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August 2nd, 2010 Published by: geoblo

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the Summer Institute....By GeoBlogs on August 2nd, 2010

Had a few tweets over the last few days from colleagues whoare involved in the Teach First Summer Institute , notably Hamish Reid (who came along to a Quality Geography eventin London last year...) and Colin Walker : PGCE tutor fromthe University of Canterbury who very kindly invited me overlast year too.The Summer Institute is being held at the University of 

 Warwick. I understand the PGCE colleagues are going to bedoing activities this week, and Hamish got in touch via Twitterto see if I had any advice / suggestions...

This blog post is my answer....

Here are a few things that you might find useful...

  How about trying some of these tasks when you get achance ?? 

1. Use STEPMAP to create a MAP of IMPORTANT PLACESto you, that you think you would like to incorporate into yourteaching if at all possible...

It might be a place that you have visited and spent a lot of time (maybe even lived before...) or a place you think wouldresonate with the students that you teach... What places do youthink would capture the imagination of students ? Does it haveto be a remote place ? Does a 'place' mean a country, or can it

 be a room ?

Step Map Step by Step

 View more presentations from GeoBlogs.

2. Here's some more ICT-related ideas that I used with PGCEcolleagues in Bristol earlier in the year. These could be used tocreate resources, or plan some lesson ideas... They include my favourite BIG HUGE LA BS site...

ICT Homework for Bristol

 View more presentations from GeoBlogs.

3. Quite a lot of effort goes in to creating lessons which teachersthink will engage students - which is of course very important...

The exact ingredient that does that is elusive...

Read this BLOG POST by my GA colleague Ben Major, whoasks about the urge to make lessons as relevant as possible...(check out some of the other blog posts too - nicely thoughtprovoking...)

4. One of the best things that you can do in Geography is to getout of the classroom... don't forget to take the students with

 you though - I'm talking about fieldwork of course...

 You'll hopefully find that there are plenty of opportunities forfieldwork at your placement school. OFSTED are clear about

the value of well-organised fieldwork, and will also expectfull programme at KS3 as well as higher up the school...

Here are some ideas for using the free OS MAPS that will

in the department....Learning the Language of Landscapes

 View more presentations from GeoBlogs.

Make sure that you get a copy of my  LANGUAGE OLANDSCAPES resource, written for Natural England.

5. Why not check out the MISSION EXPLORE website. This related to an iPhone app which I was involved in produciand which can be downloaded from the APP STORE. Not gan iPhone or other device ? Check out the WEBSITE where tmissions can also be seen - try the ANYWHERE MISSIONS

 We are currently planning the second book - you can see an version of the first book here

Once you've seen the missions, why not try to write sommissions in a similar style - perhaps aim for some missio

that could be carried out: in the school grounds, on the wayschool, during a school day, while on holiday, over a weekenetc.. the possibilities are endless...

I have also been impressed by the efforts of Tim Handley aNQT who organised the Teachmeet in Norwich a few montago, while still a PGCE student. He is putting together an

 book for PGCE colleagues, and is collecting suggestions usithe Twitter hashtag #pgcetips

Use TWITTER SEARCH or something similar to find out whhe has collected so far...

I really recommend that you spend some time reading Tim blog, which he has used during his course to reflect, oft

at length on the experience of being a PGCE teacher (notgeographer by the way, but that's OK...)

Follow him on TWITTER ..

 A few final thoughts:

Look at the diagram below, drawn by a Year 8 of "the perfegeographer...."

 What would "the perfect geography teacher" look like, if the was such a person ??

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Keep an eye out for further materials on the nature of CURRICULUM MAKING at our MAKING GEOGRAPHY HAPPEN website. See how other teachers have workedthrough a complete unit of work, and what the studentsthought of it.

Check out the newly launched EXEMPLIFICATION OFSTANDARDS site on the QCDA - this only appeared last

 week, and many teachers have been waiting a long time to seeit. It will help you make decisions about the level that you apply to student work, but remember that you should NOT be usingthese to level every piece of work (or indeed any individualpiece of work....)

Follow LIVING GEOGRAPHY : this blog has over 1700 postson almost every topic you can think of... Sign up for the RSSfeed.

Use the LABELS area down the right hand column, or aSEARCH and you'll find something relevant to your new course.

Plenty here to help with your curriculum making, by which wemean:

" the creation of interesting, engaging and challengingeducational experiences which draw upon teacher knowledgeand skills, the experiences of students and the valuable subject resource that is geography." 

Don't forget to keep up your GA membership to keep up todate...

The next issue of GA Magazine will feature a special NQTSurvive and Thrive pack which will be accompanied by onlinematerials...

Final give-away.... Wrote this earlier tonight for@TomHenzley, but thought it might be useful here too soadapted it a little....

