Ben Jerrit FCCT History Teacher
@benjerrit
Chartered Teacher (CTeach) 2023. #HistoryTeacher Former #HeadofDept, current #Headofyear. Mark scheme enjoyer. I work in a busy #Boardingschool in SE England (Boarding Practitioner Level 3). Keen to learn new pedagogical ideas. #Educator #UKTeaching #UKEd
Helpfully an obscure toy company has given us a clear understanding of what they looked like.
#Booksof2026 No11. #CutThroatTrial by the #SecretBarrister. A great thriller with a super structure and compelling characters. Loved the use of (un)reliable narrators. Also useful as a critique of the criminal justice system. Super stuff.
#Booksof2026 No10. #BattleforSpain by #AnthonyBeevor. Reading this for IB history. Epic in scope and breadth, focusing on the tragedy of the Civil War. Exhaustive detail and while authoritative I feel the wood is sometimes missed for the trees. Some very useful bits I'll use in class.
#Booksof2026 No9. #TheKiteRunner by #KhaledHosseini. Been meaning to read this for a while. Really enjoyed the mise-en-scene; life in pre-Russian-invasion Afghanistan is well drawn. Characters are well developed. Not fully convinced by some plotting in 2nd half; too deus ex machina.
#Booksof2026 No 8. Biography of the #Rolling Stones by #ChristopherSandford. Long on gossip of love, chemical stimulants, and descriptions of gigs. Short on the historical context of the eras; why the Stones suddenly make it big, for example. The author loves his subject but I wasn't satisfied.
#Booksof2026 No.7 #CharlesRoss #WarsoftheRoses. A really good summary of the era, capturing with brevity some quite thorny pieces of history. Some excellent moments which I'll endeavour to use with students. Casts the Wars as a fight between elites for reasons of character and power. Great stuff
This is a collection of lectures and other writing by lauded History teacher #McFarlane. It was a bit of an idiosyncratic journey, and sometimes a slog. His brilliance is not really evidenced here but there is a good chapter on the WarsoftheRoses. #Booksof2026 No.6
@ottoenglish.bsky.social Really enjoyed this take on some of the individuals society sees as heroes, but who weren't. And the challenge of grappling with a valued body of work by very, um, flawed people. A great read, thanks #OttoEnglish #FakeHeroes. #Booksof2026. No.5
Cognitive Load Theory / Learning Styles / Dual Coding #EduSky
What an extraordinary novel. Plenty of echoes here of events throughout history and of today's world. Lots to unpack, but a very elegantly told story how ordinary people act to control others. Magnificent. #HandmaidsTale #MargaretAtwood #Booksof2026. No. 4
This didn't take long. An excellent view of the #WarsoftheRoses era which loses much of the soap-opera of Weir (which I enjoyed a lot) but puts back essential historiography and analysis. Very useful chapters on the era as a whole. Superb - useful for students. #DavidGrummitt #Booksof2026. No. 2
Finally finished this. Life has been getting in the way. A great history as soap opera; long on gossipy detail and character, shorter on the wide angle analysis than perhaps I would have preferred. Cracking read though. #Booksof2026 No2. #AlisonWeir #WarsoftheRoses
Roses are red. My mind is tuned to "geek" www.newscientist.com/article/2517...
I *think* I have read this before. Fun, and didn't take itself too seriously. Rather like the TV show, it is a bit of a romp through a fantasy version of medieval Eastern Europe with monster tropes and a hero's journey. construction in places had a circular narrative. #Booksof2026 No1. #Witcher
@mrfitzhist.bsky.social Inspired by you I gave my Year 12s a starter to focus on causes of Henry Vs successes in France. As an experiment put pages from the text book at #NotebookLM and asked it to give me Infographics based on causes; icons from there. Seemed to work! #EduSky #AIEducation
Really enjoyed seeing @theaieducator.io at #Ardinglyyesterday for our staff conference on AI in the classroom. Despite the chill we endeavoured to give him a warm reception! Especially liked the presentation about #NotebookLM
#Booksof2025 No18. #SarahJMaas. #KingdomofAsh. Rather epic and breathless. It's great to see strong female characters in a fantasy setting. The writing feels fast; lots of Mills and Boon moments crossed with sub LoTR fluff. Despite reservations about style and plotting in enjoyed it.
King Louis XIV would have taken a look at this and thought it was a bit much.
Fun romp through a fictionalised Mongol hoard-inspired world. Still not sure of some of the world building and plotting, especially since the chief protagonist isn't actually in the book at all. Good to see some history in the background. An enjoyable romantasy. #SarahJMaas #Booksof2025 No.17
If you see this, we IMPLORE you to post a picture from whatever device you're using without explanation.
An easy read and helpful summary of medicine through the ages. Not really sure it told me anything I didn't know already but I may try to use bits in class with my students. #RoyPorter #Booksof2025. NO 16.
A good short summary of WW1. Some cracking moments even if I feel that there are more areas of debate than Stone mentions here. Will use bits and pieces for short quotes in lessons I suspect. #NormanStone #Booksof2025 No.14
#HelenCastor #Booksof2025 no. 14. A medieval family's letters give us a very clear sense of the very human drama behind the events of the late middle ages and Wars of the Roses. Castor combines the many threads very well and the era feels lived in; many books about this period fail to do this.