Sunday 27 March 2011

RE and E Learning - 5 Examples

Wondering how on Earth to incorporate E Learning into RE? There are some things I've discovered over the past couple of years that could be of use.

1. YouTube (or TeacherTube!)

YouTube has been my main platform over the past 2 years to share my RE resources, and there are many other RE teachers who do the same. To get you started, here are a couple of RE channels:
www.youtube.com/06clared
www.youtube.com/skattp
www.youtube.com/thankGod4RE
www.youtube.com/MrD4RE
Looking at these channels will lead you to other RE channels on YouTube

In the transition of y9 to y10, I created a YouTube channel for my school's RE department where students would have their work uploaded. We would have a lesson or two in a computer suite and then, if the video assignment was not finished, would be homework. Then, the work would be uploaded onto YouTube by an 'RE teacher' (me!) and would be rated in the next lesson by the class, and prizes awarded for 1st place etc. They were fun lessons to create and also take part in (which I can say without being biased as I was lucky enough to do both!) To see the videos some students created, follow this link:
www.youtube.com/REChalloner

The videos were part of something called the 'Extended Media Project'. It's a great idea also for departments whose students have finished their work for the year, but want students to still do relevant, but fun, work. What do students love more than social media?!

2. Twitter:

If you want students and parents to be engaged in what's going on with your school or a single department, a Twitter account would be a great way to do so. For example, my own school's:
www.twitter.com/bishopchalloner

I created one for the RE department (www.youtube.com/BCREDept) though we never really launched it - I'll ensure this happens at some point before Easter! The Geography department did launch theirs, however:
www.twitter.com/BCGeogDept

The great thing about Twitter is that it's not a social network like Facebook where you're expected to have a friend's list, but, if they desired, parents or pupils could just 'follow' the departments at school.

3. SlideShare:

Similar to YouTube, students could create PowerPoints on a specific topic and leave each other teacher-moderated feedback. This not only lets them realise the sorts of things examiners will be looking at in content, but also gives 30 odd resources that the class can choose to revise from. Perfect! Why not create a departmental account? For example, Bishop Walsh RE department's that I created on work experience is "BishopWalshRE".

Again, more shameful self-promotion, but here is my SlideShare account page as an example:
www.slideshare.net/06clared (I haven't uploaded even half of the PowerPoints I have, but I'll get round to it at some point in the Easter holidays, so expect some Edexcel stuff!)

4. VLEs:

VLEs aren't so easy, as the school would have to purchase one, but, if your school does have a VLE, you can use courses as my school's RE department do - which is to collate resources from different websites such as BBC Bitesize, YouTube, SlideShare, BBC News, Bible Gateway... I could go on. You can also include things to make the courses a little more interesting such as Vokis - online speaking characters.

My personal favourite VLE is 'Frog', but my school has Moodle, and there are also others, for example, Learning Gateway and Fronter.

You can have external online tasks on VLEs such as www.bubbl.us and Hot Potatoes quizzes (my personal favourite). You can also have the convential activities such as videos and PowerPoints. Most VLEs have their own form of online submissions for assignments - such as a word document type programme. The important thing with a VLE course is not to make it something to look at, but to make it something to be involved with. This is why all of these resources - like creating quizzes and asking for personal opinions of students in things like assignments for Edexcel D questions - are vital.

5. Facebook:

The majority of students in a school will have a Facebook account. On Facebook, you can create 'pages' where you can post news or leave comments. An example of this would be the Celebrating RE Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Celebrating-RE/123816601010579

Obviously the last thing any teacher wants is their students having a nose on their Facebook, so you can create a "Mr _____" account and comment on it. It would also be good as a homework reminder to students, so there's no excuse for failing to complete homework tasks! In this way, you can keep students engaged with a subject beyond the classroom. I realise this is a controversial idea, but, personally, I think it's a great way for a department to go about ensuring students are motivated in a specific subject. (With this, you don't even have to spend hours answering emails from students - you can just quickly jump onto the Facebook page and answer a question that maybe several students would've asked, but have seen your response publically on the Facebook page - this also prevents 'confusion' with homework).

