Yorkshire Floods: One Year On... More to come...
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Caught a snippet on the news this morning which mentioned this website , which I have blogged about before, although not sure that the word 'geography' was mentioned at any point, despite it being a project in association with the RGS-IBG. Activities all week related to Citizenship and 'Britishness'. Wordle Word Cloud is for the statement by Rita Gardner describing the aims of the project. Who do you think you are ?
Current reading material.... Just 4 weeks of term left. Almost completed the "grand clearout" of my room, and ready for the next stage of the succession... Just watching a good programme on St. Kilda: "Britain's Lost World" . For the next 6 days (and counting...) you can catch it on the BBC iPlayer. Click the image to go to the programme's page. Wonderful images, especially the ruins of Main Street. Also check out the great FLICKR images.
Don't pick your own... Interested in this story about a farmer near Cambridge who's stopped the Pick-your-own strawberry operation on their farm, because people were eating too many and then just paying for a few as they went round, some people even brought a carton of cream with them! Remember doing this when I was a lad with my parents at a farm near Stone in S. Yorkshire. Picture by Flickr user -Sel made available under creative commons license... Any other PYO confessions out there ?
Norfolk Geography Conference Monday 30th June Stonehenge! 'Tis a magic place Where the moon doth rise with a dragon's face Stonehenge! Where the virgins lie And the prayers of devils fill the midnight sky This is a trail for the Norfolk Conference, at the PDC in Norwich, which has a keynote session by Sarah Watts. I am offering a 55 minute session (ish) - you know I always over-run.... I have decided to mention a few new ideas for using Google Earth and also showcase a lesson designed by Noel Jenkins from Digital Geography . This will go through the process of curriculum development that I hope will inspire the folks who come to my session to see how they can take an idea for a lesson and "run with it" and use a few of the new website tools to make it a little more creative and engaging... Will also mention the guide made available at Digital Explorer by Jamie Buchanan Dunlop. Will also be mentioning my new favourite website: WORDLE.
Food waste... The EU has acted to loosen its regulations on FOOD DIMENSIONS . (BBC NEWS article) These are responsible for food wastage as producers don't always meet the tight standards, and consumers don't get the chance to buy it even at a discount. It matters not to me how wonky my cucumbers are, but what they taste like... Image by Flickr user banana custard, and made available under Creative Commons
Mission Explore One of my many side projects and interests is as a member of the GEOGRAPHY COLLECTIVE . One current project of the collective is the MISSION EXPLORE book. Dan Raven Ellison, another founder member of the collective is going to be presenting a session at Russell Davies' INTERESTING 08 later this month related to the book.
Hunter Wellies and Glasto Festival season is approaching... ( Check out the track FESTIVAL on the new Sigur Ros album - superb ! ) It's less than 10 days to Glastonbury ! Check out the countdown here ... Music festivals have been criticised in the past for their impact on the environment. There is obviously a major carbon footprint involved in assembling a large number of people at any location, particularly some remote locations involved. Steps are being taken to give advice on reducing the personal impact of festival goers. The RGS Geography in the News site has an article called FIELD STUDIES (nice title), by Chief Examiner Simon Oakes, which looks at the impact of festivals. One of the largest is the GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL. I would like to be at the Hydro Connect festival to see Sigur Ros, but it's the day before I start my new job... Glastonbury is synonymous with floods and mud. Here's an image from last year... Image made available under Creative Commons licens...
Thanks to Tony , via Noel , via Wordle. Wordle is produced by Jonathan Feinberg, and is a toy for generating WORD CLOUDS from text that you provide, that can be pasted into a box. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends. M y del.icio.us tags... 2 obvious preoccupations of Geography and Resources, with a sideline in Google Earth and Blogging... Even a bit of teaching in there ;) I like this site WORDLE a lot, and it has some potential I think for representing in graphical format the key points in a passage of text and giving a textual, albeit graphic, representation of a textual landscape (or something...) In other words, it can give a new view on a dense passage of text. For example, here's a...
New laptop arrived... A very nice Dell PRODUCT (RED) laptop. Using it to stream the new Sigur Ros album, which is superb ! Having a few problems tonight: GeographyPages server down for maintenance (apologies for that) and also some issues with Slideshare. Wanted to upload some new stuff there too... Normal service will be resumed, and all that... Also, wishing "the Major" CJD a speedy recovery from his recent debilitating 'condition'... Here's a nice pic from the trip down to Rochester before half term to cheer you up... "The Major" checks an interpretive sign for accuracy, as Mr. C scampers up the steps with his English Heritage card in hand...
