{"id":5950,"date":"2021-04-06T10:31:55","date_gmt":"2021-04-06T10:31:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/?p=5950"},"modified":"2021-04-27T11:36:54","modified_gmt":"2021-04-27T11:36:54","slug":"life-after-kent-anthropology-in-the-classroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/2021\/04\/06\/life-after-kent-anthropology-in-the-classroom\/","title":{"rendered":"Life After Kent: Anthropology in the Classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peter Saunders, University of Kent (UKC) Anthropology graduate, Teaching Assistant and prospective science teacher in Cornwall, shares his experience of taking on a role during the COVID-19 Pandemic.<\/p>\n

Whilst sat in my \u201cGap year\u201d flat in Edinburgh* under the initially alien concept of the National Lockdown 1.0, the somewhat looming thought of “what do I do now\u201d popped into my brain as I wandered around my Animal Crossing Island at 3AM.<\/p>\n

Considering how I had been inspired to venture into the world of education after undertaking the \u201cSocial Sciences in the Classroom\u201d module in my second year at UKC<\/a>, and my prior interest in the fulfilling career\u2026naturally, teaching entered the picture. Thus, began the fun adventure I have found myself on.<\/p>\n

Next, another quandary; I had gotten quite used to the monthly paycheck, so wasn\u2019t ready to jump back into student life. Also, upon a quick bit of research, the key things for starting teacher training are \u2018Subject specialism\u2019 and \u2018classroom experience\u2019, the latter I was somewhat lacking in.<\/p>\n

So, what\u2019s the happy marriage of my little conundrum? Move back home to Cornwall and become a Teaching Assistant for a year!<\/p>\n

Prior to starting my job at Camborne Science and International Academy<\/a>, I remembered the advice my Chemistry teacher cousin, Alistair, gave me \u201cOffer to start an after-school club, no one wants to do it, so it makes you look good if you do!\u201d and \u2018CSI Camborne: Revolutionary Evolutionary\u2019 was born! A happy mixture of Crime Scene Investigation and Biological Anthropology neatly put together and presented to wide-eyed year seven students.<\/p>\n

It was at this point I decided to build my application for teacher training through a SCITT programme (School Centred Initial Teacher Training, a sort of apprenticeship style entry into teaching, but without the salary) and therefore needed an academic reference. I contacted both Patrick Mahoney<\/a> and Matt Skinner<\/a>, and a reference was sent over gladly and promptly. It was at this point that I got talking to Matt about my after-school club, and he expressed interest in the integration of Anthropology into the secondary school curriculum. It was just a very happy coincidence that my club fit the bill!<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve actually been running a bioanth after-school club for the year 7s since September!! 15 students all heading your way in a few years!!! My models\/specimens aren\u2019t as fancy as SAC\u2019s, but they do the job\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Matt kindly offered to do a zoom session with the students and provide some resources I could use \u2013 but then the next bout of national lockdown(s) ensued.<\/p>\n

Speaking of my group of budding forensic anthropologists, they LIVE for the DEAD! Okay, maybe a bit of context is required here.<\/p>\n

Year 7s, being at such a young age and at the earliest steps of their academic journey; are very visual learners. Primary school is predominantly built upon this sort of learning style. To create a sort of middle ground between visual and written learning, I created a bold and bright \u2018Knowledge Organiser\u2019 for my CSI\u2019s. It\u2019s a helpful tool for visualising topics we\u2019ve covered, and also acts as a fun little\"\" poster should they want to display the weird and wacky things I\u2019ve been filling their minds with.<\/p>\n

As for what engages my students; colours, models, experiments \u2013 things they can get their hands on and physically interact with. Fantastically, Biological Anthropology<\/a> ticks all of these boxes.<\/p>\n

The topic of Forensic Osteology<\/a> was a real hit with them. Opening up skull models, lying on the floor and placing model bones next to where they would be on a live person, identifying the sex of a skeleton from physical features, and most importantly\u2026making their own bones out of clay. This generated\u2026interesting\u2026 and slightly eyebrow-raising results.<\/p>\n

*Note to self* Don\u2019t allow 12-year-old boys to play with modelling clay after having had a PSHE lesson on Sex Ed.<\/p>\n

The 7\u2019s really enjoyed the \u2018Introduction to Evolution\u2019 session I ran. Dropping them in the deep end by exploring and (in theory) experiencing how humans became bipedal. A tough concept to grasp even at degree level. But! They grasped it firmly with their opposable thumbs through the most scientifically accurate way possible\u2026having me tie their shoelaces together at different lengths, and as a result, make them walk like early hominins! Genius if you ask me.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

My after-school club had doubled in size since the start of the academic year, (Evidently being a slightly zany teacher who rambles on about bones and evolution seemed to be working!) but as a result of lockdown 3.0, I had to resort to online sessions. However, with the schools reopening, and having been enlisted to help with the coordination of mass testing at the site, we should be back to a new normal soon.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve learnt a lot from all the ups and downs of this unusual time. Although there have been many challenges, there has also been a huge amount of positivity that has come out. I hope we\u2019ll all look back and take something from this time, which will shape the way we live our lives so that we all feel more grateful for what we have and what we do.<\/p>\n

Learn more about the School of Anthropology and Conservation\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter Saunders, University of Kent (UKC) Anthropology graduate, Teaching Assistant and prospective science teacher in Cornwall, shares his experience of taking on a role during … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61662,"featured_media":5956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[124],"tags":[74,58],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5950"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5950"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5966,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5950\/revisions\/5966"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}