The World of 100 People

Toby Ng has produced a series of excellent graphics which relate to the resource: IF THE WORLD WERE 100 PEOPLE

Check them out at TOBY's SITE

Here's an example on water availability...

'Going Digital' at The Guardian

Image: Mark Hillary via Flickr (Creative Commons)

Going Digital

This event was held today at the Guardian HQ, on York Way, which is just around the corner from King's Cross station, which is ideal for me. This was a very nice building to be able to see inside, and good coffee.

There were some interesting speakers, but I'm not sure how successful they were at addressing the title of the day, which was related to using online resources to raise achievement.

The Guardian Archive was not demonstrated much, although this was one of the showpiece elements of the day, although some of the image collections that were demonstrated had, for me, less use than the millions of Creative Commons licensed images on Flickr.

Martin Wainwright, who has written an intriguing book called 'TRUE NORTH' was an entertaining speaker. He also provided some good C.P. Scott stuff, and Jo Grimond.

Here is the somewhat circuitous stream-of-consciousness topic sequence that Martin went through, starting with a conversation with someone on the train to London from Leeds...

Train - British Rail - Narnia - Nature table - Health and Safety - Morris Minors - Martin Parr - Fungi - London Plane - Guardian Manchester Garage - Elephants - Guy Fawkes

It was good to see the Jane Bown photography exhibition down on the ground floor as well.

Managed to get work done on the train there and back, so all in all a reasonably useful day.

Using video in the (Geography) classroom...

Using video in the geography classroom ??

If you do, please go to the HULL UNIVERSITY survey page and fill in the form.

You have until the 30th of November to fill in the form, and have a chance to win an iPod Video Nano

Cycling home from Siberia

It's important to look for real-life contexts for lessons, particularly to look for those which may engage students.

One geography teacher who undertook a remarkable adventure, was Rob Lilwall, who resigned from his job in 2004, and decided to cycle from the far east of Russia back home.

CYCLING HOME FROM SIBERIA

Noticed that Rob is speaking at Explore 09 this weekend.
Rob's journey is over, but Mark Beaumont's latest journey is continuing... of course, you'll have to go to Mark's BBC related blogs for all that news, or follow his Twitter feed...

The Lava Project

With thanks to @nicolatwilley and @bldgblog on Twitter

Like this idea of stamping lava as it emerges from the ground...

The LAVA PROJECT

Lava Project from The Long Now Foundation on Vimeo.

GA Conference 2010: programme now available

The GA Conference programme for 2010 has now been finalised by Lucy Oxley, and is available to download in various formats from the GA CONFERENCE area of the website.

This year, there are a series of colour coded CPD PATHWAYS, which can be seen above, to reflect the particular personal CPD needs that teachers might have, and also certain school priorities.

I will be attending a whole range of events over the course of the 3 days, and will blog more about the sessions I am involved in nearer the time.

BOOKING IS NOW AVAILABLE

Booking can be done in various ways...

The conference price is held at 2009 prices !

There is also an EARLY BIRD BOOKING price - the early bird booking period ends on the 31st of December 2009

Free registration is available to all full-time and PGCE students. Please attach proof of your student status, e.g. photocopy of your NUS card, with your completed booking form. Online booking for students is available but proof of status will be required by email, fax or post.Bookings cannot be processed without this proof. Please note: student registration does not include lunch, however there are several outlets situated within the exhibition area where you can purchase hot and cold food.

Up, up in the air... and back in a box...

...in my beautiful balloon...

BALLOONS APP is an app for the iPhone that allows you to create and label a balloon and then let it go, and catch balloons from other people...

Just had a feeling that there may be a use for this tool, in terms of releasing thoughts and questions around the world and seeing who picks them up. Also a lot more environmentally friendly than a real balloon launch....

Also, good to see SPC colleague David Rogers at the BBC studios to welcome back the famous BBC BOX, which has been travelling the globe for the last year with a GPS unit attached to it. Here he is pictured above...

Nice work Mr. Rogers !

Dabbleboard

A few months back, I was introduced to collaborative site ETHERPAD..
Now here comes DABBLEBOARD, which is an IWB version of Etherpad.

Collaborate on drawings by sharing the location of the Dabbleboard.

Any geographers out there using this website ?

Update: Kenny O' Donnell is - thanks for getting in touch Kenny...

Quick question for you...

Answers to be provided later...

What's the cultural significance of this ad ?

GIS: a new guide from the GA

A new area of the GA's website is now available for use.
This explores the area of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) which now form part of all key stages, and are specifically mentioned as being part of a new KS3 programme of study.
The new area of the site includes the following areas, which will hopefully provide information and advice for teachers who are unsure of what and how to proceed with GIS in curriculum planning.

