Happy New Year ! Went to see this film this week - good fun !
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Blogging for Christmas.... I've been asked by Val Vannet to take over the reins of GEOBLOGGING WITH MARK This follows the solo-cycling journey that Mark Beaumont is making around the world. He is currently in New Zealand and my job is to record the trip from the South Island up to Auckland and then across to San Francisco to start the penultimate leg of the trip across America. A new AUDIO FILE is also available with Mark being interviewed just before taking the ferry to Wellington. Have downloaded this... A find via BLDGBLOG is the exhibition: 1973: Sorry out of Gas. It is an exhibition looking at the response of architects to climate change. Part of the exhibit is a children's book-style set of graphics looking at the decline of oil by Harriet Russell. Also thanks to Val for this SNOWFLAKE GENERATOR. .. And a final pre-Christmas present comes via a tip off on ODBLOG. This is a set of resources relating to Glaciers. The University of Glasgow have posted a series of resources...
Excellent Independent feature, which includes a chance to download spreadsheets of the data that was used in the analysis. Click the front cover image for more details... There are already over 50 COMMENTS on the blog related to this story.. Would make a good example for Cultural Geography and also Global Branding...
Rural England In November of this year, a conference was held at the RGS on the theme of "What is Rural England For ?" The presentations from the day are available to download from HERE : the Rural Evidence Research Centre. There's a lot here to add a bit of substance to work on RURAL URBAN Interrelationships at AS/A2, and also a bit for Rural Rebranding and growth. Also a great presentation on RURAL-URBAN migration which tackles the obvious issue - which rural ? how rural ?
For those who follow my whisky choices, this is my current dram: a Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban, extra matured in Port barrels, and quite nice it is too, although judging by the blogs I've read not everyone agrees... Freshly returned from school prize-giving: added an extra GeographyPages pen in for the Geography prize-winner Jonny B... Slainte
An intriguing new idea for encouraging the connection between producer and consumer (and being able to calculate the FOOD MILES involved) This scheme from the LINECAUGHT website involves a tag which is placed on fish which have been caught off the coast of Cornwall. Enter the tag number and you can find out exactly who caught your fish ! Helps with the idea of SUSTAINABILITY as well.
Very much enjoying this book , which I got from Stanford's last week: Katharine Harmon's book has got me curious about PERSONAL GEOGRAPHIES. So I did a few minutes of exploration to see what else was out there. May develop some of these ideas for some Cultural Geography work. Liked the maps which collected ideas from lots of people. Google Maps and memes have been exploring this as well. 1. Try the FLICKR MEMORY MAP pool where people have annotated images with their memories of those places. 2. See what NOEL has done on this theme. 3. Useful article on the TEACHING EXPERTISE website. 4. The GA has some great ideas for teaching about Personal Geographies on their WHERE WILL I LIVE page of resources.
London at the weekend... Plans cancelled due to a very unfortunate incident on the rail line earlier.... Ended up missing the planned Christmas lecture at the RGS for which I had tickets for me and my daughter. Did anyone go ? Was it good ? Will it be placed online in some format ? Managed to get as far as Covent Garden at least - newly re-opened Transport Museum shop has some great stuff. Treated myself to a laptop bag with the New York Subway map printed on it, part of a whole range of merchandise. Great christmas decorations: huge pile of baubles was great ! Then it was on to Stanfords: my daughter loving the HUGGA WORLD, and got my Christmas Island wrapping paper. Did Hamleys too. Will go and do the planned museums in the New Year. Back on further delayed train, and had to dash to St. Nicholas' Chapel in King's Lynn for second of planned events that day. A friend of ours was in the Chorus. Messiah by Candlelight Performers: King's Lynn Festival Chorus Michael Kibble...
Population Overlay for Google Earth Just looking at a find via Kenny O Donnell , via Google Earth Blog. We were looking at global patterns of population today, and mapping them. Now there is a great GOOGLE EARTH FILE (click the link to download) which overlays the anthropogenic biomes over the world... Also on GE Blog is reminder about various Santa trackers for Google Earth
The Story of Stuff We inhabit a material culture. We are surrounded by 'stuff'... This stuff adds up to a huge cost. Every year, there is the latest 'must have' gadget Thanks to Helen Nurton from SLN Forum for telling me about the STORY OF STUFF , which is the latest product of Free Range Studios (you may know them from such interactive web based resources as 'The Meatrix' and 'Store Wars'...) The resource is immediately engaging (it was to me anyway, but then I'm easily pleased...) and follows the cycle from EXTRACTION to DISPOSAL before suggesting an alternative way. Download the ANNOTATED script for loads of weblinks. An excellent piece of work.
