Distant voices, familiar echoes: exploiting the resources to which we all have access -- from Essex, England to Masindi, Uganda!

As an Advanced Skills Teacher, Denise Thompson has often been at the forefront of experimental developments. Five years ago, she reported on trials of an online discussion forum used to sharpen A level students' historical thinking. Two years later she shared her department's experiences as one of the first to pilot a shortened, two-year Key Stage 3. That pioneering spirit has been vital to her latest initiative: two years' work as an advisory teacher in Uganda. With no classroom access to the internet, and few other teaching materials on which to draw, she re-discovered the immense oral resources that skilled teachers themselves bring to the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]