• Understanding GIS
• Building the Basics
• GIS in the classroom
• Software and online GIS
• Planning for GIS
• Base maps, data and GPS

And finally, Learning about GIS

Young People's Geographies Phase 4

A wet day in Sheffield today at the GA headquarters for the launch of the 4th phase of the Young People's Geographies project.

If you haven't already checked out this project, by reading early posts on this blog, it is worth heading over to the website, which has newly added content, including a report on photographer Jonathan Morris' work in Swansea with young people.

This is an area which has had a lot of academic interest over the last decade, and it is now becoming more important, particularly given the "changing nature" of young people, and the rising youth employment, which is causing concern.

The study of geography should enable young people to develop a closer appreciation of their local areas, and how they relate to other places.

It will also provide them with certain skills and a way of "seeing the world" which are attractive to employers...

We have also set up a network for those wanting to know more about the project.

If this is the case, please get in touch....

Thanks as always to colleagues Mary Biddulph and Roger Firth from the School of Education, University of Nottingham.

GIS for Schools booklet

A new edition of the Ordnance Survey's very helpful "GIS for Schools" booklet has been made available.

Can't see a URL for it to be downloaded yet, but will let you know when it becomes available.

The "Mapping News" magazine, which used to be in hard copy form, is also going to be available as an online version shortly. I have been in touch with the Ordnance Survey, and it should be coming out soon once the final "technical stuff" has been sorted....

Passing of the Generation

A new set of resources via the Ministry of Defence's DEFENCE DYNAMICS site.

It's called PASSING OF THE GENERATION.

As we approach REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY, it is worthwhile taking a look at the site with students.

Mission Explore Canterbury...

Spaces are limited for the newly rebranded MISSION EXPLORE weekend in Canterbury with members of the GEOGRAPHY COLLECTIVE.

The event is being held on the

BOOK A TICKET HERE - just £30

Over 18s only

You can now follow the Geography Collective on TWITTER.

Sadly, if you're hoping to see me there I am already spoken for, and attending the Geography Teacher Educators' Conference at Madingley Hall in Cambridge. I know....

Horrible Geography

Thanks to Kate Russell for the tip-off to an excellent price for 12 of Anita Ganeri's "Horrible Geography" series. They are available in a set of 12 for only £12.99 from Scholastic site.

Elderly People

The classic "Elderly People" traffic sign has often been criticised for its depiction of an impression of elderly people that might be less than appropriate.

A recent item in the Daily Mail (my favourite online newspaper resource) showcased a response to this in the Lake District.

Cumbria Tourism placed an alternative version of the sign on the Old Man of Coniston (that's a landform by the way, not a person...)

This was part of a "rebranding" of the Lake District as "the capital of adventure"....

The ads were designed in association with Steve Messam, and are pretty cool....

50 years of the M1

For the first half of my life, I lived in a Yorkshire village, and from the bedroom of my later home in the village, I had a distant view across fields and woodland to the traffic passing along the M1 motorway near Sheffield. I couldn't hear the traffic, but could see it on a clear day...

Today, the M1 is 50 years old, although it was only 10 years ago that the full length was completed.

The first motorway services opened at Watford Gap.

Today, a sign was opened suggesting that this is where the North meets the South....

A report on the opening of this sign in The Telegraph.

BBC Teachers page...

BBC Teachers site new in BETA...

GEOG ED - Autumn 2009

Latest issue of GEOG ED is now available...

It has two articles.

The first is by Debbie Moss, and explores "Teaching the Holocaust in Geography"

The second is by Mark Jones, and describes a project which involved trainee teachers using PDAs, and explored some of the issues...

If you haven't read Geog Ed, visit the site where you can see back issues as well...

Northumberland Coastal Resource

Images by Alan Parkinson

On Friday this week, I had the chance to travel up part of the Northumberland coast as part of my journey north to Edinburgh with a car full of GA materials.

Took the road from Alnwick to Beadnell: familiar from several family holidays, and then took in views of Seahouses, Bamburgh Castle, Grace Darling Museum, Holy Island etc.

Thanks to my colleague Wendy North for alerting me to a resource produced to inspire people to explore the Northumberland coast, called OUR COAST, OUR SEA....

Some nice geographical ideas here: check them out !

By the way, the haddock and chips from Neptune's restaurant in Seahouses were worth the wait.

How do you find the time ?

This post is a response to a blog post by David Rogers which you can read HERE.

