The Teachers' Podcast
Making writing meaningful: Tim Eagling, founder of Time Capsule Education
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Episode notes
EPISODE NOTES
In this episode, Claire talks with Tim Ealing: Founder of Time Capsule Education.
During his time as a primary teacher, Tim was a subject leader for English. In 2016, he set up his own business: Time Capsule Education. Tim refers to himself and his business partner as ‘historical interpreters’ working in the heritage industry for clients such as English Heritage. Tim also works as a creative writing consultant in schools across the country.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Make contexts for writing relevant to help children build connections
It is important to ensure children have a level of understanding of the subject they are writing about. Children need to feel connected to the context. The quality of what children produce - across a range of abilities - can be greatly improved when they have experienced the context first-hand. - Scaffolding
Relevant and meaningful experiences mean writing is purposeful to children. If they can build on what they already know, it allows for more creativity to develop. - Children pick up on teachers’ interest in the writing context
Children are intuitive. They will detect if teachers are not invested in the teaching content. To encourage quality writing, teachers need to be enthusiastic about what they’re asking their children to write about.
BEST MOMENTS
“I worry greatly that all the joy and fun in writing has been sucked out of it because we still have an awful lot of people who are bothered about whether they are using the dreaded ‘fronted adverbials’.”
“I would certainly like to see more emphasis on drama activities, storytelling and building stories with older kids. I’m a key stage two specialist more than anything else and I think, over the years, because of time constraints and the pressures of curriculum and all sorts of other things, that we’ve ended up not letting big kids play.”
“At the end of the day, my first love in school and outside of school is teaching history. As a historian I could extol the virtues of teaching history and why we should teach history but, actually, what it boils down to is that schools are judged mostly on the teaching of English and of mathematics and writing.”
“You can’t write a historical story, you can’t write a story set in Tudor times, unless you understand a little bit about Tudor times. You need the language, you need to know what people wore and ate, what they did and various other things.”
“I want to be able to facilitate and help teachers make their writing experience that bit more interesting, engaging and relevant to the kids. And it should be fun.”
“We’re always going to be needing to have our kids improving their writing; and the one thing that is really important about this is that you get terrible writing if there’s no experience. You get pretty awful, ordinary writing if you focus on just the technical things.”
“I like primary school to be the place where kids get lots and lots of different experiences to find that ‘thing’ that really gets them going. Whether it’s sport or music or dance or drama or art or history or whatever.”
“As a primary teacher, it’s impossible to keep up that level of excitement and passion in every single subject you teach. I fell into English teaching… and I just have so much fun doing it. I’m a frustrated writer. My hook to most kids when we give them stories to start is, ‘I started writing this story and I don’t know how to finish it, so I need you to finish it for me.’”
VALUABLE RESOURCES
Website: https://timecapsule.education/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timecapsuleed
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TimeCapsuleEd
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timecapsuleed/
Classroom Secrets Kids: https://kids.classroomsecrets.co.uk
The Teachers’ Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeachersPodcast/
Classroom Secrets Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassroomSecretsLimited/
Classroom Secrets website: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/
LIFE/work balance campaign: https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/lifeworkbalance-and-wellbeing-in-education-campaign-2019/
ABOUT THE HOST
'My mother is a teacher. I will never be a teacher.' - Claire Riley
Claire arrived at the end of her performing arts degree with no firm plans to move into the entertainment industry. A fully funded secondary teaching course seemed like the perfect way to stall for a year on deciding what to do with her life. Turns out, teaching was her thing.
Three years in a challenging secondary school - check. Two years in primary schools with over 90% EAL children - check. Eight years doing day-to-day supply across 4-18 - check. If there's one thing she learnt, it was how to identity the best ideas from every school in terms of resources and use that knowledge to create something that would work for teachers far and wide.
In 2013, Classroom Secrets was born. Claire had seen other resource sites and wanted to add something to the market that she felt was missing. More choice + More quality = Balance.
Claire is a self-proclaimed personal development junkie and is always looking for ways to learn and improve. It's usually centred around business, her new-found passion.
In 2019, Claire launched The Teachers' Podcast that hits the charts on launch and is listed in the top 200 educational podcasts most weeks.
The Teachers’ Podcast is a series of interviews where Claire meets with a wide range of guests involved in the field of education. These podcasts provide exciting discussions and different perspectives and thoughts on a variety of themes which are both engaging and informative for anyone involved in education.
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