Geography and all that Jazz

Well, one perhaps as I doubt you'd come to both... These are the first of the GA CPD events that I shall be doing in the new academic year that have so far been scheduled, and thanks to Lucy for sending me the flyer... The events are NQT Conferences. Look out for a mailing coming into schools shortly , and also inserts in GA journals.... If you'd like to secure your place, or find out more information about the events, there are several different prices depending on the status of your GA membership. Call Lucy Oxley at the GA on 01142960088 for more information. I look forward to seeing some of you in November ! And I'll be mentioning this event once or twice between now and then....

Interested in GIS in school but not sure where to start ? The folks at ESRI UK , with whom we've been working for the last year are putting on a range of FREE taster sessions over the next few weeks. They are taking place in a range of venues, and there are 2 options. 1. Face to face taster sessions Come along to one of our free GIS taster sessions and try out our GIS software, get some classroom ideas and find out what our GIS for Schools Programme has to offer. It only takes a minute to book a place. Just choose a location from the list below and click on the Book now link to register some brief details. The sessions will take place in: Birmingham King Edward VI Five Ways School , Scotland Lane, Bartley Green, Birmingham, B32 4BT Date              Wednesday 29 June 2011 Time              3:45pm - 6:00pm Location map   |   Bo...

The annual Young Geographer of the Year Award has been launched by the Royal Geographical Society in association with Geographical magazine. This year there has been a slight change of format for the awards which I think makes it a stronger opportunity, and will result in more "useful" and insightful responses... Geography surrounds us: on the world map on your classroom wall, in events on the news, or the changes taking place in your local area and further afield.  Geographers strive to better understand the connections between the world’s people, places and environments and the interactions taking place between them.  To help us understand our world we ask questions such as; Where is this place? Why is it like this? How is it connected with other places? How is this place changing? and Why are these changes taking place? We like to zoom between the local and the global scales and are fascinated with maps, not just to find out where places are but to als...

Another great collaborative Twitter project response... Yesterday, I asked colleagues who follow me to provide some descriptions of the British Seaside... Words that appear larger were mentioned more frequently by the word cloud generator. First of all a WORDLE - click the image below to be taken to the Wordle page... Here is a Tagxedo version of the Wordle... Click for biggery... Thanks for all the contributors. What words would you choose ?  How could you use this diagram as a resource in the classroom or for a homework task ?

One of the things that I am quietly 'obsessed' (ish) with is the Mass Observation project , which dates back to the 1930s I have a number of books which drew on the project: one by Simon Garfield, and several chunky ones by David Kynaston. I keep checking on the recruitment criteria , but sadly they never seem to want people my age in my geographical area. Elements of Mass Observation also creep into several other books that I own, and there are elements of cultural geography in the data patterns and other outcomes from the project. Now everyone has the chance to be a Mass Observation person for the day, and the day is the 12th of May , which is coming up. Details of how to participate are HERE You'll need to keep a diary on the day in electronic form, and include a disclaimer that it can be used in the archive... Write as much as you can about what you do, who you meet, what you talk about, what you eat and drink, what you buy or sell, what you are working on,...

A number of posts are appearing over at my LIVING GEOGRAPHY blog on the follow-up to the GA Conference 2011. There were some wonderful sessions.... but enough about me... Anne Greaves has started to post resources from the conference on the GA WEBSITE . Image by Bryan Ledgard Copyright Geographical Association

Get yourself to Amazon or a local bookshop and get/order copies of our two new books, published in association with Can of Worms press... They are out today, and would make a great gift for the child in your life, from 8 to 88 and beyond... Amazon link Amazon link The official 'launch' will be in London tomorrow - we've already used a catapult and a rocket to 'launch' our books, and at the weekend, we'll be using balloons... If you're going to be in London at the weekend, get involved...  (see this Time Out link) Don't just take my word for how these books are, check out these other reviews: Mission:Explore is bold, cool, exciting, innovative, geographic, educational…and just plain fun! Every curious kid, budding geographer, and responsible parent should have a copy!” – National Geographic“ Designed to be read, scribbled on, illustrated, smeared, scratched and sniffed, it may just be the most revolutionary geography-related book...

