Slides and notes that accompanied the workshop 'I want to break free! Expanding Geography's Influence.'
Part of the Geographical Association's Annual Conference held at Derby University in April 2010
General Principles of Intellectual Property: Concepts of Intellectual Proper...
I Want To Break Free
1. I want to break free! Expanding geography’s influence All images found via Flickr and used through a Creative Commons licence. For image source see the speaker notes
17. Identity and cultural diversity Healthy lifestyles Community participation Enterprise Global dimension and sustainable development Technology and media Creativity and media
20. Little Notices Scout the locations Design the flyer Attach the Guerrilla Geography Make people think about space, be located in a place where they will be read and be not be offensive
32. Being British is about driving in a German car to an Irish pub for a Belgian beer, then travelling home, grabbing an Indian curry or a Turkish kebab on the way, to sit on Swedish furniture and watch American shown on a Japanese TV that was built in China. And the most British thing? Suspicion of anything foreign.
35. What can I hear? What can I see? How do I feel?
36.
37. Example: where is this? I can see: a few cars, brick walls, sky above me, a bit of hedge, some windows, a chimney I can smell: food cooking, car fumes I can hear: traffic noise, pots + pans banging Still can’t get it? Here’s the Sketch:
41. ‘Climatologists are pessimistic that political leaders will take any positive action to compensate for the climatic change or even to allay its effects.’
42. 1975 Global Cooling ‘In England farmers have seen their growing season decline by about two weeks since 1950’
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/imipolexg/364020768/Enter to Music? All images sought from Flickr
Contact details, all will be available online later. Tweet me, ask questions, feedback, resources, no need to scribble down ideas… (Cards?)
Bit about me….. Background – Curriculum Leader of Geography in Priory School Specialist Sports College, an inner city 11-16 comprehensive 1,250 students, teach.Member of the SPC’s Secondary Phase Committee, C Geog
Delegate activity – talk to the person next to you communicate what else geography can deliver (via random activity generator?)
Get it all done before the end of the song
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/darwinbell/250693409/What’s the worse that can happen – this limits us and make us focus on barriers, so for this session, let’s forget about the barriers
Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l5kKVQjQvg
Take a risk no and again, not every lesson, but - What if? Nike – just do it – commit and take part in Guerrilla innovation ;-) Also – expanding our own connections and geographies before expanding the classroom
Photo: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2699/4440666728_653b02452f_b.jpg thanks to http://twitter.com/colportEverything that I talk about today is just a tool in the box, everything I will use (including the random event generator) I use in the classroom, there is no need for technology in terms of computers – as pens are technology?I can just tell you a story abo what happens in my department, these activities have worked
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/keenen_brown/4483440440/What do I mean by expanding geography’s influence? There are two areas in which geography can expand past the classroom. The first is by influencing learners in their decisions outside of the classroom and the other is through expanding what geography does within the school. In my school we only see pupils for 1.5hours a week at KS3 with an extra hour at KS4 – we must be realistic uin what we can achieve!
Conserve image – Flickr user http://www.flickr.com/photos/greenpeace_esperanza/Bruce Parry quote: Parry, B (2008) Amazon, p253, Penguin, LondonLink to the conference theme – The big picture. How does the whole world change – has to start somewhere. Should our pupils stand back and be passive observers in life?
I’m with the Bear – Flickr userhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/benkamorvan/We are talking about sustainable, embeddable teaching – not large gestures that may be false and reflect the values and attitudes of teaching staff. How to influence pupils is to move toward the creation of knowledge instead of the theoretical. Experiments by Professor SugataMitra found that young people could pass GCSE examinations if they are given a laptop and Google so the question is what is the point in our assessments (?)
Foot image – Flickr user http://www.flickr.com/photos/hamed/Individual action – choosing a different – geography beyond the classroom is in influencing / giving the tools to young people to be le to make different decisions.
Thanks to @tecahernz for the link to http://msn.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10605171&ref=rss `What are we aiming for?If pupils start doing something, we may be surprised at the result!
Photo: http://flickr.com/photos/emagic/51069522/sizes/l/The second area is that Geography is uniquely placed to make sense of the National Curriculum, and in particluar the Cross Curricular DimensionsSo we are all aware of the new NC symbol of all subjects seamlessly linking together, but we all know the reality! Geography can link the disparate ends together – geography expanding its influence by becoming the leading department in delivering ICT, global dimension, community cohesion etc etc……Geography is like duct tape – use a prop. Can be used for many many purposes and fix the cracks. Expand the influence of geography past
Duct tape image –flickr user http://www.flickr.com/photos/houseofsims/Duct tape quote, Hostetter, K (2007) Don’t Forget the Duct Tape, p17, The Mountaineers Books, Seattle
How to justify? Cross Curricular Dimensions. Geography can expand its influence outside of the geography classroom in order to deliver these have been used to organise (in the loosest sense of the word!) The geography department should be the experts in Cross Curricular Dimenions (As well as the Global Dimension, social cohesion…..)