Geography and Literacy Not everybody may have picked up on the connection that has been made with some resources on the GA's WEBSITE , with the NATIONAL YEAR OF READING . The theme for JUNE is based around TRAVEL and HOLIDAYS , and a DESERT ISLAND READ. Would make a good end of term activity. Good opportunity for some creative literacy work...
Geography Webcasts As part of the new KS3 resources, there is now a webcast and forum discussion on the QCA/GA/CfBT/DCSF website HERE. You'll need to register and login to view and/or participate Ruth David A chance to see the National Subject Leads: David Rayner and Ruth Totterdell expressing their views on the potential that this offers for re-engaging with the subject and participating in CPD through the process of curriulum making: as David Lambert, Chief Executive of the Geographical Association has said in a recent article, for teachers to "delve deeper and linger longer" with their subjects...
Interesting that as none of the UK teams have qualified for this tournament (it's Football by the way) the BBC and other broadcasters are making a lot of the fact that we have pockets of people from different countries living in the UK. There has been a push to support Poland by certain retailers, who are keen to sell products as they will miss out on the bonanza that occured in 2006. The cost could be as much as £2 billion in lost sales. Some local towns have links with certain places. The TIMES had a very useful article on Saturday looking at why some retailers are supporting certain countries: Two years ago the World Cup in Germany helped Tesco to sell more than half a million St George’s flags, 400,000 footballs and 50,000 two-pint glasses in the shape of the tournament’s trophy. This summer the supermarket is again draping its shelves in red and white: it is backing Poland. Tesco has brought in extra supplies of Polish snacks and beer at 150 stores in areas with large Pol...
We-Think Geography is going places... Just read this book, and it is going to feature prominently in a lot of forthcoming projects that I will be involved with, and has already put a range of ideas in my head. Head over to AMAZON now and buy your own copy. Highly recommended . The book has an interesting history. A draft of the book was placed online for people to edit and comment on. This took place back in 2006, and it has then been another 18 months until the book has emerged. It explores the growth of social innovation, and the power of mass collaboration to trigger innovation. So far, so not-that-geography-related. The trick is to relate this to the creation and sustaining of geography teacher networks, and the growth of geography projects which involve large numbers of teachers collaborating: something that I will be involved with full time from September. There is a 5 stage process which is mentioned in the book (although the progression from one to the other isn't necessar...
Came across this quote today, via my webmail news feed. J K Rowling was receiving an honorary degree from Harvard University, and made a speech: "We do not need magic to transform our world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already; we have the power to imagine better." "Imagination is…the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation.” " In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity; it is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared .” J.K. Rowling, Harvard University, June 2008 Was thinking about how this could apply to our " geographical imagination ", particularly the final section of this. How important it is that students empathise and share experiences with people they have never met, but who they experience through their geography work...
It's official... My name now added to the Action Plan for Geography team on the GeographyTeachingToday website. Alan Parkinson: Curriculum Development Leader (Secondary). This post is also permanent. Alan is well known for his innovative curriculum work nationally and has been involved with much of the secondary Action Plan activity. New edition of TEACHING GEOGRAPHY now available to download by GA members. Also added presentation I used yesterday at a meeting of Norfolk Geographers to look at the new 'A' level specifications, particularly fieldwork, and also 14-19 provision. | View | Upload your own
GCSE Today It was the day of the GCSE exams today, and it seems to have got the people visiting GeographyPages. I had one of my busiest days ever yesterday, with almost 3500 visitors (and almost 23,000 'hits' (which is a misleading statistic of course...)) Hope I helped some visitors to a better grade. Best wishes for any further papers that you might still have.
Ordnance Survey Award for excellence in Geography teaching Had the great honour of receiving this award yesterday at the Royal Geographical Society . Congratulations to Louise Ellis, who won the 2nd Ordnance Survey Award, and thanks to the fellows and colleagues who nominated me. Congratulations also to all the other medal and award winners, and thanks to Vanessa Lawrence for presenting me with the award. Left to right Roger Jeans, Education Manager, Ordnance Survey Louise Ellis, Ordnance Survey award recipient Dr. Vanessa Lawrence, Director General and Chief Executive of Ordnance Survey (and also Honorary Vice President of the GA) Alan Parkinson (that's me...) Went down to the RGS yesterday to collect the award: a chunky piece of glass and a welcome and unexpected financial bonus, plus very nice scroll. Enjoyed the whole occasion. We had a tour of the society including some of its archive of objects, and also the Reception in the evening. Good to meet my new 'boss', and al...