Chop One Red Onion Finely 

Read the article.What do you think about what is being said ? What has been missed out ? 

What did you agree / disagree with ? 

Can you extend the metaphor further ? 

Good luck - enjoy the rest of the Summer Institute, and plealet me know how you get on.Follow me on TWITTER @GeoBlogs...

Happy Yorkshire Day...By GeoBlogs on August 2nd, 2010

OS BlogBy GeoBlogs on August 2nd, 2010

The OS have recently joined the "blogosphere"Their blog recently featured me and my shirt...

Nice...

Hard disk "issues"...By GeoBlogs on August 2nd, 2010

Had an emotional few days...

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Thought my hard drive had failed the other day... taking withit about 3 months work...

Seems like I've saved most things - a few hundred e-mailsdisappeared though...

Now backing up EVERYTHING !!

Avast behind...By GeoBlogs on August 2nd, 2010

 Yesterday was the big day for the launch of ourMission:Explore London iPhone app .The app was developed in association with the WORKSHOP.

If you don't have an iPhone / iPod touch / iPad (and if not, why not ?) you can see all the missions on our MISSION EXPLORE

 WEBSITE and also remember to BUY THE BOOK...

If you have an iPhone, download the app and give us a review /rating please...

 We had the Golden Hinde booked for the event.

Here's a slideshow of the first part of the event.

Thanks to everyone who came along and enjoyed the evening...

Urban Earth... USA ??By GeoBlogs on August 2nd, 2010

Looking not a million miles from Dan Raven Ellison's URBANEARTH , comes a viral ad for LEVI's Jeans where a man"walks across America...."The GOOGLE MAP is here.

The shoot took 14 days, and this behind the scenes videoexplains a little about how the video was put together...

2770 still photographs were put together to create a

marvellous video of crossing the country from New York to SanFrancisco.

Daily Mail article here... watch the "making of" video and seeif you can work out how they wrote the article...

Thanks to @KeirClarke on Twitter for the tip-off..

Two year s today...By GeoBlogs on August 2nd, 2010

Two years today will be the start of the London OlympiGames ...If you want a tour of the facilities, we are running a full d

tour as part of the GA Conference in April 2011.

I am visiting the site in mid-August, and will post some imagfrom there too.

Don't forget that you can visit the VIEW TUBE if you wan view of the work in progress.

AudiobooBy GeoBlogs on August 2nd, 2010

Intro to Audioboo from Mark Rock on Vimeo.

Before I got an iPhone, one of the apps that I kept heariabout was Audioboo.Some great uses of this app emerging...

 More later...

The Future of the CountrysideBy GeoBlogs on August 2nd, 2010

The STATE OF THE COUNTRYSIDE 2010 report has no been published and can be obtained from here.It is available to download in various combinations froindividual chapters to the whole report.

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 Would be very useful for those preparing to teach about urban-rural interrelationships, or the changes that might happen infuture landscapes.

Handily, all the IMAGES can also be downloaded.

Academies debate...By GeoBlogs on August 2nd, 2010

The Academies Bill is being debated. This could well affecthundreds of thousands of pupils and teachers... and look at theturn out of MPs....

KS3 Geography

ExemplificationBy GeoBlogs on August 2nd, 2010

For the last few years, a regular request has been to ask "whenis APP for Geography coming out ?":  Assessing Pupil Progresshas been used in the core subjects for a while.The Geography resources have been delayed, and have finally emerged on the (presumably soon to be removed) QCDA 

 website.

They have been retitled "Exemplification of standards"There are a number of case studies that have been prepared

  by teachers working with KS3 pupils in geography lessons.The KS3 examples feature a range of useful contexts, including

 wordscape views, which I like.

Level 4 features an enquiry into the location of a chewing gumfactory.

Check out the other levels...

I've had a quick look and the materials should provide someclarification on the detail that is needed to provide proof thata student has

  What teachers will also find useful are the suggestions fhow the students could hav e raised their level. The issue progression is a thorny one...

 More on this via the GA website...

Simon Armitage: troubadour...By GeoBlogs on August 2nd, 2010

I have long been an admirer of Simon Armitage's poetry. Nohe is trying to be a modern day troubadour by   walking tPennine Way  : quite a challenge in itself.He left without any money and to pay for food anaccommodation he is doing poetry readings in variolocations.

 Also reminded of the book he did with Glyn Maxwell abohis travels to Iceland: " Moon Country" - will be one of treferences I use when travelling to Iceland later in the year.

Afghanistan Tourism: Climbingoff the map...By GeoBlogs on August 2nd, 2010

Thanks to @HodderGeography for this tipoff...

The report is about the re-introduction of  tourism  Afghanistan  .It follows the climber Alan Halewood, whose desire to visit area called the Wakhan Corridor was triggered by a map whhe was younger.

Many years later, he is now reporting on a visit to the area.

