HUMANITIES

COPING WITH COVID-19 IN THE HUMANITIES

As a part of our role as KLA Managers of Humanities, it is our great privilege and pleasure to observe the good work that is being done during this very challenging time of remote learning. A key to all good teaching is engagement and we have been delighted to observe the way our teachers have maintained the interest of their students and pushed them to excel. As you will be aware, each remote class is connected via Google Meets. It is no easy task to translate classroom teaching into the online environment but our teachers have proved remarkably adaptable and resourceful. For Instance, our Geography teachers have devised an ingenious method for catering to all ability levels in the class with Geo Challenges. Once the core work has been completed in a lesson, a student is then invited to pursue their learning by choosing the path that best suits them. Accordingly, they can follow the Explorer path, the Geographer path or the Cartographer path. We think this is a great way to cater to all the students in a class.

There has also been a lot of discussion about human rights in Politics and Legal Studies classes after the recent viral videos of members of the public questioning police powers and their human rights to enter an establishment without a mask. Teachers in both subject areas have been able to use these current events and unpack the claims that have been made by those defying the law and apply them to our studies. Humanities is the study of how people experience, understand and describe the world and their place in it and all subject areas have been able to link our current circumstances and their impact on society as a whole. 

While the pandemic has restricted teachers in our capacity to attend external professional development opportunities as much as we would usually do the process of conducting peer observations and the collaborative work that teams are doing to deliver exceptional teaching has been invaluable. While we are sad that we are going back to another round of Remote Learning we know that Humanities teachers will continue to engage with their colleagues and students online to deliver an exceptional program once again. 

Simon Hughes and Angela Masterson

Humanities