Follow the Ball....

I'm currently involved in preparing a range of new materials for the Follow the Things website.

We've got some excellent new materials which are in preparation, and I'm also going down to the University of Exeter before the summer break to work on some other ideas and bring them to conclusion. There are inputs from other colleagues who have used the website too, such as the University of Nottingham PGCE group.

A new CLASSROOM area for the website is planned for launch over the summer, ready for the Autumn term.

I'm also writing some Follow the Things Shorts: shorter investigations for students to follow up and develop.
One of them is based on a blog being written by Will Kellegher: a student at the University of Exeter.

He's researching the story behind his Gilbert Rugby Ball...

Find out where he's got to so far....

Could your students follow the story of one of the objects they use, or wear, or eat in an average day ?

Also, login to the MISSION:EXPLORE website and check out the FOLLOW THE THINGS missions under the CHALLENGERS tab.

Can you earn your Champion Shopper badge ?

Teach Primary.... useful for secondary too !

The latest issue of Teach Primary has some useful content for all key stages.
Useful articles from Stephen Pickering, Hywel Roberts and Ollie Bray to name a few...

Pink Floyd catalogue now on Spotify...

This will keep me going for a few days...

EDINA MapStream

Several months ago I finished a project for EDINA: a set of materials for users of their MapStream service, or those who were thinking of subscribing to the service.

Refugee Week: Different Pasts Shared Future

It's important to try to tie in with relevant events when teaching.
One of the most important issues to consider with students is the impact of migration.

This week is Refugee Week, which explores the lives of those who have been forced to move.
Not all migration is forced, and quite a few schools in the UK will have students on roll who are refugees, or whose parents were. I taught a few students who fell into that category over the years. They had a different perspective on their time in the classroom.
One thing to remember when teaching about migration is that it is nothing news.

As part of Refugee Week a very useful pictorial timeline of events over the centuries has been produced. A reminder that this is not a new issue... and is one that affects large numbers of people.

The tagline for the week: Different Pasts, Shared Future would also make a good title for a unit on migration.

The Future of Secondary Geography #geogfuture

 Many thanks for any and all contributions. Please fill in if you have a spare moment... The responses will be used in a future event and shared back here...

#geogfuture

Exemplification of Standards in Geography

Assessing Pupil Progress in Geography was a project which started with subjects like English, but despite the months that were spent creating the materials
Exemplifying Pupil Progress was the project which eventually made it as far as the internet.

A series of statements and portfolios of work with examples of student work and teacher commentary on why they were at a particular level.

They were then removed from the web, but are still available on TEACHFIND. (Also home for Teachers TV videos for example)

Level 3 statements

Level 4 statements

Level 5 statements

Level 6 statements

Level 7 statements

Level 8 statements

This is part of the resources that I shall be sharing on the 'Future of Secondary Geography' course that I will be leading in July.
It will be part of a discussion on Future assessments...
Thanks also to David Drake for blogging his ideas on the change in levels...

See previous post on geographical futures - please share your ideas, thoughts and concerns about the future of secondary geography...
#geogfuture

Share an idea...

Coke's new bottles have names on, which are apparently the 150 most popular names in each of the countries where they are produced.

You can mock up one on the Coca Cola website here. A kind person found my name and sent me the label..

Apparently there's been some controversy in Sweden.

So what to do with these labels or bottles ?

Your thoughts would be nice.

I'd perhaps give bottles out, and ask students to research hurricanes / tropical storms which had those names...

Or perhaps the name of someone whose life has been changed by globalisation in some way.

Crazy Paving

I've spent part of this week working on some materials for a project that I've been doing for the last few months on and off.
It's some materials for schools across London, working with Mission:Explore to look at water and drainage.
One of the strands is to explore the development of Sustainable Drainage systems in cities (SuDs)

I'm working with the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) and there are a few sites in particular which we're looking at.

The WWT have a range of sites which would make good places to visit.

One area that I've focussed on is the importance of decisions made by individual householders as to whether to pave their front gardens. This is often something that is done for convenience, or to reduce car insurance premiums.
Collectively, however, it is removing many thousands of acres of land which was previously capable of absorbing rainfall, and turning it into impermeable surfaces which increase surface water drainage. At the same time, vegetation is removed, which changes the nature of streets, and increases the amount of noise and other environmental problems.
Should there be prohibitions against changes being made to front gardens, or is an English person's home still their castle ?