David is the author of Citizenship through Geography (see earlier post)

I often get asked the same question that David was: "Where do you find the time (to do all that you do) ?" (in fact, someone asked me at the end of my seminar at SAGT...)

Here are a few thoughts on that:

1. I don't tend to watch a lot of TV in the evening, or do other things. I like reading and find time for that but over the last decade, once my kids are in bed, and my wife is engaged in her hobbies, I have had time for geography - when I was teaching I made the most of every minute of the school day: always worked through break and lunchtime, and got to school early but didn't worry about leaving fairly promptly either...

2. Over that decade, I built up a large electronic bank of resources which can then be edited and repurposed : this is mainly based around my website GEOGRAPHY PAGES, which is still available (and still getting thousands of visits each day) - this was where I used to file documents, or thoughts, and the pages grew organically over time...

3. My blogs are my filing system: when something occurs to me, I tend to have BLOGGER open, and will start a blog post to finish at some later date (as I write this, I have 10 draft posts already waiting to be finished at some future date)

4. When teaching, I always had my laptop switched on and, latterly, connected to the internet. This meant that I was able to keep up with the inputs from my Personal Learning Network (PLN) and also respond quickly.

5. RSS feeds allow me to have new content from the blogs I read sent to me, and I read this once a day, along with the 'online papers'...

Sorry that there's nothing more 'deep' to this post than that... I suppose I just get on with things, and put them out in the open where others may make use of them, and spend time online that others might spend doing other things.

Don't worry, I do get outside sometimes...

National Geographic Fragrances

Ambi Pur sell National Geographic fragrances...

National Geographic ..
Watch the ad...

An interesting idea.

Perhaps we could launch some Geographical Association fragrances ?

Any thoughts on what smells we might include ?

Andy Cave

The final part of the SAGT conference was a keynote talk by Andy Cave.

Andy talked about his journey from a job as a coal miner in Barnsley in the years leading up to the miners' strike of 1984 to scaling the North Face of the Eiger and travelling in the Himalayas, Alaska and elsewhere.

He also talked about the importance of teamwork, and building ability: when he needed to complete a challenging climb, he worked out that he needed to build the strength in his left arm...

Best of luck to Ollie Bray

Had a very pleasant evening in East Lothian on Saturday enjoying the hospitality of Ollie and Caroline the night after SAGT had finished.
Ollie was a little busy from around 9pm onwards as he received an e-mail to tell him that his flight to Brazil had been brought forward by 6 hours, and he'd be getting up rather earlier than expected Sunday morning.

Ollie was heading off to Salvador in Brazil as part of his Microsoft Innovative Teacher success.

He was a winner in the European awards earlier in the year in Vienna.

Look forward to following Ollie's adventures on Twitter.

Good luck !

Image by Sally Anderson on Flickr under Creative Commons.

3 "Commendeds"....

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

The GA picked up 3 "Commended" awards at the SAGT Conference on the 31st of October...

Winter Image Competition on Geography Champions

Thanks to Paula Owens for adding details of a new photography competition on the Geography Champions Ning.

I like the Autumnal look of the Ning...

As you get ready to undertake the last term this year why not think about some simple outdoor work you could do with your class?

There is a photo competition running until the end of November and the winning photos will be featured as the Ning background during December and into the New Year.

We’re looking for iconic and or personally memorable outdoor images of winter that make us think ‘December’. See the Forum on the Ning for more details.
Why not take your class outside with digital cameras, even if it’s just in the school grounds. For example, pupils might choose a special place, a landscape view, a close up shot of flora or fauna, an urban sky-line - anything out of doors goes as long as it conveys a ‘December’ feel. Here are a few quick ideas to get you started:
Pupils work in groups of four or five and take an image each on a shared camera. Having uploaded the images back in class they then discuss with their group why their image is special to then and why they have chosen it. Each group then chooses one image and prepares a short persuasive presentation as to why it should be chosen to represent their class.
You could also upload all the images your class take to a plan map of the school grounds using a photo sharing site such as Flickr with Google Maps or a similar programme to help locate where the image was taken.
I have identified some curricular opportunities in Geography, Literacy, ICT and Art on the Forum – why not have a look and see how you might develop this? I do hope that you will have a go and look forward to sharing some of the outcomes.

SAGT: David Rogers

Thanks to David Rogers for his company yesterday, and for the kind gift.

The presentation that David delivered to a (largely female) audience yesterday is embedded below...

The book that David refers to is published by Folens, and comes complete with a CD

of customisable resources. Having read through it there are some great ideas which I would certainly have no problem using in a classroom.

Buy your own copy from Amazon

Citizenship Through Geography Sagt 2009

View more presentations from David Rogers.