From personal experience, (as a pretend RE teacher and student), I've seen E Learning motivate students to put so much more effort into a subject, and also get a lot more out of it. I'm sure we'd all love to see this happen with RE! Yes, it takes a lot of effort on a teacher's part, but the student response is phenominal!

So, what are you waiting for? Pilot some E Learning material in your RE department - the sooner you start, the sooner your students will become engaged in a whole new way!



(Just as a 'disclaimer' of sorts, I'm not an RE teacher, and never have been. I'm a year 11 student who has some experience in the E Learning field, especially within the world of Religious Education).

Saturday 26 March 2011

What We've Done

Over the past few weeks, people who are passionate about RE have been celebrating its positive influence on society in Celebrating RE Month. For this, I must say thank you, especially to the Celebrating RE team who have put so much effort into creating so many fantastic RE events over the past few weeks for Celebrating RE month. The small - but growing - RE community on Twitter are another constant source of positivity in the celebration of RE. I also can't possibly go without thanking the Bishop Challoner RE department and my own RE teacher, Mr Cunnane.

Over the past few months, RE has faced some battles of status what with the English Baccalaureate and Gove's opinion that "there's too much religion in society". If there's so much religion in society, surely we need good RE to accompany it - this won't be possible with Gove's EBacc. The Government need to put funding into RE that will ensure it's the very best it can be; we need the people of RE today to stand up and be counted, not decline in silence. The Gove Empire is under the impression that we'll not put up a fight, but this March we've all done well to prove this is not the case. What do those passionate about RE say to the English Baccalaureate? We say: letters to MPs and EDM 1375 - http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2010-11/1375. We say 67 signatures on 27/03/11. We stand united for our belief in RE.

The future of RE is vital, as the quality of RE greatly effects the state of society will find itself in. Without the brilliant RE we find in schools today, I can't help but imagine a growing number of prejudices about both religious and non-religious people, and a rise in the number of people who pre-judge groups based on race, religion and also opinions such as political agendas.

As I stated earlier on in Celebrating RE month, good RE facilitates for a tolerant and cohesive society. We mustn't let the quality of RE deteriorate, like it seems the English Baccalaureate supports desire. I don't believe that saying RE is the single most diverse subject is controversial. Just think about some of the ideas we explore: life after death; just war; situation ethics; capital punishment; drugs and alcohol; scientific explanations as to how we came to be... I could go on.

Once more, I'd love to thank all members of the Celebrating RE team, and all of the RE teachers who have taken part in Celebrating RE Month for making the importance of RE known. When I eventually qualify, I'll be lucky to join such an amazing profession.

A word to all teachers of RE: don't ever lose heart in the most important subject for the understanding of society; the subject we call 'RE'. 

Wednesday 23 March 2011

That Time I Had a Cover Teacher...

Today, I had an external supply teacher for my afternoon free lesson. In the lesson, he began to ask us what we were doing for sixth form next year, and whether we were staying at Bishop Challoner. When it came to my turn, I explained to him I was moving to Bishop Walsh Catholic School and would be studying Philosophy and Ethics, Government and Politics, English Literature and Psychology. After this start to the conversation, he was surprised I knew so definitely what I'd be doing, so he asked me if I had any plans for after sixth form. Of course, I was keen to explain I wished to do a Theology degree at Birmingham University and, after this, would work towards becoming an RE teacher. The complete and utter shock on the teacher's face was something I've never seen before. Immediately, he said "you want to be an RE teacher?" to which I said yes, I did.

I was a little surprised by his reaction, so I asked him why it was he was so shocked. His response:
"Well, you don't get many kids saying they want to be an RE teacher, do you?" 

