Digital Urban Strikes Again

...with a fab timelapse movie of the snow in London...

London Snow Timelapse: 21,000 Photographs from digitalurban on Vimeo.

New KS3 Resource

KS3 Resources section of the Geography Teaching Today

New resources have now been added: Who do we think we are ?

Part of the Action Plan for Geography

On Mulberry Street

On Mulberry Street

Just had yet another tip off via Twitter network...

Angela Maiers led me to the WIKI PAGE which has been put together by Paula White.
The project is based around a picture book by Dr Seuss, which my son has a copy of.

It was Dr. Seuss's first book, and is called "And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street"...
It explores the wonderful things that students could see if they looked at their surroundings in a different way.

How about a fieldtrip in Mulberry Street...

What starts off as a horse and cart is turned into a magical parade as more detail is added at each stage...

Here's an extract from the first page of the book

When I leave home to walk to school,

Dad always says to me,

"Marco, keep your eyelids up

And see what you can see."

What can you see ?

Norfolk Earth Day 2009

After a very popular event last year, this year's event will take place in April at the BURNHAM DEEPDALE venue.

Had an SLN FIELD WEEKEND here last year, and it's a great venue.

GTE - Sunday

GTE - the final blog post from the 2009 Conference

Session chaired by Clare Brooks

David Lambert

Engaging Geography

Seminar Series to be held over the course of the year to look at the area of "Public geographies"

The first event was held last weekend in Newcastle, and David talked about the event.

A Different View

GA Manifesto to be launched at the GA Conference in April 2009

Aims to put geography at the forefront of while curriculum thinking, and help teachers evaluate the quality of geography in their school. Showed the latest draft of the images and the manifesto document, and invited comment.

Living Geography Chris Kington book - £40 for GA members rather than £45 - see the GA SHOP

Some discussion points:

"teachers own the curriculum, but not all teachers have heard this, or perhaps they don't want to hear it...."

"A curriculum should lead the student to unanticipated rather than predicted outcomes."

Stephen Pickering / Nigel Kent

G&T

Had some reservations about the use of the term G&T. Lots of variation between schools about how to identify the 'G&T' geographers.

Jigsaw - cut up into shapes - corners and edges / colours / patterns - have a strategy when doing a jigsaw - more able have a range of strategies - a fun activity which must have taken a while to put together.

What is Sustainable Development ?

Images of what is and isn't sustainable.

Introduction to Dweck's Orientations to learning

Negative cycle: I can't spell, can't be bothered to improve....etc. Need to develop a positive cycle....

Linked the work to the Geographical concepts

At the end of Stephen's session I had to leave to drive across country back home, so missed some of the other sessions in the afternoon...

Presentations will shortly be available on the GA website

Dubai Land

Following on from my earlier Piers Morgan in Dubai post...

This looks like being an incredible development.
How sustainable is it ?

Dubai Land will cover a huge area, and feature life size replicas of some of the world's iconic buildings as well as theme park rides, and hundreds of other huge developments.

Last night Piers was in Monte Carlo, which had some similar tales of excess. Next week, he's in Hollywood.

Thought for the Day

"Make the past your point of reference,not your place of residence" Kriss Akabusi

Thought for the Day

“When it comes to networks, you can’t just extrapolate from small and slow to understanding the dynamics of large and fast.” Clay Shirky

Snow scuppered plans....

Another event off...

Was due to speak at University of East Anglia, but will now be in April.

Uploaded a task that I was going to use to Slideshare instead:

Having a Snow Day

View more presentations from GeoBlogs. (tags: geography snow)

GTE - Saturday Session 3

Chaired by Mel Norman

Claire Whewell and Allen Thurston

"Blurring Boundaries: creating critical balances between pedagogic and content knowledge in ITE"

University of Stirling

Shulman's model (1999) has tended to form the basis for ITE courses. Curriculum for Excellence has an emphasis on the knowledge of educational ends, rather than concentration on content knowledge: this is where the boundary lies.

Talked through the nature of the course being offered, and the development of competencies.

Mary Fargher

PhD Research in use of GIS and teaching and learning about Place in Schools

Need to be 'critical' of the use of GIS.

Using GIS to help teaching and learning about place, and influencing how we know place, and construct knowledge about place.

Geography - Pedagogy - Technology

How does GIS help students "make the world".

'Ground Truth' - John Pickles (1995)

David Leat

GA Teacher Education Working Group

Resources for Geography Teachers on Action Research

Resources should encourage innovative curriculum and visual methodologies.

Encourage models that are 'self correcting'.

So much available that students need help identifying appropriate resources.

Most effective intervention with students was feedback (John Hattie), and streaming / setting . holding students back a year are less effective (along with ICT)

Impact of parental involvement in pupil learning at primary level.

QCA: identified 6 key themes in curriculum for 21st Century

The need for excellence and professional development in subject knowledge, without which teachers would be unable to seize opportunities for curriculum innovation: subject knowledge is still important !

MTL coming in September 2008, in the National Challenge Schools.

Significance of collaborative learning: again, role of networks.

Importance of challenging dysfunctional teaching beliefs.

Fancy seeing more snow ?

The FUCHS Foundation is looking for teachers for a trip to Antarctica.

The Fuchs Foundation is planning a second Antarctic expedition on which there are places for four science or geography teachers. They are looking for full time teachers who are prepared to undertake a science project in the harshest of conditions - temperatures down to -40c! Applicants must also be prepared to raise a five figure sum to contribute to the expedition's costs and to write up their science project and produce teaching materials, all of which will be published on the web.

You have until the 20th of March.

Snow day

Another load of snow arrived in West Norfolk. 65 schools closed at the moment in West Norfolk.

All the family off school - as I was working from home today, I don't really get the benefit...
Just added my details to the #uksnow map that Ben Marsh produced.Join the map by tweeting #uksnow then first part of the postcode, then score out of 10

e.g. #uksnow S66 8/10

Also check out OLLIE BRAY's POST on making use of this in the classroom along with Google Earth.

XTRANORMAL

New movie making site - voices are a bit flat, but lots of options here...
Free to publish at the moment...

New Geography exemplar Videos available

New videos have now been added to the QCA Secondary Curriculum website.

You will need to log in - then look for the VIDEO button from the RESOURCES section.

They were filmed as part of the CfBT funded KS3 Geography programme, and feature two excellent lessons.

Interesting label saying BEST PRACTICE: I thought we were 'supposed' to use the term 'good practice' ?

The videos feature clips and background from 2 lessons:

1. Nic Sheehan from Teignmouth College teaching about GIS and Learning outside the Classroom to explore pupils' journeys to school...

2. Paula Cooper from King Edward VI 5 Ways teaching about the impact of food price rises. When you're watching this one, can you guess which particular "multimedia presentation with images and music" is being referred to ?

Go and take a look !

GTE - Saturday Session 2

Chaired by Chris Kington

Debbie Moss - Keele University

"How can the Peak District be represented as a place ?" - Cross Curricular fieldwork in Geography and English

Peak District: Gradbach fieldwork

Cross curricular fieldwork with English colleagues.

Using literacy to explore landscape.

Students had to play a role and produce investigations of the local landscape and a poster which displayed their thinking.

Sue Bermingham and Diane Selby - "It started with a story"

Looking at stories in geography.

Ideas for using images - could cut up images and 're-assemble' the landscape.

Getting a chance to visit the locations featured in stories and telling the stories.

"Where the forest meets the sea" - alternative futures.

How do we use stories ?

Start with an outline map. Add details to the map as paragraphs from stories are read. Example of stories from Eritrea was used.

A long standing project of mine is to map the locations of my hundreds of travel books: some fairly obscure.

David Mitchell: "Living Geography"

Chris Kington

The importance of relevance: of young people 'seeing the point'...

John Westaway article in 'Geography'.

Alignment of subjects with government areas of focus: maths with numeracy, arts with creativity.

Geography should perhaps align itself with the idea of sustainability: a major part of Living Geography. Discussion on the views of Alex Standish, who will be attending the GA Conference.

Worth seeking out the new Chris Kington publication (pictured above) - lots of GA involvement in its production.

The Snow - Living Geography

Just preparing some materials for one or two forthcoming things.
Just "wordled" the front pages of the British newspapers from yesterday....

My World in 60 Seconds - new submission guidelines

My World in 60 Seconds

This is an opportunity for student films to be shown on the BBC's BIG SCREENS in cities around the country.

For full details go to the GA WEBSITE, or read on....

Important update: Relaxation on format for submissions

When we launched the competition last year, a number of e-mails were received which queried the limited format for submissions for the My World in 60 Seconds project.

Following further discussions with the BBC, we have been able to widen the format for the submission of completed films, which we think will make it a lot easier for schools to submit their work and take part in the project. The emphasis still needs to be on the HIGHEST POSSIBLE QUALITY OF VIDEO FILE.

New formats that are now available are: a HIGH QUALITY DVD or HIGH QUALITY QUICKTIME FILE.

A reminder of some of the basic rules follows. All entered films must meet these guidelines, and:

Be made by students aged 11, 12, 13 or 14

Be no longer than 60 seconds including titles and credits
Only contain music if you have composed and played it yourself
Have permissions from all people that feature in the film
Be friendly and not contain any rude or obscene material
Arrive as a high quality DVD, QuickTime file or a MiniDV tape along with an entry form no later than 1 May 2009
Be posted to My World Films, Geographical Association, 160 Solly Street, Sheffield, S1 4BF

For further information see the GA website

http://www.geography.org.uk/myworld

Contact Alan Parkinson at the GA for further queries.

Are you a Green Champion ?

Beatrix Potter Green Champions

Following the enormous success of the 2008 Beatrix Potter Green Award, Frederick Warne and the National Trust are pleased to announce that it is back again for a second year. This time it’s bigger, better and greener than before!

Appealing to all budding environmentalists, this award is designed to nurture or kick-start that green habit. Whether it is recycling, growing your own vegetables, walking to school or using bags for life, every little counts! Children aged 5-11 are asked to tell us about their green achievements by writing a story, taking a photograph, drawing a picture, or in any other creative way possible.

There are great prizes for the winners including a fantastic digital camera, a year's family membership to the National Trust and £500 towards a green initiative at their local school.

The Beatrix Potter Green Award goes to the heart of / is in keeping with Beatrix Potter’s own environmental sentiments. As well as writing and illustrating her famous Peter Rabbit books, Beatrix Potter was a conservationist, farmer and active supporter of the National Trust. This award is designed to inspire creativity and raise awareness of the environmental issues that she cared so passionately about.

The Green Award 2009 is open now and the closing date is 30th April 2009.

For more information please contact Hermione Lawton on 0207 010 3471 hermione.lawton@uk.penguingroup.com

www.peterrabbit.com/greenaward

Snow (and heat)

"We're very lucky in the band in that we have two visionaries, David and Nigel, they're like poets, like Shelley and Byron. They're two distinct types of visionaries, it's like fire and ice, basically. I feel my role in the band is to be somewhere in the middle of that, kind of like lukewarm water."
Derek Smalls in 'This is Spinal Tap'

Today, as with yesterday is a 'snow' / 'duvet' day across many parts of the country. The BBC NEWS reported the traffic problems in and around the country. They didn't mention that much about other parts outside of the capital, mostly London yesterday, but anyway. The snow has now moved North, and the chaos continues.

At lunchtime yesterday it was out to collect my kids from their primary school, which has closed early due to the weather forecast being a worsening situation. This morning was an interesting slippy walk, but they were safely delivered.

Today, the newspapers have some very creative headlines and stories, and there have been some interesting journeys to work by a lot of colleagues.

For the first time, the ice and snow has prevented me getting up to Sheffield.

Instead, I'm working through a range of projects the deadlines for which seem to have piled up this week.

One additional resource that I have been putting together is for some UEA PGCE colleagues.

Meanwhile, over in Australia, there is a record breaking HEATWAVE which has led to parts of daily life grinding to a halt.

Back to the snow finally, The Register: the satirical website had a funny report, although it has a rude word, so you can find it yourself if you want the full version.

There was also a good map on the GOOGLE MAPS MANIA website, which was related to TWITTER, and is mentioned in this BBC NEWS REPORT.

A #uksnow map...

Worth collecting the various impressions of the impact of the snow.

One ironic one was that the cost to the British economy was apparently over £1 billion, which is of course small change these days....

The Daily Mirror had the best headline of the day !

Snagfilms

Twitter strikes again....

550 documentaries of mainly American origin which can be viewed or widgetised for a webpage.

Here's a sample that might be of relevance in a geography classroom....

The films include short commercials, usually for American products

SNAGFILMS

Boomtown Beijing - Boomtown Beijing is a film about the city of Beijing, its people and their dreams the summer before the Olympics. The 2008 Olympics Games is China’s debutante ball on the world stage. “ Faster. Higher. Stronger” — the preparation for the Games has turned Beijing into a hot spot of frenzied growth. A 11 year old boy wants to beat the odds to become an Olympics torch-bearer. A road sweeper dreams of staging his own mass Olympics countdown performance. An aging blind athlete makes one last stab at a Paralympics medal before he retires from sports. Together, their stories and scenes of everyday life in the city give a snapshot of Beijing the summer before the Olympics.

China's Lost Girls - National Geographic host Lisa Ling examines the consequences of China’s two-decade-old, ‘’one child policy’’ designed to curb the country’s exploding population. Due to cultural, social and economic factors, traditional preference leans toward boys, so girls are often hidden, aborted, or abandoned. As a result, tens of thousands of girls end up in orphanages across China. Today, more than one quarter of all babies adopted from abroad by American families come from China—and nearly all are girls. Ling joins some of these families as they travel to China to meet their new daughters for the first time. Along this emotional journey, she shares in the joy of these growing families and also witnesses firsthand China’s gender gap, its roots, and its possible repercussions. 

Farther than the eye can see - An intimate look inside one of the most successful Mount Everest expeditions ever. This award-winning film beautifully captures the emotion, humor and drama of blind climber Erik Weihenmayer’s historic ascent as well as four other remarkable ‘firsts’ on Mount Everest.

“Though there were questions about the wisdom of the attempt before the team even left home, the clear and definitive success of the expedition proves what people working together, with a common vision, can accomplish. By rallying behind Erik, nineteen of twenty-one team members stood on the top. The oldest climber ever reached the summit along with his son, an American first. And finally, with the help of Sherpas, we were able to bring an HD camera along to capture historic moments with Erik and his team on the summit.” - Michael Brown, Director

Also features films like SUPERSIZE ME....

Free CPD event for Hertfordshire teachers...

One month today in St. Albans....

Tomorrow's (Geography) Teacher...

Tomorrow's Teacher is a competition being run by TEACHERS TV.

Thanks to Twitter follower/ee Dan Sutch for the details on this.

There's a TEACHER competition and a CLASS competition.

A chance to win some cash for your thoughts on the future of education...

GTE - Saturday sessions

Image by Alan Parkinson 

The GTE Conference was held at the Prince of Wales Hotel in Southport, and organised by Charles Rawding from Edge Hill University.

The conference started on the Friday afternoon - here are some notes from the Saturday sessions that I attended. As before, these are my notes, and any misrepresentations are entirely mine.

First session chaired by Mary Biddulph.

Fran Martin
Children's Voices and Global School Partnerships
Discussion of images and descriptions of a place in Kenya / Mexico produced by primary age children. Nature of images perhaps influenced by Disney and other media. Also a confusion between far away and a long time ago.

Language of uncertainty: helping with the idea that ideas can change once new information comes along.

Effects of school partnership: perhaps reinforcing position of superiority, and the accuracy of

 resources that were involved in the link.

Talked about ideas of sameness - difference.

The dominant group 'decides' what is the 'same' and what is 'different'.

Possible to have a lot of different 'selves' within, which may affect the way that we view differences.

With a school partnership, what is the

What are 'authentic' voices - who decides what is authentic ?

Teaching about otherness...

Recognition of dynamic nature of places, societies, cultures and the relationship between them and the frozen (colonial) narratives which persist.

Updates (10 minute slots)

Margaret Roberts

GTIP

Area of GA WEBSITE

Questionnaire on the Think Pieces & Bibiliography related to the articles. Also the GeogEd journal.

Reading a blog post by Terry Freedman on measuring the value of attending an event. Relates to BETT.

Clare Brooks

GeogEd

On GA Website: papers which are "works in progress", and have open reviews.

Graham Butt

Gereco

Geography Education Research Collective

John Lyon

GA Update

Reminder to GA members to vote on the Governing Body elections

Mel Norman

TEWG

Survey of PGCE Geography departments. 606 people on Geography PGCE courses this year. A healthy number, but still a lot of schools using non-specialist geographers.

Steve Rawlinson

Multiverse

Multiverse: exploring diversity and achievement - supported by the TDA

An ITE professional resource network.

Multiverse has been created to meet the challenge of raising the achivements of pupils from diverse backgrounds. It explores achievement in relation to:

• 'Race' and ethnicity
• Social class
• Religious diversity
• Bilingual and Mulilingual learners
• Refugees and Asylum seekers
• Travellers and Roma

Piers Morgan in Dubai

Dubai: how many schools are using this as a possible context for teaching concepts, or as a place which has awe and wonder, and the 'wow' factor...

Enjoyed watching this last week. Taken a while to finish this blog post about the programme... Some good quotes in typical Piers Morgan style:
Catch it on ITV PLAYER for next 26 days (and counting)

"Dubai hasn't just put itself on the map, it's put the map on itself..."

This introduced an interview with the new $50 million owners of Great Britain: Safi Qurashi. They bought the GB island of 'The World' development.
The website of the development is well worth exploring: it has videos, images and further information on the development. Explore ideas of terraforming, and the nature of the islands.

You could also have students send a postcard from the website of an image and some appopriate accompanying text. Several of these tourist type sites have that particular feature, and it could be a way of generating an assessment piece, which is then e-mailed to the teacher.

Daily Mail article on the purchase of Great Britain island.

They plan to fill the island with luxury accommodation, swimming pools and spas. They plan to build 100 villas which might each sell for around £5 million, despite being "just across the water from the French and the Germans."

Showed the major projects, all under the buzz words of "Glamour, wealth and hedonism"

Burj al Arab, The Palm

"Dubai is twice the size of London, but most activity in 20 mile strip along the coast."

2001: law changed to allow foreign national to own property: Palm Jumeirah was the first main project.Thousands of properties were bought before a brick was laid. Atlantis Hotel, with a lost city in a huge fish tanks sits at the end of the palm, and £7 million was spent on the opening night party.

England footballers bought properties: "WAG sur mer" and "Brookside on the beach"

Waterfront property commands a premium, and 300 miles has been added to Dubai's coastline.

How has the city been created within 20 years ?

Visited the 7 star hotel: Burj al Arab - apparently cost so much to build and run that it will never make a profit. Best rooms cost £12 000 a night.

Ad break in the programme was interesting: "Because of Geography..." the Emirates Ad for Dubai in the ad break - nice work !

Ski Dubai: a snow resort in the desert.

"The crazier the idea, the more likely it is to be accepted."

Theme Park currently being built: 107 square miles: bigger than Birmingham. 

Dubai Land (TM)- apparently going to be built within 7 years. A massive model ! - lifesize models of world buildings.

World's biggest shopping centre, with massive fish tank.

Burj Dubai will be around 1km high: adding a new storey every 3 days. No one is quite sure how high it will be in the end...

A look at the history of development of Dubai. "3 things matter: business, finance and success."

Millions of cheap workers from overseas. 

Workers send $4bn in wages home.

Jewel encrusted mobile phones costing £110 000 each.

For some interesting perspectives on the programme, try the EXPAT forums that discuss the programme, and the various 'interests', particularly the issue of the migrant workforce and their working conditions, which have apparently 'improved' recently...

Plenty to explore and excite following on from this programme...

Google Earth 5 now available to download.

Are you up to date ?
The latest version of Google Earth has been put on the website to download.
It's Google Earth 5
It features the much anticipated Ocean flood and surface data, plus new historical imagery and improved touring facilities.
Get yours today.

Ollie Bray has already been busy putting together some BLOG POSTS

Thanks also, once again, to Digital Urban blog for identifying some geographical uses of the new historical imagery feature such as looking at URBAN SPRAWL.

Google Earth 'Historical Imagery' Timeline from digitalurban on Vimeo.

Liking this UNEP video:

Check it out.

Going to be leading a Google Earth session for Rotherham teachers at CENT on Monday the 9th of February from 1pm - 3pm.
Get in touch if you're in the area and would like to attend.

Snow - 1963

As the 4 Seasons sang
"Oh what a night, late December back in '63.."
and it was, because I was born then.
Theo K, a Twitter contact led me to this classic YouTube video showing the snow of that winter, and how the trains kept running....



and today....

Local jobs for local people ?

Plenty of food for thought on the BBC's 'HAVE YOUR SAY' which asks the (enquiry) question:

SHOULD JOBS GO TO LOCAL WORKERS ?

The government has signalled it might challenge European Union law to prevent British workers from being "undercut" by cheap foreign labour. Are you participating in any of the walkouts?

Health Secretary Alan Johnson said two recent rulings by the European Court of Justice had "undermined" protections.

It comes in the wake of wildcat strikes over the use of foreign labour at a Lincolnshire refinery.

Total has said there would be "no direct redundancies" at the refinery, but unions say British staff should be doing the work.

Can jobs be globalised in times of economic downturn? Is there any way governments can ensure that local residents get the skills and the opportunities to work in the local industries? Would you be willing to travel to another country for a job?