval Orders of Society and Life in the Nineteenth Century Cynon Valley at Mountain Ash Comprehensive School, Abercynon:

Kelsey Louise Clarke
Jacob Deacon
Chris Griffiths
Jon Langston
Ben Dillon

And delivering Who Wants to be a Museum Curator? and the brand new Archaeological Science workshops at the Eisteddfod at Fitzalan High School, Cardiff: