Product reviews for The Little Book of Inspirational Teaching Activities

Working with young people who face a multitude of difficult personal issues and who have barriers to succeeding in their lives, requires the use of a range of innovative strategies by the professional workers who support them. It is essential therefore that resources developed to support such strategies are clear and simple to use and have a clarity of purpose that the worker fully understands and accepts conceptually.

The Little Book of Inspirational Teaching Activities succeeds in providing easy and effective activities that can be used in a variety of settings and with a wide range of young people. The introduction succinctly affirms the purpose of the book in an accessible style and gains rapid acceptance of the rationale and concepts behind the practical activities. It is this immediate"buy in, to the need to use the techniques to unlock the potential of young people in the introduction, that is the"ace card, of this resource.

The use of playing cards as a vehicle for the key themes of the activities is clear and memorable and provides a practical structure for the wealth of activities contained within each section of the book.

I have taken the opportunity to encourage a number of colleagues that are working directly with young people to use a range of the activities contained in the book in their day to day work. Feedback has been consistently positive with workers and young people alike enjoying the experience. Often the time available to work with individual and groups of young people is limited by the need to work with increasingly high volumes, particularly in areas of high social deprivation. The activities contained in the book are designed to provide quick, enjoyable and stimulating inputs that facilitate their practical use even in a challenging environment. Longer sessions can be developed by combining activities in such a way as to meet individual and group needs. The permutations are seemingly inexhaustible. As with all such resources , colleagues appear to find favourite activities that they can build into the normal repertoire of techniques they use in their daily working practice.

I can recommend this book to anyone working with young people that wants an effective and easy to use manual of enjoyable and stimulating activities at their disposal.

David Hobbs, CEO of the Connexions services in Manchester, Salford, Tameside and Rochdale