So, I began to explain to him how much I cared about RE, its future in Britain and also some of the existing work I'd done in support of RE in my school. At this point, my RE teacher came into the classroom to give me a letter - I had no idea what it was - that turned out to be from an RE advisor for Birmingham City Council. "What a coincidence" were my first words while reading it, so I explained the prior conversation to him. Even after the letter was delivered to me, he still couldn't quite believe I wanted to be an RE teacher. At this point, I felt it only necessary to show him my "I <3 RE" and "Future RE Teacher" badges that are located in hidden locations on my school blazer (wouldn't want them confiscated now, would I?) He still seemed confused as to why I, a 16 year old year 11 student with the my life and whole world ahead of me, would embark on the choice of pursuing a career as an RE teacher. Well, I suppose it's time to explain why.

Never in my 11 and a half years of schooling have I found a subject so captivating; so wide in its content to interest and motivate myself. As long as humans have existed, so has the desire to know and understand the meaning and purpose of life. RE provides the variety of opinions on issues like the meaning of life and God's existence so as we can make informed choices on the thing that most motivates people in their lives. If RE were a poem, it would be Shakespeare's finest works; a painting, the broadest and most mysterious horizon; a personality, the deepest most meaningful being.

No other subject studies so intensely why humans desire to do good and to be a better person tomorrow than they are today. There's no other subject that explains to people the meaning and joy people will find in their faith. Not one other subject that will study the human condition so vigorously that we discover just why people believe they find something greater than themselves.

Which subject will explain to me how to change the world in the best way I can? Well, RE is how I'm going to do that.

I've been waiting to qualify as an RE teacher since I was 13. Now, three years later, it seems an eternity has passed yet I'm still not that much closer to getting there. In seven years time, I'll be leaving university a qualified RE teacher, and, from that day forward, it's my turn to begin to change the world in a positive way.

RE will change society; RE will change the world.

Tuesday 15 March 2011

They're still not listening

Today, I received a letter from my MP that stated the following:
 
"It is often the case, at a time of change, that we can become very concerned that favoured subjects might be squeezed out. It is also a good idea to lobby for those things that matter to us, although we have to be careful that we do not resist change so much that we merely end up arguing for the status quo."

I find two things wrong with this statement. i) It's not just that my 'favoured subject' (RE) is being squeezed out, it's that it's a humanity but isn't being stated as one, and ii) my letter in no way argued merely for the status quo. 

I'm pretty sure that all of the RE teachers, students, heads and parents who are fighting for RE to be included in the English Baccalaureate aren't merely doing so for "status quo". I can't really speak on behalf of all other people fighting, but I know that myself and the RE teachers I'm involved with are doing so because we ourselves can see the real problem: RE is being excluded from its own sector. RE is a humanities subject, that's simple. But, of course, I don't want this to be a dictatorship, so I'll explain some other things to do with the letter that have done well to spark anger inside of me. 

Something more that was stated in the letter was:
 
"I accept that Religious Education, where it is taught well, can be extremely advantageous in making students think about some of the moral dilemmas that can confront us all and some of the issues which help shape conflicts and historic and geographic enmities." 

Now, I don't want to put words in the mouth of my MP, however, to state that RE can help to think about issues in Geography and History is a little irritating to me, as religion and the morals we learn about in RE shape the world today. History would be more than a little different if religion was different, you can't so much say this for physical Geography, but certainly the human aspect of it (which, I'll tell you for insight, is 75% of my GCSE Geography course). My MP's comment "where it is taught well" seems to me quite ironic. If RE isn't in the EBacc, there will be a significant drop in the uptake of GCSE RE, thus a lot less RE teachers needed, possibly a rise in redudancy of RE teachers and thus not as much 'good' RE there used to be. Maybe it's me (a future RE teacher) being paranoid, but I can see that happening pretty soon if RE's value continues to be ignored.

My MP goes on to say:
 
"I have to say that you are a very persuasive advocate for the subject and I was struck by the passion of your argument." 

