Greetings!

Consider this a sort of masterclass if you like. I was commissioned to write a blog post for the City Lit Adult Ed Institute in London, where I will be teaching my course Oulipo: Creative Writing Using Constraints. (Did you like that not-so-subtle plug? 🤭)

In this article you will find...

How I organised the material for the blog post.
The first version with minor redactions (I’ve taken out a couple of internal links).
The second version, because the first version was too long.
The third and final version published by the City Lit after a bit of tweaking from the communications team.

Note that my articles are a little tongue-in-cheek because, as I said to the person who asked me to do it, I didn’t want it to read like some sort of corporate puff piece.

As always, comments are welcome.

Terry’s desk, circa 2000

How I used Notebooklm for writing a blog post

That headline, honestly! It sounds like something out of one of those magazines — How I escaped a loveless marriage; How I gave up being an Only Fans bestseller; How I made a fortune without writing a word….

But now let’s be serious. I was recently commissioned to write a blog post for an organisation. They gave me loads of stuff in different formats to draw on: survey results in the form of an Excel spreadsheet; policy documents in PDF form; website pages; even a chart. I decided that flipping from one to another would drive me nuts, and probably wouldn’t help me see the wood for the trees. So I threw the whole lot into a NotebookLM project, and that yielded three advantages:

Firstly, I had everything I needed in one place. It’s a bit like the Swiss army knife that Microsoft’s OneNote set out to be, although I never really liked it much, and still don’t.

Secondly, however I made use of the material, and nothing else, no inadvertent plagiarism was involved.

Thirdly, the program suggested a number of avenues of enquiry and was able to suggest links and create summaries which I may have (probably would have) missed. Mind you, I do have a slight doubt about this last one. It reminds me of the small qualms I have when manipulating an Excel pivot table. It shows up relationships you might never have detected, but how “real” those relationships are is often a source of doubt. You know, the old causation vs correlation thing.

Once I ran a few of those queries and saved the resulting Notes, I was able to write the blog post very quickly. To be honest, I’m a fast writer as it is, but using NotebookLM helped me to be even faster.

Version 1: My original article

Oh no, not a training day?!

As an ex-schoolteacher I can tell you with some confidence that the second worst thing you can say to a teacher – after “We’re going to be inspected by Ofsted” – is “We’re going to have a training day.”. Professional development days have such a dire reputation that there was even a comedy sketch about them – see https://bit.ly/tfPirate.

Thus, you can imagine how my heart sank, when I joined the staff of the City Lit several years ago, at the mention of “tutor development days”. To be honest, my first thought was “How can I get out of this?”. But I decided to think about it in a different way, from the point of view of how such an event might be beneficial. I’m glad I did.

Over the years I’ve taken advantage of many development days, and shorter events, and have found them not only very enjoyable, but also useful. I realise that may come across as a backhanded compliment, but believe me: when you’ve suffered through events such as being lectured for an hour and a half on the importance of interacting with students, or how to maintain discipline in the classroom – delivered by someone who hasn’t taught for fifty years – “it was useful” is one of the highest accolades I can give.

And I am not alone in finding the development days valuable. Last year the tutor development team collated the feedback received from the various events on offer, and found that the primary benefits reported by tutors attending these events included:

· acquiring new knowledge: over 80% of participants felt they learned something new during the sessions;

· creative engagement: over 70% enjoyed the fun or creative activities, which included singing, dance, and crafts;

· community building: nearly 70% valued the opportunity to (re)build connections with colleagues, reducing the isolation of teaching;

· inclusion awareness: nearly 70% became better aware of how to promote inclusion through their teaching, particularly in understanding the legal requirements of EDI (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion).

Moreover, many tutors reported making some changes to their practices as a result of the training, which is surely one of the main reasons for doing it in the first place. For example, some spent time establishing ground rules to establish clear boundaries in the classroom. Such rules might relate to giving peer feedback or even simple things like not talking over others.

Others reported more awareness of “hidden differences”. For instance, a student may have hearing loss but not mention this to the tutor, perhaps because of embarrassment. But the tutor can “head-off” such issues by using practical techniques such as facing the class when speaking, repeating or rephrasing points, and using more body language.

Accessible materials also featured in tutors’ plans, with several expressing their intention to use larger, clearer fonts and digital platforms like Google Classroom for sharing materials.

The most recent tutor development day I attended took place towards the end of March 2026. There was a great deal of choice on offer in the afternoon, with a panel discussion in the morning. People often ask, “what was your main take-away from the day”, to which a cynical answer might be “the biscuits”, but it was genuinely useful. For example, I was reminded of something that is quite obvious once it has been pointed out, but which you may not have thought about, which is as follows. For some adult learners, signing up to a course, and then actually turning up for it, could be acts of extreme bravery. After all, if your last experience of being in a classroom was fifty years ago, then entering one again may be extremely intimidating. There are some simple things a tutor can do to ease the anxiety. For instance, I always send course participants a friendly email in advance from my City Lit Outlook account, introducing myself, reminding them of how to access the Google Classroom, and attaching the planned course outline plus a few ground rules.

There is one thing I do regret about the recent training day, which is that although there were some really interesting personal development options available – like Reiki, singing, and reflexology – I opted for a couple of professional development sessions instead: how to enable critical thinking in the classroom, and creating safe paths to share, which was about what to do when students don’t disclose a need or ask for support. Each of these was brilliant, because they were not only informative but also enabled me to meet and chat with colleagues I had either only met online or had never met at all.

It was a hard choice though. For example, I should have liked to have attended the session on intercultural communication in the classroom. Given that the City Lit is a microcosm of our amazingly diverse society, there are plenty of opportunities for misunderstandings to arise!

