06:00 My day starts by making sure that my own boys, both teenagers, manage to get up, get ready for school and get to the train station on time. This is quite often a challenge; whilst not quite the definition of a busman’s holiday, their early morning apathy reminds me that early starts are far from ideal for teenagers, and to treat our students with care and respect.

07:05 I hop on the train from Andelfingen. This gives me just under an hour to catch up on e-mails, take notes for my upcoming meetings, or do some reading around the history topics that we will be covering in the upcoming weeks. It is always nice to have the walk from Stettbach train station to the school in the mornings to get a little bit of exercise and blow away any residual cobwebs.

08:00 Arriving at school, I make sure that all my things are in place to teach the first class of the day, and touch bases with the principal and the office team.

08:30 The school day begins with a single period of Year 12 history. We are currently studying the Cold War. Whether discussing readings, exploring sources, watching video clips or debating, my role is to breathe life into the past and help the students by making historical events relevant to this generation.

My favourite part of teaching history is student participation: witnessing students make direct connections between events, say in the 1960s, and current world events, or encouraging them to engage with their families and hear their experiences of life during the Cold War.