SAGT 2007Picture by Val Vannet

Just back from 2 days in Edinburgh for the Scottish Association of Geography Teachers' conference. I was presenting an adapted version of the Royal Geographical Society presentation I blogged about HERE.

Arrived by train, and up to my nice hotel, for which I got a good deal with "LastMinute.com". Very mild after the chill of Paris. Wandered over to the academy through the Royal Mile and down the cobbles.

The conference was held at Edinburgh Academy. A good venue. Picture by Flickr User Dave Fitch

John Vannet was setting up the Publishers. GA, RGS and GGiP amongst them. Also met up with "the boys from the OS" again and others... Then had a rather nice caprese Pizza and a bottle of Peroni with friends.

Also down to Princes St. to have a bit of a shop and met up with Rob Chambers, who was also presenting a session. He had been due to present at 2006's conference too, but fell ill on a trip to Kenya and was unable to attend. If you want to see his presentations, there is an ONLINE VERSION by clicking the link. As you will see, there is an impressive amount of information here, which could keep you going for a while....

| View | Upload your own

Val Vannet was doing her session on BLOGGING.
She did some live blogging, with some pictures taken that morning. Check the link to see some more pictures of the conference. Good work Val !

Ollie Bray was very popular again and was in "the big theatre"... doing a back to basics session. He's created a little show which can be viewed below, and his ONLINE handout and other resources will be appearing HERE.


Create Your Own


Coming back was a bit of a 'mare. GNER train had to go via Carlisle, which is not the most direct route to Newcastle... People kept asking me loads of questions as the train pulled in, and all the seat reservations were mixed up, then realised they thought I worked for GNER as I had my suit on, blue shirt and tie with the london underground map on it... Quickly took my tie and jacket off.
Took over 5 hours with numerous loudmouthed intrusions to get back to Peterborough. The problem with public transport is that the public get on it... ;)

Other bits and pieces from SAGT:

1. Thanks to Alan Doherty for passing on copies of his 2 GEOJUICE CDs. These contain hundreds of images and other animations. CD1 contains images of AFRICA (Botswana, Namibia and South Africa) and CD2 has images of USA (California, Hawaii and Oregon) - CD3 will cover JAPAN. Also has links to some FACEBOOK albums, such as this one on the LONDON DOCKLANDS.
   
2. Thanks to Ollie Bray for giving me the DVD that he used in his BACK TO BASICS presentation, which included lots of demonstrations for physical processes. He nearly set fire to the lecture theatre at one point, which would have been funny to see, but our presentations were on at the same time.
3. Some good GA stuff including a pen - thanks to Nicky Reckless, who was manning the stand.
   
4. A 2 CD set of resources on the Gamekeepers' Role in Heather Moorland management (excellent for Ecosystems work)
   
5. Lots of stuff on the Curriculum for Excellence.
6. A good JUTE bag with a cow on it...
7. Well done also to Judy Mansell and the RGS-IBG who won 2 SAGT awards for 2 websites: the YOUR CLIMATE YOUR LIFE site, and the PASSPORT TO THE POLES site.
8. Signed up for the new GGiP scheme to produce the world's biggest world map.
9. Met a lot of young enthusiastic Scottish geographers and had a nice lunch with a glass of red wine.
10. 
    

If you want to download the presentation I used, if you were (or weren't at the session), go to my SLIDESHARE page (be warned though - it's 12Mb)

And don't forget that I'd love to hear your ideas for helping your students with their studying

One slight bonus of the long rail journey was the chance to read the whole of Will Self and Ralph Steadman's "Psychogeography" which is studded with gems !