The Big Plastic Count

This starts tomorrow. 

Sign up and get your survey recording form to stick by the bin.

It's the counting that counts.

Musicians on the Windrush

 Via the National Archives site.

26-year-old Aldwyn Roberts from Trinidad was onboard and listed his occupation as ‘Artist’. He was a calypso singer and is better known by his stage name, ‘Lord Kitchener’. During the journey, he wrote the song ‘London is the Place for Me’, which he performed on the ship’s arrival to Tilbury.

Mona Baptiste was similarly from Trinidad and was 21 when she travelled on the ship. Although her occupation was listed as ‘Clerk’ in the passenger list, she was a blues singer and went on to have a successful career in the music and broadcasting industries.

Iceland trip

After a successful previous trip to Iceland, we are heading back there next week with 50 students and 6 staff. We will be sharing images and other news before, during and after the trip.

Follow on #KEPIceland24 and @KingsElyGeog

We will be using Discover the World Education as our tour provider. They have provided the itinerary and the arrangements for the trip.

150 000 page views

This blog has been around for over ten years now, and although not near the millions of views that LivingGeography has (and the even higher numbers that GeographyPages had at its peak), it's pleasing to see that people are still finding it useful to see what I've been doing in my classroom. 

You can also see some of our KS2 work on the Resetting KS2 Geography blog.

Thanks for visiting and reading.

Zombie Geographies

A new article in the TES from Steve Brace. It explores the persistence of some topics in the school curriculum, instead of exploring some of the newer curriculum thinking and relevant topics for an age of climate breakdown.

I first heard the term being used by John Morgan at a seminar at the Institute of Education, although I had explored this idea in 2007-8 when I worked as one of the CfBT Regional advisors at the time of a new curriculum, and put together a presentation of such case studies (which included Mt. St. Helens and Kobe as it happens) put to the Rick Astley song 'Never gonna give you up' (before his own current resurgence)... as a reminder of the need to update resources and as David Lambert said on the first page of the GA's manifesto 'a different view'

“we may need to throw out crusty old favourites … in favour of… lessons that challenge students to make geographical sense of their own lives and experiences”

‘Teachers should question whether presenting 30-year-old images of people's lives and circumstances is appropriate’: @SteveBraceGeog on the problem of ‘zombie’ teaching resources in geography classroomshttps://t.co/U3ETNb6bFg

— Tes (@tes) March 6, 2024

Practical Pedagogies 2024 - Early bird tickets available

 

The third running of the Practical Pedagogies conference will take place in November 2024. The first two events were rather great - one in Toulouse and one in Cologne.

This event will take place in Cologne once again.

The keynote speaker who will bookend the event is Hywel Roberts. He was awesome. His book 'Bothereredness' has been published since the last event, when he was sharing some of the ideas behind it, and comes highly recommended.

You can find out how to get your Early Bird ticket and also see the full programme (subject to the addition of other sessions) on the link above as well. There are over 120 sessions. They are all presented by teachers / educators, sharing what they do with colleagues. You will see session from Richard Allaway and Matt Podbury and quite a few other familiar names here.

My session is here, as described. It will take place on the 1st day of the conference.

Early Bird tickets available in limited quantities which are 100 Euros cheaper than the normal price.