 This passion, however, was unforunately not enough for my MP to agree to sign the EDM. He states: 

"I do not know if a petition is necessarily the best way forward, although I do understand that desire to feel that I have at least done something." 

He seems to 'understand' my desire to do something, but still won't agree to help me out in the way I asked. Yes, he said he will write to Gove for me, however Gove won't hear our opinions that the EDM should be signed by MPs or the passion we have for RE. He'll - or rather, his secretary'll - read about a year 11 student who wrote to their MP about RE and the EBacc, and he'll carry on to ignore the protest being put up by those who care.
 
They're still not listening.  

Saturday 5 March 2011

Why Is RE Important?

If there's one thing I've heard too much of, it's RE getting slammed. Why is it that people think RE is worthless? If you take the time to read this post, I'd hope that, if you are of this opinion, you won't be any longer.

Well, religion is an aspect of society that's not going to be going anywhere any time soon. Barely scratching the surface of RE, you learn about different people's religious beliefs. It's important to understand the cultures that have formed society in order to actually understand society itself. That's a basic goal RE acheives.

Community cohesion is a vital thing that's necesary to achieve in the UK's multi-cultural societies, in places like Birmingham, for example. In areas where there's no sense of cohesion, there will be high levels of support for extreme right-wing parties, like the BNP. Is this honestly how we want the UK to go on to develop? I didn't think so. RE teaches students to really think about what a person's beliefs mean to them, and how it's their identity. Differences aren't something to be afraid of, but something to be celebrated. What other subject celebrates this? What other subject will bring this cohesion to a diverse society like the UK?




Whether you believe it was an act of Jihad or not, look at the Islamophobia that surfaced after the 11th September 2001 disaster at the WTC. This Islamophobia still arises today, with prejudices on people's religious belief and their exterior appearance. What's helped to lessen such prejudices? RE. In RE, students are not only taught that Islam is a religion of peace, however are also taught about the negative effects of prejudice on society.

Although I constantly campaign for people to realise that RE isn't a dictatorship where you're told to believe the words of a holy book, RE does actually hold significance in the religious-self of a human being. As I've said above, religion is here to stay. It's something that everyone is going to think about in their lives. RE provides a safe place to develop your ideas, whether you're a modern day Oscar Romero or you're an advocate of Dawkins, you still have a set of moral beliefs, that you've developed from all of the different experiences you've had, the things you've read, heard and been told; RE brings a binding for all of these different sources, and enables a human to practically apply these morals to ethical dilemmas, such as is there ever such a circumstance in which war could be just, or is it right that we're worrying how we're going to pay for our holiday when there are children starving to death in an impoverished shanty town. 

This is just a short collection of my ideas on why RE is important. There may be another post like this to follow, so do check back!

Thanks for reading.

The English Baccalaureate

Towards the end of last year, I discovered something that would be effecting education in the UK in an extremely strong way - the English Baccalaureate (or, as I'll shorten it to in the rest of this post, the 'EBacc').  I'm not going to discuss the debate as to whether the EBacc is good or bad on the whole, or whether it'll replace the 5 A* - C measure in this post, but I'm going to discuss - yes, you guessed it - what the EBacc means for RE.

In this EBacc, there is a list of subjects that all students are recommended to take - as expected, school's are now forcing students into these pathways in their GCSE pathways. The subjects - including subjects such as a science and a language - involved a recommendation of studying a humanities subject. Fine, right? Well, not really... In the EBacc, a humanity is History or Geography - what happened to RE? I'm asking the same question. You don't need to study RE at depth to realise that it's a humanities subject. If you're interested enough to see, the following video will demonstrate this:


This video was something I specifically made to demonstrate to people what RE is. Think about the questions in this video. Are they not questions that compliment, if not surpass, history or geography's exploration of humanity and its impact upon Earth?

According to Wikipedia, the definition for a humanities subject is as follows:

"The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural science."