The 'Crazy Paving' report was published in 2005 and is one of a series of reports which focussed on the impact of changes to front gardens.

Download the report from the link here (PDF download)

It connects with an activity that I have created for EDINA's MapStream service.

More to come as the project comes to a conclusion.

Dylan Wiliam resource - ready for the future ?

Click the cover here to go to an article on the role of formative assessment.
It's one of a range of articles that I shall post here in advance of two courses that I am running in July. They are intended to provide additional background reading for delegates who are particularly keen.

There are a large number of delegates on both of the courses, and I'm hoping that the delegates are up for sharing and discussion on many of the topics that we are going to discuss.
The theme is on FUTURES in Geography - which is a difficult thing to identify... as things keep changing by the day...

What will the future geography curriculum be like ? 
How will it be assessed ? 
How will we mark work ? 
What will future geography teachers need to know when they are training ? 
What will future geography fieldwork be like ?

I also liked this Alex Quigley piece, directed to me by Noel Jenkins which explores the ideas of marking.
Also some of Zoe Elder's recent posts on FULL ON LEARNING - I have a copy of her book.

We'll still have marking in the future... or should we turn it into a feedback policy ?
What will students be creating ?
We'll still be studying countries outside the UK

Do we need to change schools ? Or change learning ?

What will geography departments look like in five or ten years time... or will we recognise them quite easily...
Will there be corporate logos relating to the companies who are providing most of the services in education ?

Read this piece by Sugata Mitra. 

What are your thoughts on the future of secondary geography ?
Are you optimistic ? concerned ? happy ? enthusiastic ?
What are the areas where your concerns lie ?
What are you looking forward to ?
Please share them here, e-mail or DM me, or on Twitter with the hashtag #geogfuture

Song for today...

Professor Iain Stewart MBE

Congratulations to Iain Stewart on the MBE that he received in today's Queen's Birthday Honours List. Iain is a Vice President of the Geographical Association and also a Primary Geography champion.

You'll be able to see Iain speak at the SAGT conference in October, and also see a seminar that I'm leading on the Scottish landscape while you're at it...

Image copyright: Bryan Ledgard / Geographical Association - used with permission

It's only a matter of time before I get mine :)

Photoblitzing...

• Make a creative photo of paired opposites.
• Make a photograph that features a circle today.
• Take a picture that reminds you of your childhood
• Make a photo of a thing that is not like the other two in the picture (e.g. 2 dogs and a cat)
• Take a picture of fire or something that represents fire.
• Let's play around with contrast. Make a photo that has contrasting colours.
• Turn your food into the shape of a face. Then take a photo of it

These are the challenges I've just been set for the next 20 minutes on the Photoblitzer website.

Created by John Johnston

Read the instructions and have a go yourself...

Signal to noise

I live in a rural part of Norfolk.
My mobile provider is EE...
I can't use my mobile in my village as there's no signal. Only Vodafone users get a signal in the village. If I walk up the 'hill' out of the village I get a few bars...

The Countryside Alliance has started a campaign to ask people to map their mobile signal to identify 'not-spots'.
Of course, one way to improve the mobile signal would be to have more masts - but they are not popular in the landscape either...

To join in, there's an app called Root Metrics which you can put on your smartphone. This will do a test of the strength of your call signal and data connection.
A bit of citizen science.

Are there connections with the topography of the area and signal strength ?

OECD Migration interactive

Thanks to Judith Roberts for the tip-off to this.

Mystery of the Falling Man

A sad and powerful story.

Follow it up here with a BBC World Service Assignment programme.

The importance of technology in helping identify him is mentioned here.

Dan in the Metro... or is a Toyota...

Dan Raven Ellison and Seb featured on p.55 of the Metro today.

Check out the hashtag and visit the special TOYOTA website...

There's an A-Z list here with links to YouTube videos...

Check out the blog in particular for a cool illustrated blog showing some of the adventures that Dan and Seb have been having.
#Route125

Space in the city...

A nice infographic to visualise the personal space that people have in some of the world's major cities,  based on their population density.

Thought for the end of the summer term...

Glancing over my shoulder at the past,
I realize the number of students I have taught
is enough to populate a small town.

I can see it nestled in a paper landscape,
chalk dust flurrying down in winter,
nights dark as a blackboard.

The population ages but never graduates.
On hot afternoons they sweat the final in the park
and when it's cold they shiver around stoves
reading disorganized essays out loud.
A bell rings on the hour and everybody zigzags
into the streets with their books.

Schoolsville by Billy Collins

With thanks to Joe Moran for the lead to the poem

In my first twenty years of teaching, as the poem says, I must have taught enough people to populate a small town... called King's Lynn...

This is a time of year when students leave to move onto the next stage of their lives, and many teachers start clearing their rooms as they are retiring, or moving to a new school.

Good luck to everyone leaving a school, or preparing to start a new one in September...

Everest timelapse...

This has been doing the rounds...
A lovely piece of work.

Starter

I'll be setting up this music to play just before I make my entrance into the classroom for lessons from September... ;)

SAGT Conference 2013

One of my favourite CPD events of the year is the SAGT conference. 

It's a one day conference held on a Saturday. I've been speaking there since 2005, when my public speaking was in its infancy and rare...
This year's theme is below:

My seminar is going to be on the Scottish Highlands.

Peak Practice – Exploring Scotland’s Upland Landscapes
This presentation will make use of EDINA's Digimap for Schools service. A new resource will be created for the conference and as always, there will plenty of ideas, and a sprinkling of technology.

‘For anyone that likes wild and beautiful scenery there is nothing in Britain to equal the grandeur of the Bens and glens of Scotland, and those peaks that frown upon the western seas have an elevation and individuality that makes every climber anxious to explore them’

(Poucher 1964)

Mountains are an important part of Scotland’s national identity. The 282 peaks in Munro’s list, and those that didn’t make it, have inspired generations of artists, writers and tourists. Mountains feature in the Geography curriculum at all levels. This session will provide a range of approaches for exploring, explaining, interpreting, and teaching enquiry
based lessons about Scottish mountain landscapes.
Mountains are features of the physical environment, but they are inevitably influenced by human decisions. The Cairngorm Funicular, GeoPark designations, new National Trails, growth of fieldsports and the speculative listing of the Cuillin Hills for sale are just a few of many possible contexts for learning.

‘There’ll be ideas Bheag and small - remember to keep Sgurr of how many. We’ll be on just before or after the mid-day Mheall.
If you’re ready, then Buachaille up. Hopefully you Cárn keep up. I’ll Stob if you can’t, and there’ll be no Bheinn diagrams...
It will leave you wanting Mhor...’

Hope to see some of you there...

Awesome Iceland video...

This student-made video, from Tom of Dr. Challoner's Grammar School, sets a challenge to anyone who might be visiting Iceland (or other locations) on a school visit to do better...
Excellent editing and, of course, the awesome landscape of Iceland features prominently....



I can see quite a few schools borrowing this for their Iceland-trip parent meetings....

Rise of the Continents

First episode of Iain Stewart's new series was last night. Four episodes in the series.
Available to view on iPlayer for a good while yet.
Plenty of interest for geographers and earth scientists / geologists.
Impressive sequence at the top of Victoria Falls to begin the episode.

GeoLibrary

I'm not into the sixth month of the GeoLibrary project. I 'add' a book a day to the virtual shelves of the library and explain why I think geography educators would find it useful. Some other media have also been added to the shelves (as is the case with modern libraries)

Today has been a day for catching up as I'd got a bit behind...
Check out the shelves and browse through...

SPC Committee meeting

It was down to London earlier for a meeting of the GA's Secondary Phase Committee. I've served on this committee since 2004, apart from a brief hiatus when I was working for the GA.

You can find out what we're up to by checking out the SPC page on the GA website.

There were a few absent members, but we had a very productive meeting, and produced some guidance on colleagues about teaching a linear GCSE course, discussed plans for some forthcoming publications and teacher support from the GA, and planned the outlines of three conference workshops for the 2014 conference.
Good to see Fred Martin again too...

Image: Victoria Ellis