One of the things I'm proudest of in the last few years is my involvement with the Geography Collective , and our Mission:Explore books, iPhone app and other activities... We can now announce our latest project, thanks to the project leadership of Daniel Raven Ellison. We are very pleased to say that we will be delivering a major project for the Cultural Olympiad as part of the Discovering Places programme called  Discover Explore . Discovering Places is funded by a grant from Olympic Lottery Distributor (OLD) through the London Organising Committee of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG). It is delivered by The Heritage Alliance with the support of key partners.. one of which is us. We will be working closely with  The Workshop  to create something very beautiful and cool which will be launched this summer. “The project aims to inspire young people and their families to discover hidden, extraordinary and important historical sites and ...

Gathering ideas for a future project on iPhone applications that would support geographical learning... whether outside or inside the classroom... As well as the obvious MISSION EXPLORE app, there's also the RORY's STORYCUBES APP that I have poised and ready for business (although the actual dice are more tactile...) Image by Alan Parkinson - cubes by Creativity Hub ... If you have other thoughts on iPhone apps that you particularly USE (rather than just having on your phone for visual impact), please let me know or add a comment below...

My earlier blog post about the Christchurch memorial service was a reminder of the many connections that exist between the UK and New Zealand. My friend Simon Hathaway , who now lives in Wellington (which is a major improvement on Rotherham) sent me a pack of newspaper and magazine articles this week to add to the other resources that I have gathered to help teach about the resilience of a major city following an earthquake. I was interested to read the 'North and South New Zealander of the Year' piece, which awarded the Supreme Winner to the people of Christchurch... and that was following the earlier September 2010 quake... There was also a really useful piece from the Dominion Post by Chris Kalderimis on the most useful items to have in a home emergency survival kit, and lots of personal stories. The  #blog4nz campaign  is encouraging bloggers the world over to focus on New Zealand for a while, and this post is part of the effort. Although my work involves me in tran...

Earlier in the week, picked up on this story from the Guardian , as one of the impacts of last week's earthquake and tsunami... It describes the particular impact that shortages of food, water and power are having on those who survived, or were evacuated from the areas affected by the combination of hazards that have hit the country. The elderly are apparently being affected particularly badly. The second story was from Friday morning's BBC news. Despite the rise in obesity, the UK population is still enjoying longer life expectancy. The third was prompted by a conversation with Carl Lee in Sheffield on Wednesday. He put me on to the latest Danny Dorling book, which I promptly ordered, and it arrived on Friday. There are plenty of interesting sections which could translate into the classroom. I liked the introduction: "Geography Matters", which includes the useful reminder for adult readers of the book that: "The geography you may have been taught l...

The GA will have a stand at this year's  Education Show 2011 at the NEC. We will be in Hall 6&7 on Stand P30A - the subject association area (as at BETT) - the show starts later this week... Come along to pick up the latest catalogues, see some of our new publications, browse some GA resources and be told about the support for Primary and Secondary colleague that members can expect, as well as our CPD support and online networks. We would be interested to hear your views on the curriculum review, English Baccalaureate, and other challenges facing geography in schools, as well as the opportunities presented by these 'interesting times'. I will be setting up and manning the stand on the first day of the show: Thursday the 17th of March Alternatively, come with a USB drive and I'll let you have some free resources from my hard drive... I'll also be handing out various bits for those who get there early... My colleagues Nicola Donkin and Paul Baker wil...

I asked my Twitter followers to suggest/nominate a natural and a man-made "Wonder of the World" that (importantly) they had seen themselves... and to add the hashtag #nqtgeog11 Here are the results: Natural Wonders Colca Canyon, Peru Solheimajokull Glacier, Iceland Here's a picture of me on that very glacier in 2010: Jostedalsbreen, Norway Cheddar Gorge Tropical Rainforests Yosemite Valley The Cuillin Ridge, Skye Here's one of my images of a section of the said ridge: The Cenotes of the Chicxulub meteor impact in Mexico Cwm Idwal Landmannalaugar region of Iceland Valle de Mai, Praslin, Seychelles - home of the Coco de Mer Fingal's Cave Bryce Canyon, Utah The Alps Grand Canyon Man Made Wonders Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao Here are some pictures that I took when I visited.... Petra, Jordan (2 votes) Great Wall of China Serapeum, Temple of the Bulls near Cairo The CERN Large Hadron Collider Sydney Harbour Bridge (3 votes) The Londo...

