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www.teachitenglish.co.uk/armoore Andrew Moore's teaching resource site |
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Andrew Moore died in 2006, aged 50. Universal Teacher, the website he set up, is archived here. The site has remained unchanged since Andrew’s death. Universal Teacher gives students and teachers access to a multitude of resources on English literature and language. The material is high quality and academically rigorous. Andrew achieved the ability in all his work to speak to teachers and students in an authoritative and personal voice, and the site provides reassuringly clear ideas and advice. Although exam syllabuses have changed since this material was created, the material itself remains accessible and highly relevant. Andrew worked for East Riding of Yorkshire school improvement service as curriculum project manager for the National Grid for Learning and information and communications technology (ICT). However, his influence on teachers and students extended far beyond his day job through his inspirational work on education on the web. As well as creating the Universal Teacher website (www.universalteacher.org.uk), Andrew also set up the Cecil Slack and the Great War website, which makes available a wonderful archive of First World War letters and associated teaching resources for History and English. He was a regular contributor to the Language List, an email support network for English language teachers, often sending thoughtful responses to people's requests for help, whether it be answering a point of grammar or providing suggestions for good resources. On the announcement of his death, the Language List was flooded with emails from teachers expressing grief and gratitude. Among Andrew's other achievements were being a founder member of the Association of Teachers' Websites, becoming the head of English for the ATW Virtual School in 2001 and acting as the UK co-ordinator of the European Network of Innovative Schools. The ‘universal teacher’ epithet was taken from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem, ‘Frost at Midnight’, where the poet recalls his own sterile and punitive education as a boy and hopes for something more inspiring for his baby son. In choosing that as a domain name, Andrew nailed his colours to the mast, deriving inspiration from Coleridge's belief that education should be enlightened and creative, rather than characterised by drudgery and control. Andrew certainly lived up to his aspirations to be a ‘universal’ teacher, and has been more influential than he probably ever knew. Adapted from the obituary by Julie Blake and Barbara Bleiman published in The Guardian on 13 April 2006.
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