National Fieldwork Week

The latest GeogPod has been released and it features Paula Richardson and I talking about the GA's National Research Report and how that fed into the development of the National Fieldwork Week.

 This starts on Monday the 6th of June.

Episode 53 of #GeogPod is now available!

In this episode, @GAGeogger speaks with @GeoBlogs and Paula Richardson on fieldwork

Listen now at https://t.co/hLSfHDfVhp

Series 9 of GeogPod is kindly sponsored by @CambridgeInt#geography #nationalfieldworkweek #podcast #education pic.twitter.com/sk62VGtEQS

— Geographical Association (@The_GA) June 4, 2022

Thanks to John Lyon for hosting - see if you can spot the question I wasn't expecting... :) 

Be sure to share what you get up to next week. 

Email info@geography.org.uk with your pictures and details....

Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education

We will now have access to this creatie suite of online tools, which will hopefully help to raise the quality of what we produce in the school. All tips and tricks welcome...

KEJ - 98 years ago

 

KEJ - 75 years ago

 

What3Words are coming to King's Ely after the half term break...

We are going to be signing up the school after half term with new signs.
They have been provided by What 3 Words, who have addressed the whole world into 3 metre squares.
We've had N2 signed up since February.
This is particuarly useful for such things as drones, and the emergency services.

The signs have appeared in school during half term, and will be placed in important locations around the school before being properly unveiled in a few weeks' time.

N2 is ready for your return...

I've been in school for a couple of days this week as well as the 2 INSET days, which were fairly full on. The new installation of storage lockers for students has freed up loads of extra space which used to be occupied by crates and boxes for bags and books.

From left to right, a few notes....

1. Departmental office (full to bursting with resources and books...will spend the next term trying to get that organised when I get a moment
2. New bookcase - note the copies of Factfulness for my Year 8 unit, which is taking shape 
3. Jen Monk's command word display - thanks :)
4. Jo Coles "..... like a geographer" wheel - thanks :)
5. Space for student work to go up in first few weeks
6. Simon Jones' posters - thanks :)
7. Sustainable Development Goals poster - a focus for some of my work this year (more to come on that)
8. Shower curtain, and whiteboards
9. Clock - "What time is it? Time for Geography"
10. Desk - exciting times, as I have moved this round to face the door and open up access to the shelves, which have all been cleared of five years accumulation of stuff. Bunting and Geography lights, plus light-box for word of the day etc.
11. HotBoard - this is an interactive display which is very easy to change and update by slotting work into the perspex folders - I inherited this from my colleague Claire, and a lot of other colleagues want one - but they can't have it :) - includes some of Richard Allaway's posters.
12. The Earth from space, as enlarged using the Rasterbator website (an old favourite) - a backdrop for some student work to go up in the first few weeks
13. Cupboards covered with one of my many flags

Click for bigger, or see it here.

Have a good year everyone!

Open Morning

Thanks to all those who popped by N2 to have a chat during the Summer Celebration...

Year 8 PEPs

You've got 2 weeks to complete these... Here's some guidance. We'll go through titles tomorrow... Geography based ones very welcome...

PEPS from GeoBlogs

KEJ from the air

Courtesy of the new drone footage in the films on Vimeo...

Half term...

Half term is here and we hope you have a good rest and return recharged ready for some more Geography. There's plenty ahead of us between now and Christmas for sure.

End of Year

A week in to the summer, and time to pause for a moment and reflect on my 2nd year back teaching after my break...
It was a bit of a headlong year, with plenty of successes, and more learning from me as I got used to the rhythm of the year, and squeezed in visits to many places and wrote many tens of thousands of words too...
Next year promises to be even more exciting, and action packed, and I'll blog about that nearer the end of summer...

Here's an image I took in the Cathedral at the end of the service to mark the end of year.

I'll be back in 6 weeks or so, to start the third year of this blog, but for now, have a great summer!
Thanks to all those who have visited and read... 

Good news for Water Aid

Water Aid

We had an assembly in the Junior school with Mr. Prosser from WaterAid this week, and he spoke about why water was so important, and how the charity which we are supporting this year across the school is helping people with water supply, education and sanitation.

He mentioned the importance of sanitation


Water Aid: World Toilet Day from Indy8 on Vimeo.

We use a lot of water every day, and hopefully we can raise money to help people have better access to safe drinking water.

There were also some chances for groups in the Senior school to work on the theme of water.

Alone in Antarctica

Mr. Parkinson worked on a project with the Polar explorer and adventurer Felicity Aston earlier in the year, which involved her travelling to the coldest inhabited place in the world, known as the Pole of Cold.
If you want a book to read for Christmas, Felicity's book 'Alone in Antarctica' is currently reduced to 99p on the Amazon Kindle store, if you follow the link here.
An ideal gift to the Kindle owner in your life.
It describes her solo-crossing of Antarctica.