School SpaceSupported by 21st Century Learning Alliance and RGSCommunity Participation A resource that we all have –school grounds.We are going through BSF, but there is no reason why these ideas can’t be adapted and used in any school
Gorilla Image created by Tom Morgan-Jones and sourced from www.geographycollective.comLittle Notices activity based upon an idea in Smith, K (2007) The Guerilla Art Kit, Princeton Architectural Press, New York
Gorilla Image created by Tom Morgan-Jones and sourced from www.geographycollective.comLittle Notices activity based upon an idea in Smith, K (2007) The Guerilla Art Kit, Princeton Architectural Press, New YorkDelegate Activity – what do you Notice about this room? What would you highlight? How would you do it?Pupil instructions – idea based upon The Guerilla Art Kit by Keri Smith
Making a statement about space – what might an outside visitor think?
Favourite image – during the reflection stage of the lesson, pupils realised that they had been thinking about space in a different way – they chose features that they were unhappy about, or thought were great. So what do we do with this energy
Image: Tom Morgan-Jones, Mission:Explore www.geographycollective.com http://missionexplore.wordpress.comDoorstep Geography, EnterpriseSchool access and feel – happiness mapping – photo orienteering – find this place – how do you feel about it? Leads to contact with headteachers (fill their inboxes!) and suggestions to change – ‘any fool can critisise, condemn, and complain – and most fools do’ Dale Carnegie, Photo of someone laughing and pointing, show students how their evaluation of a place can lead to suggesting change – high level skills of evaluation, analysis . Google Graph of Priory’s siteIs everyone’s access to school the same – explore the school using rules e.g. Find the geography department by only using signs. Get to maths without using steps. Find the main entrance only using signs. Report back to the headteacher - change
Google Graph used to map (un)happy places. Confident learners as they can use data to support their arguments –Change the way in which pupils influence the school – Gave each class a budget to conduct a campaign. Identify with data, justify and then change.
Image: David Rogers
Image: David RogersSchool allotment, climate change blogs, eat sustainably – live the dream . Photo of allotment visit, Grow something and eat it. Create a blog that contains your eco pledge and then try to meet it. Understand why politicians often have to U-turn and change – is it THAT easy? http://daviderogers.blogspot.com/2007/01/year-7-carbon-footprint-project.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgzC-l_lmUU
Migration here. Expanding geography’s influence by considering different points of view
Last Tram but Flickr user http://www.flickr.com/photos/lodekka/I grew up in the Rhondda, my father was under manager at Mardy Colliery during the strike. Flying pickets, conflict. Expanding geography in to the real world – Google Earth and my migrations to highlight the story. Expanding geography’s influence by showing where geography gets you.
Creativity and the media – lots of room for creativeness in Geography and to link in with literacy – lots of new assessments (literacy as a wider than just writing – scripting, recording
Delegate ACTIVITY describe the place: Asking questions. Geographical Detectives. Adjectives.
Video: David RogersHave to experience something to be able to understand and talk about it. We are all products of our personal experiences and as a result our perspective changes because of it.
Thanks to Jo Debens, Priory School Geography Department
Pat on strike: Flickr user http://www.flickr.com/photos/cute-is-what-i-aim-for/Thanks to Jeff Stanfield, Geography Advisor for Hampshire, his term ‘Floating Topicality’Change is coming - Obama – cross curricular links with history, History teach the black rights movement in the 1960’s. Geography takes on the batton by looking at Obama, Royal Mail strikes – workers rights?. Take a moment to reflect on what is NOW.
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wheatfields/2108215443/Chapter 5, p165, Super Freakonomics (Levitt and Dubner, 2009)http://ruby.fgcu.edu/courses/twimberley/EnviroPhilo/EndangerFoodSupply.pdf
http://denisdutton.com/newsweek_coolingworld.pdfMedia awareness is vital for young people if they are to critically evaluate what is in the media
Flickr user http://www.flickr.com/photos/thewendyhouse/4474709366/Thanks to Jeff Stanfield, Geography Advisor for Hampshire, his term ‘Floating Topicality’Change is coming - Obama – cross curricular links with history, History teach the black rights movement in the 1960’s. Geography takes on the batton by looking at Obama, Royal Mail strikes – workers rights?. Take a moment to reflect on what is NOW.
Image created using www.worde.netDelegate activity – who’s speech? When?
Gordon Brown Rap – pupils creating political satire? Local issues?
Social Media – Image : http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthamm/3383916444/Twitter, networks, continuous CPD – expanding geography by expanding a network, free programs and advice etcetcMicrosoft Partners in Learning NetworkYoutube channel http://tinyurl.com/ycouohf
Image found here: http://laughingsquid.com/nerd-venn-diagram-geek-dork-or-dweeb/No need to be a geek, nerd or dork! If you only join Twitter for the CPD potential.
Live feed into the classroom – expanding influence means expanding where we get information from in the classroom. Sustainable use of Twitter, safe, modelling. Email me to find out more?
Lesson idea: http://daviderogers.blogspot.com/2009/07/twitter-facebook-and-teachers-tv.htmlThank you to Tony Cassidy for the inspiration: www.sharegeography.com
Image created using wordle.net
Image: Flickr user http://www.flickr.com/photos/joriel/
Photos and feedback from outside the classroom….
Get in touch with local pressure groups – get them into the classroom – expand geography’s influence…
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/decade_null/1397903264/On a smaller scale, I asked the people that I am connected to about the opening slide…….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl3rrRV3xg0&feature=relatedKeep teaching good geography – often you need to do a little less planning and allow pupils to expand their horizons.Everything today took a simple idea, shared with the department and then let the pupils go. All abilities, challenging behaviour, creation. Not every lesson though! Simple ideas are far more effective and easily embeddable