OUR WORLD FILM FESTIVAL The night before next year's GA Conference is the OUR WORLD FILM FESTIVAL . This is being organised in association with the GIVE GEOGRAPHY ITS PLACE campaign. A showcase of geographical filmmaking, Our World Film Festival is a visual adventure into our changing planet to promote our understanding of the geographies that we live. Our World will be a wonderful mix of films made by both first-timers and professionals alike. If you haven't made a film before we have some support for you at the end of this page. Booking: Tickets will go on sale from Sunday 24 February at the Odeon Box Office. You can book in person, by phone or on the web. Further details will be provided soon. Folens geography@work film-making competition 11:00 - 12:00 £2.00 Student films: Do you really know where you live? Teacher film...
Welcome to the Real World Real World is a record label founded by Peter Gabriel and responsible for some of the most exciting and innovative music over the last 20 years or so... Some of my favourite music has been released on Real World records. There are 2 new releases which are very much GEOGRAPHICAL in nature. Here is the new version of the 'willow pattern' cover image for the first release... The first is the IMAGINED VILLAGE , which I have posted about before... This is a project to re-imagine English 'folk music' for the new century. Some superb new interpretations of traditional tunes. The second is the soundtrack for the LONG WAY DOWN TV programme, which did get a bit samey with the endless "oh look, we've fallen off our bikes again" and could have been edited down to 4 programmes sensibly... Some impressive landscapes, and a great adventure for the people involved... The sountrack is brilliant though and includes the magic of Martyn Bennett, ...
Jan Garbarek and all that Jazz... Missed Jan this time round due to scheduling and other issues - why not come back to Cambridge next time Jan. Have read some mixed reviews, but all agree that Manu was on top form - major regret was missing Manu. Remember a superb gig in Norwich a few years back now when I was front row and centre and getting the acoustic as much as the amplified sound... A good REVIEW here from the Liverpool concert.
A taste for Jelly Babies... A first today: Year 11 were given the chance to have a 'taster' of 6th form lessons. This involved a "Have we got News for You" population starter and a go at the Jelly Baby game, with an adapted and simplified version of the recording sheet. I delivered 2 sessions: thanks for all the contributions of those who took part. Have uploaded the powerpoint that I used (goes well with the music that Noel used for his Dubai powerpoint if you have that to hand) to SLIDESHARE space (and Geography Presentations group) Instructions are freely available if you search for "Jelly baby population" or some such search... Richard Allaway has a good set of resources on his page. Credits given to all Flickr users whose images I borrowed. Sweet....
Latest Guardian Article My latest bit of shameless self-promotion was published today: A BETT 2008 preview on Geography resources and websites: "Think Global, Act Local" My Llandudno joke was edited out... You can read the article HERE , or catch today's copy of The Guardian. Also heard that we are going to be using the LP PLUS VLE system at school. Anyone out there have experience of using this particular VLE ?? This boy here can't contain his excitement so it must be good ! Also had a bottle of Old Hooky last night, and the Hook Norton Brewery's slogan is: "Where progress is measured in pints", which is my kind of progression indicator...
BANGLADESH - Cyclone Sidr Resources Tony Cassidy spent the October half term of this year in Bangladesh. As part of his travels, he was asked to create a resource. The week after he arrived back in England, CYCLONE SIDR hit Bangladesh: the worst cyclone since 1991. Details of the CYCLONE can be seen on the BBC NEWS site, and there is a very detailed article from the DAILY TELEGRAPH here. Lesson Ideas Resources 1 Rationale- why study this event?Formation of the Cyclone Sidr. Cyclone protection in Bangladesh. PowerPoint with linked video and embedded animation.Student worksheet about the formation of the cyclone. 2 Causes, Impacts & Responses. PowerPoint introducing classification task.Student worksheet-classification task. 3 How quickly will Bangladesh cover? PowerPoint comparing development statistics of the U.K. and Bangladesh.Student response worksheet. 4,5,6 Levelled assessment. Students to produce a PowerPoint storyboard about the cyclone for B.B.C. ne...
Copyright: Bernhard Edmaier and National Geographic Cold Scapes - December 2007 issue... The National Geographic website has a wealth of material to support the magazine. In Summer of 1987, I treated myself to a book. I'd just finished my PGCE course, and a few months later started my teaching career. The book was Barry Lopez's seminal "Arctic Dreams". Earlier this year, I treated myself to a book Lopez edited: "Home Ground". So my teaching career has been bracketed and punctuated by Barry's books... The DECEMBER edition of the magazine features an article called COLD SCAPES by Barry Lopez. The article is great, and describes PERMAFROST landscapes. You can read it by clicking the link above. You can also see some more of Bernhard's great IMAGES , including a great one of a PINGO on the infamously named TUKTOYAKTUK peninsula. On a related issue, can I also recommend catching up with an article that was in the Society Guardian earlier in the week. It...