And then, of course, were all the more relaxing options I’ve already mentioned. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I feel tempted to ask the tutor development team if they could put on another similar day soon so I can do more of the fun stuff! (I have just been informed that another tutor development day is in the works, so look out for the announcement.)

You may wonder, as did I, why options like Reiki are even available. I asked Rachael Apps, of the Quality and Tutor Development team. She told me:

Our wellbeing courses started during the pandemic and continued after. They are on offer to all staff, to help create a supportive and inclusive environment giving everyone the opportunity to engage in wellbeing practices to help support both their own physical and mental wellbeing, and provide useful skills for the working environment.

Being solely a creative writing tutor, I wasn’t aware until recently that each department can do its own thing when it comes to staff development and support. The emphasis in the Writing department is on embedding our duty of care in our teaching. For instance, when it comes to writing, the line between challenging and downright offensive can be very thin indeed. Therefore guidance on how to navigate this minefield is very much appreciated.

Meanwhile, the 3D Visual Arts department has established a mentoring programme where experienced staff support new tutors through shadowing and collaborative course planning, which enables new staff to improve their practice in such ways as refining their questioning techniques. As an ex-Head of Department in schools, I can vouch from experience that working with individual teachers through mentoring, along with peer visits, is extremely useful.

Speaking of which, departments are very much encouraged to conduct peer visits. This year the themes include skills for teaching online, innovative use of PowerPoint and building in thinking time with Q & A.

For tutors who are new to teaching, the City Lit offers the opportunity to undertake a teacher training scheme that leads to a recognised qualification.

Unfortunately, there is not the space here to go into all the professional development opportunities available, but you can find out more here: REMOVED. And don’t forget the written guidance available for staff in the tutors’ area on Sharepoint: see REMOVED for details.

Finally, staff can take advantage of other benefits of being in the City Lit community, such as the Family and Friends discounts and the many other benefits on offer: REMOVED

I hope this article has encouraged you to explore what the City Lit has to offer tutors.

That article weighed in at 1234 words. I was asked to get it down to 1,000 words or less. I was also provided with more up-to-date statistics.

Version 2: My cut-down article

Oh no, not a training day?!

As an ex-schoolteacher I can tell you with some confidence that the second worst thing you can say to a teacher – after “Ofsted is coming” – is “We’re having a training day.”. Such events in schools have a dire reputation!

However, over the years I’ve taken advantage of many professional learning days at the City Lit, and shorter events, and have found them not only very enjoyable, but also useful. I realise that may come across as a backhanded compliment, but believe me: when you’ve suffered events such as a ninety minute lecture on the importance of student-centred learning, “it was useful” is one of the highest accolades I can give.

I am not alone in finding these events valuable, judging from the feedback received. The most recent professional learning day took place towards the end of March 2026, and was called “When Care Leads, Learning Follows”. As that title implies, the event focused on community, wellbeing and inclusion – values that are central to the professional learning programme and which therefore ultimately benefit students’ learning.

All respondents to the follow-up survey rated the event either Excellent or Good – not a single Average, Poor or Very Poor rating. The standout benefits were learning something new, rebuilding connections with colleagues, feeling more engaged with City Lit, and feeling more supported in their role. Even the single-word responses paint a vivid picture: uplifting (chosen several times), energising, community-building, enlightening, mind-opening, joyful, stimulating, brilliant. Here are just two of the many positive statements attendees made about the day:

“I’ve taught for 25 years, 20 at The Lit, and love that days like these can teach an old dog new tricks and bring us together in such a positive way.”

And

“It was really nice to feel part of the community at City Lit which has such a strong culture. It’s inspiring to be in a room full of education professionals who share similar attitudes around care in the classroom.”

People often ask, “what was your main take-away from the training day”, to which a cynical answer might be “the biscuits”, but I too found the event genuinely useful. For example, I was reminded of something that is obvious once it has been pointed out, which is as follows. For some adult learners, signing up to a course, and then actually turning up for it, could be acts of extreme bravery. After all, if your last experience of being in a classroom was fifty years ago, then entering one again may be extremely intimidating. There are some simple things a tutor can do to ease the anxiety. For instance, I always send course participants a friendly email in advance, introducing myself, and attaching the planned course outline plus a few ground rules.

And then, of course, were all the more relaxing options I’ve already mentioned. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I felt tempted to ask the tutor development team if they could put on another similar day soon so I can do more of the fun stuff, but I’m informed that another professional learning day is already in the works.

You may wonder, as did I, why options like Reiki are even available. I asked Rachael Apps, of the Quality and Tutor Development team. She told me:

Interestingly, each department can do its own thing when it comes to staff development and support. The emphasis in the Writing department is on embedding a duty of care in our teaching. For instance, when it comes to writing, the line between challenging and downright offensive can be very thin indeed. Therefore guidance on how to navigate this minefield is very much appreciated.

For tutors who are new to teaching, the City Lit offers the opportunity to undertake a teacher training scheme that leads to a recognised qualification, as well as other learning opportunities and benefits. The underlying philosophy, of course, is that if tutors are well-informed, feel valued and enjoy being part of a vibrant community, that can only benefit students.

I hope this article has encouraged you to explore what the City Lit has to offer both students and tutors.

That version came to 996 words. Can you spot the “redundancies” I removed? That is my term for text that is redundant in the sense that, while it may make the reading experience more thorough in some way, by providing more examples, it is not really necessary because the point has already been made.

Version 3: The published version

City Lit’s Culture of Care: How Learning Follows

The City Lit changed the title of my article (though they kept it as a sub-heading), and illustrated it with photos. You can read the final version here:

City Lit’s Culture of Care: How Learning Follows

I hope you found this article interesting and useful. Thankks for reading. If you would to comment, please subscribe to my free newsletter for writers, and then comment on the article here.

Terry