Let's pull this apart. "... that studies the human condition" - well, in RE, you learn about poverty, materialism (amongst other philosophies of life), the impact humans have upon the planet in global warming, and how humans discern between right and wrong. "... using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative" - in my RE lessons at Bishop Challoner Catholic College, we're always taught that if you do not critically analyse your opinion, just how strong of a belief is it? I personally strive to constantly question my morals and ideas - so, check, that's in the humanities sector. To speculate, however, is something different. Speculating is to form an opinion without solid proof - sound familiar? I'd say that religion is a pretty good example of this! So, to fit Wikipedia's definition (and thus, society's, as Wikipedia is entirely created by the online community of people!) RE seems to be a sound example of a humanity. 

I ask you to think - again! - about the RE curriculum. In year 7, I did a topic called "What's the Meaning of Life?", where we learned about different philosophies of life, of both religious and non-religious people. Another topic we did was "Why Do People Suffer?". This topic is a perfect example of how RE is a humanities subject. Suffering is such a huge problem in the world today, and it's not something that sits comfortably when we ask ourselves how can we have luxuries when people are starving? Why do natural disasters happen? What is the human cost of war? This is actually a subject that crosses strongly with lower-school History and Geography.

In December, I wrote to Nick Gibb, Minister of Schools, about this issue in a letter that tried hard to stray from being emotional. In his reply that I received in February, he stated that the EBacc was not to stop students from taking RE, but to have other subjects accompany it. He also made a point of RE being compulsory, thus not needing to be in the EBacc. Well, Science is compulsory - if you take into account the BTEC - yet it's in the EBacc. As for RE being compulsory, I've read of some schools not teaching it, and instead using the time for Citizenship. Nick Gibb is an extremely intelligent man; I've every reason to believe he realises that the EBacc will prevent the taking up of GCSE RE (or, rather, RS!) He seemed to ignore my stressing of how it will prevent students from taking RE at GCSE as opposed to just doing an hour a week, where you gain no qualification from it. This 'compulsory' RE in schools is as different to GCSE RE as the Labour and Conservative party - they're both 'parties' (or in the relevant case, RE), but their content (or in RE's case, status) is completely different. Compulsory RE in schools doesn't suffice alone, and needs to be improved with an enthused RE department, willing to put time into creating a great course, and encouraging students to take RE at GCSE. All of this work RE departments have done in the years prior to now, is being taken away by the creation of the EBacc.

So, RE isn't a humanity on paper, that's it, isn't it? There's no real problem other than official classification. Students will still think that RE is a humanities subject, right? Wrong. In some schools already, students are being told that, for their GCSEs, they are to pick their subject choices according to the EBacc. What does this mean for the students of today? Well, there are complications with option blocks, including students who want to study Biology, Chemistry and Physics not being able to study GCSE RE, and students having to pick History or Geography, and being denied the option of RE. Can you see the problems the EBacc is creating for RE? It's as though RE has no status. People already don't realise the importance of RE, and the Baccalaureate has just done well to make this even worse.

Will my RE career be over before it's even started? Well, if RE teachers and students don't stand up to the Baccalaureate today, that certainly looks how it'll turn out.

Thanks for reading! Take the time to join in 'Tweeting' about the EBacc on twitter.com with the hashtag #EBacc.

Friday 4 March 2011

What Is RE?

A subject where you're taught the bare facts of a holy book, and are told to believe it for the fear of being condemned to eternal damnation. Is this what you think RE is? If so, please do read the entirety of this post!

RE has changed a lot from what I've observed. Whenever I talk to my parents, aunts, uncles and even some of my teachers, they all tell me their RE lessons were just like the above paragraph. To me, this seems completely alien as a concept. My experience of RE has never been like this. A lot of people will be quick to say that I'm not being entirely truthful when saying this, but anyone from my own school, and other schools I know of, would be only too happy to back me up. In fact, why don't you take a look about what some of today's GCSE RE students think of RE?



