LAST THIS ACADEMIC YEAR!

Website

Look at our newly designed website and access the downloadable journal or the ONLINE shop to buy our excellent, subject specific resources. Access the ATSS forum and post messages/requests for subject specific help (Your membership fee gives you a password to access this area of the website). See the news section.  For example, did you know: the new Royal Institute of Anthropology website has just gone live? See the best page of Social Science weblinks available. Get details of past and future conferences: the best around for teachers of the Social Sciences and NQTs.

Don’t miss

If you haven’t already, now is the time to sign up for the Annual ATSS Conference.  It allows a teacher to hear eminent lecturers speaking and have workshop sessions on teaching and learning in the Social Science classroom.  You can attend exam training sessions from the top examiners for the major exam boards and pick up all the details of recent classroom, subject specific resources.  There's also a great social side to the conference with good food and plenty of chances to meet colleagues from around the country.

In addition, there is a full and useful list of workshops, exam board sessions and seminars. A not-to-be-missed event for anyone looking for the best professional development this year, and the company is good too.  Full details and booking form on website.

Is sociology a soft subject?

There has been anxious discussion on the OCR forums about the status of Sociology as a ‘soft’ subject for Russell Group Universities. What experiences do members have of this? Most people on the forums have been very positive, but a couple of teachers are having bad experiences with admissions tutors. Is this is something for us to address as a subject association?

JRF newsletter - July 2010

This will be of interest to those with a social concern as well as to students who are studying modules on inequality. JRF's annual work on a UK 'minimum income standard', based on what members of the public think people need to achieve a socially acceptable standard of living, has been updated for changed economic circumstances. Some of the key findings are that a single person in Britain needs to earn at least £14,400 a year before tax in 2010, to afford a basic but acceptable standard of living. A couple with two children needs £29,200.

See http://www.jrf.org.uk/blog/2010/06/response-budget?utm_medium=email&utm_source=Emailmarketingsoftware&utm_content=640046212&utm_campaign=JRFnewsletterJanuary2010&utm_term=JRFsresponsetotheJuneBudget

Online Marking

Many of the boards are planning early moves to online marking. Do you have experiences that you wish to share with members or views on this plan? Contact ATSS if you have anything you wish to add to the coming debates.

Trivia

See an extraordinary cultural fusion music video that covers post modernism and hybrid culture – a Maori/Jewish dancer doing a fair imitation of Michael Jackson (plus haka moves) for a New Zealand film, Boy. It has one of the catchiest songs you’ll hear in a long way

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P85ZhYgoqeg&feature=related

Well deserved rest

Have a really good summer and a well deserved rest. See you all at conference, from all at ATSS

FABULOUS JOB OFFER
Vacancy for part-time teacher of AS/A2 Sociology in Sussex - September 2010 - July 2011.
We are currently looking for a part-time teacher of Sociology for the next academic year.  If you, or anyone you know, might be interested in the position, please contact me by email for further details :
Alison Teagle, Head of Sixth Form and Subject Leader for Sociology and Psychology, St Paul's Catholic College, Burgess Hill   www.stpaulscatholiccollege.co.uk.

SPONSORSHIP FOR EXCELLENT CAUSE
Patrick Robinson of Cadbury College writes: 'I'm raising money for MacMillan Cancer Support.  My target is £375 so any donations are much appreciated.  You can donate on my website :
www.justgiving.com/patrickanddave.

NGfL Cymru - free resources
A large number of booklets that can be used in conjunction witrh the sociology ebook on NGfL Cymru or which can be used individually to support teaching modules on education can be seen on the NGfL website.  They have been developed and donated by Janis Griffiths.  These can be printed off to cover specific topics or edited as you please.  More will appear soon on Social Inequality.  Scroll down to find the materials.  Don't forget to register your approval if you use the materials as this will ensure that more free and downloadable resources will be developed.
http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/eng/vtc-home/vtc-aas-home/vtc-as_sociology

TRIVIA
The ever reliable Oldham Sixth Form College have an excellent supporting website that has extension materials for AS Sociologists
http://juni.osfc.ac.uk/Extension/level_3_extension/sociology/index.asp

Thanks to Bill McDonnell for this link to a YouTube video of David Halpern on the Hidden Wealth of Nations http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZSXlYcJLjg   http://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/pdfs/David%20Halpern.pdf 

28 June 2010

Don’t miss

The Annual ATSS Conference is a must event for any teacher of the Social Sciences.  It allows a teacher to hear eminent lecturers speaking and have workshop sessions on teaching and learning in the Social Science classroom.  You can attend exam training sessions from the top examiners for the major exam boards and pick up all the details of recent classroom, subject specific resources.  There's also a great social side to the conference with good food and plenty of chances to meet colleagues from around the country.

The 2010 event will feature:
Dick Hobbs, London School of Economics on Crime
Claire Alexander, London School of Economics on Bengali Stories
Anthony Heath, Professor of Sociology at Oxford on Inequality
Barry Smart, Professor of Sociology at the University of Portsmouth on Consumer Society
Andy Pilkington, Professor of Sociology at the University of Northampton on Higher Education and Inequality.

In addition, there is a full and useful list of workshops, exam board sessions and seminars. A not-to-be-missed event for anyone looking for the best professional development this year, and the company is good too.

NGfL Cymru – free resources

A large number of free worksheets and booklets will be appearing on the NGfL Cymru website in the near future to support the existing ebooks. These will focus on social inequality and education. Remember, the site will only survive if you keep returning to it and sending back positive feedback, so if you have ever used the materials then say thanks by supporting the site.

Anthropology Day, London

8^th July, British Museum.  www.discoveranthropology.org.uk

Examination board feedback

Examination boards take very serious note of feedback from teachers and do respond, if not immediately, to your concerns. As this is the first year of the new GCSE specifications, you should be making your views heard, so use feedback forms or email subject officers directly. Praise as well as criticism is always helpful.

Trivia

People teaching courses in crime and deviance, ethnographic research methods or youth culture might find this video clip to be very useful http://fora.tv/2008/01/24/Sudhir_Venkatesh_Gang_Leader_For_a_Day

An excellent and developing resource site can be seen at http://www.mrthirkill.com/1.html. Some of the GCSE material is based on dated work by Janis Griffiths but there are also good and original A level materials. For more up-to-date materials by Janis, go the online classroom site where there are downloadable booklets that cover key topics and will soon cover the entire GCSE specifications. Look for the ebooks section.

Sixth Sense, the site of Oldham Sixth Form College is developing well and is an extremely useful site to send your students to http://sixthsense.osfc.ac.uk/sociology/index.asp

It’s too late to do much in the way of revision for this year now, the final modules have been sat, but pity the poor tutor whose candidate suggested that in the 1970s, ‘radical feminists used to eat men’.

Get in touch with your views and news! It’s your organisation and will only be as good as you can make it.

AN IMPORTANT DOCUMENT FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

Dear Member

I am writing to all the members of the ATSS to inform you of the current concerns of the Executive about the future of our organisation. The ATSS was set up by teachers in the 1960s to promote the teaching of the social sciences in schools. It has been very successful in doing just that, and many teachers, heads of departments, text book writers and conference speakers have found the support, encouragement and experiences they received, through their involvement with the ATSS, a significant stimulus to their careers.

Apart from some more recent administrative paid help, ATSS has been totally run by teachers, sharing their time and expertise with others. This has been challenging, as there has constantly been a need for new recruits to be proactive in the organisation and take on specific tasks, such as creating and organising resources, planning the annual conference, and managing the newsletter and journal. So far this has always been achieved, although the team of organisers has been reducing in size.

We have now reached a point where we have to consider seriously the future of the ATSS. Several key members of the executive will be unable to offer their time next year. There are newer members very keen to keep the organisation going but they need a team to support them. I need to know if that support is ‘out there’ or whether ATSS has reached the end of its natural lifespan. The world of sociology teaching is a very different world to the one in the 1960s.

Please could you respond to this letter. Please email me at txl@le.ac.uk

and let me know your reaction to this situation. I would like to know:

a) if you feel that the ATSS has reached the end of its lifespan

b) if you feel it still has a role in supporting teachers and providing teachers with wider experiences that may enhance their careers

c) if you feel you personally would be able to be more proactive in the organisation.

I need to point out that there would be support and information available for anybody who offered to take on any organisational role; nobody would be ‘thrown in the deep end’.  All reactions to our current situation, and ideas and suggestions about how we should proceed, will be very welcome; please do respond. I would be very sorry to be the President that oversaw the end of ATSS, but we have to be realistic about what we can achieve.

I shall look forward to hearing from you,

Best wishes,

Tony Lawson
President, ATSS