What would it feel like to be out there alone in that empty vastness? Just before midnight on 24 November 2011, Felicity is left completely alone on the coast of Antarctica. The isolation is instant and devastating. Only three people in the world have crossed Antarctica alone. The first two were men and both Norwegian. At the age of 34, British woman Felicity Aston became the third. Unlike her predecessors, she didn’t use kites or parasails to assist her. Within days, frozen into her face mask and reflecting on what had drawn her to such a place, she was battling desperate weather as she towed her heavy sledges.Every morning she wakes believing she cannot face another day as the expedition becomes a race against time to reach the coast before the last flight out. This gripping and inspirational account of personal endurance shows what you can achieve when you grit your teeth and decide just to get through today in one piece.

Are you lichen this ?

Lichens and moss can be seen growing on the school buildings, as we saw on our weathering safari

This key from the FSC helps us to identify some of them.

Merits for those who can tell me what lichens we have growing on the school site, and where we can find particular types...

Bletchley Park

Year 8 were on a trip here earlier today. The place is connected with the idea of code breaking and the connections with the Enigma machine, and also with Alan Turing.

Here are a few pictures from the day - more to come on Firefly....

Marking your work this year

Here are details on how we are going to mark your work at KEJ (and KES) this year in Geography...

We'll also add our Prep cards to the work to give advice on how to improve your work.
The Prep timetable is now in operation from this week onwards.

How to Become a Super Geographer by GeoBlogs

Climbing a mountain....

Just before the end of term, I was contacted by my friend Dan Raven Ellison. He's a geographer, and one of National Geographic's Emerging Explorers.
We've worked together on a few projects such as Mission:Explore, which you'll remember featured in the Big Outdoors Day, and was also the format for the Year 7's Prep book during the Lent term.
This summer, Dan is going to be involved in the StepUp Mountain Challenge
Visit the site above and you may see some familiar uniforms getting in some practice for climbing lots of stairs.

After the summer we're going to be getting involved with the challenge by climbing the height of a mountain during one of our geography lessons when we explore the idea of landscapes.

Just have to choose a mountain now... may go for my favourite one....
Here's some of 7QP getting in training...

Get involved with the hashtag #StepUpMountain

If you want to get involved, visit the site for the details:

Inspired by Daniel’s urban expedition, Ordnance Survey have created this great step mountain calculator mapping tool to help you step up to the mountain challenge and calculate the buildings or mountains you have climbed the equivalent height of:
Type in the number of steps you have climbed. This could be on your own, as a team, in an hour or over a year.
The calculator will show you on a map the name of building and mountains that you have ascended the height of.

To follow Daniel’s expedition to step up to the height of Mount Everest you can follow him on Twitter at @DanRavenEllison #StepUpMountain

He would love to hear what you are planning and have achieved!

End of term - 3 of 3

I've just come to the end of my first year back in the classroom after five years of work with the Geographical Association, and then as a freelance geographer, which saw me working for the Open University, running courses in Salzburg, getting involved in EU funded projects which took me around Europe and Scandinavia, and writing materials for a whole range of organisations including the BBC, Google, National Geographic and the Ordnance Survey.
It's been great to be back in the classroom, and start learning all over again.

I've enjoyed teaching through some units for the first time, and preparing some new resources.
I've enjoyed writing this blog.
I've enjoyed working with new colleagues, and learning the routines of a new school.
I've enjoyed the outcomes and seeing the exciting work produced by KEJ pupils, and been buoyed by their enthusiasm
I've enjoyed a variety of trips: Flatford Mill, Kew Gardens, The Big Outdoors Day, Castles, Oliver Cromwell's House and more.
I've enjoyed being 7QPs form tutor and getting involved in Queen Phillippa house events
I've enjoyed driving through the Fens in all four seasons... sometimes on the same day...

The term ended with several prize-giving assemblies and the End of Year service in the cathedral.

Image: Alan Parkinson

And now, I'm looking forward to enjoying a break from teaching, which I'm mostly spending writing new resources for a range of projects, and updating and refreshing all the resources we use ready for the new academic year.
See you in September! 

(There may be a few new posts here during the summer to include interesting items of note relevant to the curriculum at KEJ, otherwise I shall return at the end of August as we start getting ready for the new academic year...)

End of term - 2 of 3

Over the summer, there will be a lot of work continuing as always. That has already begun with the clearing of the room. There are going to be some changes to the Junior school classroom, as well as some new facilities in Old Hereward. These will allow us to organise our resources more effectively, and also improve the facilities for students at King's.

Thanks also to the ICT team for their work which will improve the wifi and internet access, and also add some speed to my classroom computer, which is also now loaded with options for mirroring iPads a little more than we have previously done.

Thanks to all those of you who have visited the blog. There have been just under 400 posts added here during the year, and I've had over 13 000 page views.
This has a way to go to catch Living Geography's 1.2 million views, but we're on the way.

Here's a tune for the summer: