Hi everybody,
It’s the beginning of the Autumn term and the time has come when we can once again start teaching Delphi the Philosopher to our new classes! I teach a Year 3 class in a city primary school in the West Midlands of England. It’s been a whole year since we first trialed these lessons, and this time we’ve decided to blog about our experiences. Hopefully we’ll be able to show you exactly why we find Delphi so valuable – and so much fun!
We've published the blog on a dedicated page for the lesson - so you can read all about it here. On that page you'll see pictures and videos of the lesson, including one of me being pelted by post-it notes.
Here's an excerpt from Rosie's report of the lesson:
Once we got past our initial astonishment and picked our jaws off the floor, we made a start. We met Delphi. We met Plato. We met Socrates. They were hooked from the very start. Especially since our topic for this term is all about the Ancient Greeks and our table groups are incidentally named after famous Greek philosophers. When I was reading the prologue, you could hear a pin drop. They were so captivated, and I could tell they were bursting with questions already!
My favourite moment this week had to be at the very end of the lesson. I had just read the last line of the prologue – “we’re breaking in.” I closed the book and my class went absolutely wild. “No!” “You can’t end it there.” “It’s too long to wait until next Friday.” “Why did you stop there?” I think that it will be the moment I’ll remember each time I revisit Delphi – the sheer frustration that the children had to wait a whole week to find out what would happen next. That is definitely a very good sign that this will work!
We started this website so you could share the fun and learning too. You can start your own journey with the Prologue here, or the full Delphi the Philosopher scheme here.
We hope you have as much fun as we’re having. See you next week!
P.S. Thank you so much for all your positive feedback on Delphi's Guide to Athens. We've had over 500 users access the site in it's first week, from all around the world. Please keep telling people about it - and let us know how it goes in the classroom!