The moment

Apologies to whoever it was that posted on Twitter this morning 'no class ever cheered the statement get out your textbooks and turn to..' as I didn't write down your name to credit you with starting me on this train of thought. In Mantle of the Expert work we talk about the 'lure' and how important it is to hook children into their learning. We have to lure children into wanting to know. There are 'moments' when you know you 'have' your pupils. I've heard them called Champagne moments or lightbulb moments but basically you just know when that moment happens. I've been fortunate this week to witness and take part in 3 such moments.
The first was in a lesson about the Huskar mining disaster. I was talking to the children quietly and modelling what must have been going through the head of the man waiting for his son to come out of the mine whilst the others coming out couldn't look at him as they knew he was dead. I paused and looked up - absolute silence and a whole class of 11 year olds waiting to see what would happen next, their understanding deepening all the time.
The second was working with two wonderful colleagues Hywel Roberts & Debbie Kidd both superb practitioners who willingly went into role and had an argument for us. Debbie was the 80 year old Mary that our company was going to get rid of in our revamp of the Eyam Museum --until we got to know her and realised how much she had to offer. Hywel was from Derbyshire council and was going to refuse our tender. Mary made a passionate speech and the class broke into spontaneous applause - a bond forged and understanding of the wisdom that comes with age - barriers broken down and the class responding together.


The third such moment was on Holocaust memorial day - a pile of yr 7 'bodies' in white masks acting out the horror of the holocaust to a silent gym of 300 pupils.

I'm sure you have lots of moments but like the poster on twitter this morning I'm struggling to remember a moment that was caused by page 37 in a text book!