Christmas holidays are a chance to catch up on the fun projects which have to be pushed to one side during term time. I've got quite a few lined up for the next few weeks to keep me active...One project which has been staring at me for months now is the box of Classroom Geographer journals kindly donated by Neil Sealey.
This journal was the first to really offer a chance for teachers to read what other teachers were doing in their classrooms, as there were few opportunities to network in the 1970s and 1980s.
There was much talk of the 'New' Geography, and of traditional topics and approaches being replaced by the quantitative ideas of Central Place Theory, statistical models and early simulation games. It was published through the 1970s and 1980s, starting out at 20p per issue (including postage), with around 5 issues a year. It's been a good few hours now spent reading through the journals in date order, and finding interesting perspectives on Geography (so far from quite a male dominated perspective, and with more contributions from Geography masters, or university lecturers than classroom teachers...)
There have been a few familiar names cropping up so far, and I'm tweeting some things that appeal to me on my Twitter feed @GeoBlogs
I'd love to hear from anyone who has memories of this journal. I'm grateful to those people who have already shared their memories on how it influenced their practice, and introduced them to the work of other teachers at a time when few got to see what other teachers were doing beyond their own school.
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