The opinions in the video above are all from students who go to a Catholic school. Some are atheists, agnostics and some Catholics. That alone goes to show how RE in a Catholic school isn't having the Catechism forced upon your conscience.

In year 9, I studied an RE course that covered the following concept: life after death; abortion; euthanasia; contraception; design; causation; religious experience; scientific theories for the explanations of the universe; multi-cultural and multi-faith societies; women in ministry; racial harmony; religion in the media; divorce; marriage - these aren't even the entire course! In year 10, due to the changing of the GCSEs in 2011, I studied a course that was practically the same, but under a different name. Now, in year 11, I study a course with the following concepts: capital punishment; the theories of punishment; why should we vote?; electoral and democratic processes; genetic engineering; global warming; the causes of war; the just war theory - again, just to name a few. From this, I think it's only fair to conclude that this goes against some common prejudices of RE. Would you not agree? If not, I'd love to know your reasons.


In some words, I'd like to explain what I think RE is. RE is a subject whereby students can, yes, develop faith and beliefs, however, also have the time to think about reasons why maybe our religion isn't right, and other people's ideas are. It's a time to think about the moral and ethical issues that come about in our society today. It's a time to decide what we think is right or wrong. It's an opportunity to change the world we're living in; to make the world a much better and more tolerant place to be.

Yes, this is all coming from a student who loves and adores RE, but I'm not the only one with these opinions.

Thanks for your time, and I'll be blogging again soon!

My RE

Firstly, I think an introduction - even if brief - is necessary. I'm Clare Dempsey, I'm 16 years old, in year 11 studying my GCSEs and go to school in Birmingham. From the age of 13, I was determined I was going to be an RE teacher; now, three years later, that's still what I know I'm going to do with my life. When I was in year 9, and had started to study an early entry GCSE RE course for Edexcel, I began to make some RE videos on a YouTube account called "06clared". Little did I know at the time about the recognition these videos would receive in the RE teaching world. This isn't the purpose of this blog, but I think it's an essential part of my introducing myself. As I grew to become even more in love with the real RE, I started to get more involved in E Learning resources for RE, and also visited another school's RE department for a week's work experience. I think that, for someone of my age, I've been extremely lucky to have the experience of RE that I've had. Currently, I'm studying History, Geography, Media, RE and Extended ICT for my GCSEs, and, for my A Levels, I will be studying Philosophy and Ethics, Government and Politics, English Literature and Psychology.

Now that the introduction has been made, I can move on with explaining what this blog is all about! Lately, RE has been given a negative portrayal. Personally, I think that some students, parents and other subject teachers think that RE is a 'soft' subject that's not worth school pupils' time, and I'd like to prove these people wrong. In order to do this, I'm going to blog about my own personal experiences of RE; prove that RE isn't the 'useless' subject that some people seem to think it is. I'd also quite like to demonstrate just how obvious a humanities subject RE is, but let us not get into the English Baccalaureate just yet...

I know what you may be thinking. What is a 16 year old blogger going to tell anyone about RE? Well, I must admit, I'm almost of the same opinion myself. However, it's not so much that I think I'll change the world - I won't - but I just want to let people see 'my RE'. I want people to know the amazing experience of RE I have, in the hopes that at least just one person who previously thought negatively of RE will be willing to give it the chance. What's more, I know I'm not the only person with such an amazing experience of RE. Through sharing my own experiences, maybe others will feel like they'd like to do the same. If they do, that's fantastic. If they don't, I hope my opinions and views will suffice to do some justice to RE.

Throughout March, I hope to be blogging about things to do with Celebrating RE Month. On 31st March, I'll be attending a Celebrating RE event, but obviously I don't want to wait til then to start my celebrations, so I've been creating videos each day of Celebrating RE Month. Alongside these, I hope the blog will act as a resource to celebrate RE - after all, such a fantastic subject deserves some recognition!

Thanks for reading, and I'll be blogging soon!