In just over a month's time, there are two new Mission:Explore books launched on the world by The Geography Collective and Can of Worms Press. Here are the front covers for those who are interested. They are already available to pre-order on Amazon so make sure you buy at least one copy.... There will be launch events in London on the 1st and 2nd of April, but if you are around in London on the evening of the 31st of March, you can join us at the Old Explorer, just a short walk from Oxford Circus. Sign up to join us .... Plenty more to come in a month's time...

Thanks to John Widdowson for alerting me to the existence of this website from the LEGACY COMPANY , which acts as a tremendous additional resource for those teaching (or planning to teach) about the Olympics 2012. It includes an excellent interactive map with a number of 'layers' which shows the true scale of the Olympic park, and the various developments that are planned. The GA will be producing a whole range of resources for the Olympics nearer the time , and we have already had a range of Olympics activities including a teacher conference, and of course Bob Digby's ongoing tours of the Olympic Park (there is a chance to take part in one of these on day one of the conference) There is a large section on the Sustainability of the Olympic site in John Widdowson's GCSE toolkit book, which is now available from the GA shop. There is also a Top Spec Geography title which is forthcoming, and a KS3 toolkit publication too. With the opening of the velodrome today,...

You have a chance to book a place on a weekend with a difference... thanks to the Geography Collective. A re you playful and creative,  with a conceptual interest in space? Devel op new pers pectives on the philoso phy, production, exploration and representation of space by attending our  Master In Space  course and gaining a  Master In Space  qualification. The  Master in Space  course is carefully (un)planned around a series of semi-structured units. All units are ‘unknown’ before the course begins, but are likely to include free, thinking, restricted, open, public, child-like, bound, exciting, eventful and other forms of space. While no specific skills are needed you can expect to immerse yourself ‘in space’ by working with paint, ink, typewriters, string, projection, sound and many other tools, mediums and approaches. You must successfully complete three units to become a Master in Space . Take this course to: ·      ...

If you're a geographer, and are reading this, and also use Twitter, you need to send a tweet with the hashtag here: #OneOfOneThousandGeographers . This will then be picked up by Dan from the Geography Collective, and we'll add you to the list... We're well over 100 now, and next stop, 1000 !

Just ordered my DVD copy of this amazing series, which should perhaps be an essential part of every geography department's multimedia library... It should perhaps sit alongside Planet Earth, Coast, and various other DVDs which I bought... There are so many clips and aspects of this series that should find their way into the curriculum in lower school, as well as supporting many GCSE contexts. There are 8 episodes in the series. There are chances to watch some of the previous episodes that haven't yet been broadcast on the iPlayer page Check out the BBC HUMAN PLANET EXPLORER for more details. Some fabulous images and other media on the HUMAN PLANET BLOG. Check out the SURVIVAL SKILLS resource too... splendid.. Following on from last week's FORESTS episode, there's an excellent GUARDIAN INTERACTIVE on the world's endangered forests. Finally, don't forget that you can get embeddable videos from each programme too, such as this one of the CEMETERY d...

The new OFSTED Subject report for Geography will be released tomorrow morning. Professor David Lambert has already had a letter / report published in the Daily Telegraph today , and it is well worth a read. As always, a well informed and passionate defence of geography.... David references the late Rex Walford and explains the importance of geography, which is... "... the subject that contributes more than any other to young people's knowledge of the world, their understanding of the relationships between people and places, and their ability and propensity to think critically and creatively about the ways in which we affect the planet we live on. Given the vast ambition of the topic, it is easy to see how it can be badly taught. But it would be a betrayal of young people to give up on what geography can contribute to their education, just because it is hard to teach well." Don't forget to add your comments to the GA website tomorrow morning when you've had the...

One of the findings of the recent trip to Salzburg (did I mention that ?) was a project which was connected with one my colleagues on the trip... It's a documentary called Silent Snow (referencing the classic 'Silent Spring') and looks at the spread of toxic chemicals into the communities of circum-polar lands, and other locations, despite the chemicals being banned many years ago. This is affecting their health. DDT is banned in many countries, but is still being used in Africa. SILENT SNOW The website has a link to a trailer for the film. The Silent Snow project The Silent Snow project aims to raise awareness of this problem and consists of both a short and a feature length documentary by  Jan van den Berg , educational material for schools and this website. In the short film the subject is introduced by following two young girls in Greenland and the way in which they are confronted with the pollution of their environment. In the feature length documentary a y...