The firm running tours is based in Dundee.

It is called MOUNTAIN UNITY .

The article is on BBC SCOTLAND area, and is well worexploring.

Fjord the reindeer By GeoBlogs on August 2nd, 2010

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 A good blog has been set up to follow the adventures of Fjord: a stuffed reindeer.Fjord is accompanying a group of scientists, who are on aresearch visit to SVALBARD .This was a place I studied when teaching GCSE PilotGeography a few years back, and we ended up with lots of useful contacts and websites.

The scientists are going to be studying aspects of glaciers, andthere are already some good images on the blog. This might

 be a good way in to exploring the nature of this sort of work,and to think about a similar format for recording a schoolfieldtrip perhaps. Lots of schools are now using website suchas POSTEROUS to set up student blog accounts...

Reminds me of some friends of mine who used to take stuffedanimals on holiday with them and take pictures of them inlocations around the world.

Don't forget to buy your BARNABY BEAR from the GA shopas a perfect holiday travelling companion...

GA members get a cheaper price of course...

"On the Northern Skyline..."By GeoBlogs on August 2nd, 2010

 Image by Flickr user Gee Bee under Creative CommonslicenseImagine you look out of your window one morning and noticethat the view you have been familiar with for so long has now changed because something has been added / been removed.This sort of thing happens a lot, but it's always a shock whenit's outside your own window.

The Trinity Centre Multi storey car park has been a part of theNewcastle skyline for decades.

It became famous for a scene in the film "Get Carter", withMichael Caine.

Today is the day when the process of demolition starts, anda useful article, with that famous scene was produced by theDaily Mail.

There's an interesting quote from the architect of the building:Owen Luder, who said that Gateshead was "losing its frontteeth". As parents know, when your children lose their milk front teeth there's a bit of a shock for a few weeks but then they grow up and looking back at old photos a few years later youthink "did they really look like that ?"

In the "Mission:Explore" book there's reference to topocidthe factors which help to "kill" a place...

 How does the removal of familiar buildings like this affec place ?? 

Mange Tout... grown in the UKBy GeoBlogs on August 2nd, 2010

  Image by Alan Parkinson... of broccoli (couldn't find a

mange tout picture in my Flickr account...) An int eresting story via @HodderGeography on Twitter 

Back in the days when you closed the curtains and showa 40 minute video as your lesson plan ... I know... there wan excellent video to stimulate discussion on the role of larcompanies in the developing world, and the sourcing of ofood...The programme looked at the supply of mange tout to Tescfrom farms in Zimbabwe. This was memorable because the songs that the workers sang when "the man from Tescarrived... and also for the harshness of the quality control athe small amounts of money that the growers earned...

If you search online you can find some (sometimes trenchan views on the programme.

This story from the Guardian website has the tale of Britigrown mange tout being sold in supermarkets for the firtime...

It's not the first time that mange tout has been grown in thUK of course (I used to grow it in my back garden...) but tfirst time that a supermarket has sourced and sold it...

Useful for those exercises looking at FOOD MILES (bremember to be critical about the idea of 'far' being necessar'bad'....)

There was also that story of a staff meal, Mr. Francis, a botof red wine and the mange tout, but I won't go into that hereit's a family blog...

Caroline Spelman speech at

DEFRABy GeoBlogs on August 2nd, 2010

I am currently collecting literacy examples for a conferenlater in the year in Glasgow.

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One of the possible sources of text for geography students touse in their work are government departments or agencies.This speech was delivered by Caroline Spelman at an eventhosted by DEFRA  earlier this month...

The speech is about the link between food and diet, and theimportance of local supplies....

Here's a sample from the speech. How could this be adaptedfor use in the classroom ?

 Also fits nicely with my GEOGRAPHY OF FOOD Online CPD

unit...

 Food is a incredibly complex subject – both psychologically

and physiologically. The way it is grown, traded and consumed has a direct impact on our environment, our economies and our health.

  And, as Dalton (Philips) points out in the first chapter of 

 Feeding Britain, cost and supply are increasingly affecting food security abroad and food choices here at home. Food, in fact, lies at the centre of a very complex web that 

extends to every aspect of our existence, from the state of our countryside to the length of our lives.

That’s why this coalition Government has made it a

 priority to support British food and farming and encouragesustainable food production.Through the recession and – now – in its difficult aftermath,

our farmers have shown personal tenacity and economicresilience.That’s not just good news for the industry, but for all of us.

Ageing Population

VisualisationBy GeoBlogs on August 2nd, 2010

Thanks to @geoparadigm on Twitter... A  splendid visualisation of an ageing world, produced by insurers GE.Slide the slider along from left to right to see the changingshape of the population structure...

This links with tonight's Panorama, produced by JoanBakewell.It looks at the issue of care for the elderly...

The burden of youth...