Geography and the Global Dimension

We start the second year of this DfID funded project tomorrow at Wortley Hall, South Yorkshire.  You'll find links to the PowerPoints that I'll be using over the weekend in the Slideshare banner to the right of this post.  An online CPD unit and the outcomes from this project will be appearing on the Geographical Association website from December to July.

Celebrating 5 years of the Primary Geography Quality Mark

Nine primary schools from across thse country came to Sheffield on Wednesday 16th February to help us to celebrate the PGQM fifth birthday.  This is the first time that we've held an event that involved children from different primary schools and the day was hugely successful.  The children behaved in such a mature way in our out of school environment and many of them said how good it had been to meet and work with children from different schools.  I think it will be a day they remember for a long time.  The youngest children were Year 2's (6 years old) while the oldest were eleven.  Teachers and children worked together in different workshops which included: `Philosophy for Children (P4C), investigating chocolate and the Cote d'Ivoire and creating route maps on the back of T-Shirts.  Our workshops were led by Anthony from St Peter's Smithills Dean Primary, Bolton; Arthur, Matthew and Laura from Liverpool Hope University and Ann, a freelance writer in education and P4C facilitator in Sheffield.

To find out more about the Primary Geography Quality Mark please go to http://www.geography.org.uk/eyprimary/primaryqualitymark/

Blipfoto: reading and creating photo journals

I realise that I've been rather negligent of this blog since June and I'd just like to say that it's not all down to my new obsession with `Blipfoto'.  I really have been very busy and when I get a few more minutes I'll share some of the ideas linked to my new project: Geography and the Global Dimension.

However - I have become a little obsessed with this photo-blogging or photo-journaling website since a friend told me about it.  There are several things that appeal to me about the website: first it keeps me in touch with a friend who now lives in Spain and we can share some of the things that interest us (I know many people use Facebook to do this but I quite like the different `tone' of  Blipfoto), second I can keep my own journal which I hope to be able to look back to in future years and third MOST IMPORTANT from my point of view is that I can read the journals and look at the images of people who live in and beyond the UK.  Doreen Massey (OU Emeritus Professor of Geography) said something like `Space' is the meeting point of a thousand stories and Blipfoto certainly is that.  One of my favourite journals is written by HPX who lives in New Zealand.  It has felt  quite a privilege to read her journal entries about the latest New Zealand earthquake and to gain a sense of how the earthquake has affected her and the people of Christchurch and district.  I hadn't realised how long and how frequent the aftershocks of an earthquake can be.  It has been a real eye-opener for me to read her entries and see the way she weaves in the normality of everyday life with the constant terrifying threat of what the next `rattler' might bring.

I also love the story of `Brian the Snail' - why not follow his adventures for the rest of the week. I think this very simple tellingof a photo-story is something that we could use with children.

Where's the path

Many thanks to teacher advisers in Stockport for showing me this website.  This is a fantastic site if you want to compare a map and aerial view.  View `Where's the path' >>>

Mountain views taken in Banff - Using Microsoft Photosynth

Mike McSharry has recently returned from a holiday in Banff, Canada and had put together this great shot using the FREE software from Microsoft called Photosynth.



 You can find out more about how to do this on his blog: http://mikemcsharry.com/2009/11/12/leicestershire-photosynths/

Primary History & Geography National Conference in Manchester - 15th June 2010

The GA (Geographical Association) and HA (Historical Association) ran a very successful primary conference in Manchester yesterday.  Photographs from two of the geography sessions (which was held at The Hive in Lever Street) can be accessed by clicking on the photograph.  You are welcome to download photographs from my Picasa page (I know some people in the afternoon event were interested in obtaining photographs of the mapping activity to use with their students).  I will be updating my PowerPoint presentation and making this available shortly.

In the footsteps of Katie Morag

I'm just back from a week away on the remote Scottish Island of Coll, the inspiration for the setting of the Katie Morag stories, written and illustrated by Mairi Hedderwick. I've always had a soft spot for the Katie Morag books and also for the artwork of Mairi Hedderwick which can also be found in her books for adults.  I particularly enjoyed `An eye on the Hebrides' .  If Katie Morag is new to you -  try the Random House - Katie Morag website.

`Katie Morag and the Two Grandmothers' was used as the basis for a KS1 scheme of work for Year 2 children called `An island home' (though looking at it now I can see that it is both dated and rather uninspiring).  I always did think that `Katie Morag delivers the mail' and `Katie Morag and the new pier' provide a much better geographical insight of her island.

Visiting Coll has brought home to me the historical setting of these books and how much the island has changed since `Katie Morag's' time.  It's also made me think about how important it is to remember that Struay, the fictional island that Katie lives on is not Coll, though Mairi Hedderwick cleverly incorporates many of the features of Coll into her map of Struay.  Why not download the map from the Random House website and have a look.

I've begun to add some of my own images of Coll onto my Flickr website and also to have a look at other websites that feature the island.  


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.


 Any study of geeography is best enhanced by asking geographical questions.   Why not use the websites below to help you discover:

• What Coll is like
• How the island landscape, environment, climate, location influence what people do there
• How the island is changing
• How people who live on the island seek to enhance and protect their environment

 My first choice would be Google Earth (GE) or alternatively Google Maps if you don't want to download GE onto your computer.  Street View is now available for the island which gives a very good `sense of place'.  Additional photographs from the Panoramio website show places that the Google streetview camera misses - so lots of useful resources to complement a study of `Island Life'.

Geograph would be my second recommended website - people have been very busy uploading their images onto this site.  The `OS photo locator map' on the site is very interesting because it shows the popular places for taking photos. It also shows places where no photographs have been taken (something incredibly rare in the Geograph world).  The absence of photographs occurs where there are no footpaths and the islands terrain is made up of moorland, rocky outcrops and boggy hollows - the inaccessibility of some areas of countryside is something you could share with children.  

There are several island websites that I've found very useful.  Visit Coll has wonderful photographs as well as lots of information about the island.  You can also download a pdf brochure about the island from I Love Coll.  I've also found a website/ blog set up by Annette Pyrah (which sounds like a good Yorkshire name to me): Isle of Coll Cottage which I've enjoyed and which has provided me with links to the history and wildlife of the island.

I'm in the process of trying to put an article together for Primary Geographer magazine - so more on Coll to follow.

Please let me know if you find any of this useful.