Migrant book by Michael Rosen

Ordered for the Department...

A book for young people. pic.twitter.com/r14SB4GFif

— Michael Rosen (@MichaelRosenYes) September 25, 2016

More barriers going up...

A very useful map from the Economist showing some of the current boundaries that have been put up between different parts of the world. Click a country to see where the border lies, and the reasons for its creation.

Thanks to Miss Kyndt for the tipoff for this.
Make sure you follow the @KingsElyGeog twitter feed for more like that...

Bordering on genius...

Year 8 have been finishing off the year with a look at WALLS: the boundaries and borders that have fragmented the world and are the cause of a great deal of conflict. Next year, we are planning to develop this a little further.

We've explored the eco-boundaries which were erected around some of the favelas in Rio de Janeiro in advance of the World Cup, and also started to think about other boundaries such as North Korea and South Korea, and the Syrian/Israeli walls (in the news again today)

One of the resources that we made use of was the Institute of Play's Toolkit.
My summer reading includes this book, which explores some of the issues in more detail.
And just to show how up to date this is, there have been a number of recent stories about the US-Mexican border in the last few days. This has been linked with ISIS: and mirrors some of the issues explored in the book, but brings them up to date.

After tweeting an image of the book and describing it, I was contacted by the book's author, so we may well have some further insights next year when we repeat the teaching of the unit. It's a reminder that social media offers the chance to engage in dialogue with people in new and exciting ways.

Year 8 Revision Support 2: USA-Mexico Migration

As Geography teachers at King's, we don't create everything that we use in the classroom. As well as the (very) occasional use of a textbook, we tend to use materials created by other teachers. It's a reminder that as students, we should try to use a variety of sources that we trust. When it comes to resources, we have used a few created by Matt Podbury, who works in Toulouse, France.

He has created a really useful site called GeographyPods, and there are quite a few sections of this website which you could look at to help with your studies. For example, Matt has created some really useful resources on the situation at the US-Mexico border. Check them out here. You'll find the Superheroes pictures that I showed you, to make a point about the connections between migrants and their families back home. This is linked to the idea of REMITTANCES: the money that flows back to the home country, send by migrants. For some countries like the Philippines, this is vital for the country's economy.

For example, consider this statement from Wikipedia:

Migrants sent approximately 10% of their household incomes; these remittances made up a corresponding 50–80% of the household incomes for the recipients.

Take a look at some of the activities and resources on Matt's page.

Also check out the PEOPLEMOV.IN website to see where migrants go to and from....

More materials over the next week... Keep checking back for more...

America

A second cultural reference to the US-Mexico border comes in the form of the lyrics from West Side Story.
Although the gang are Puerto Ricans, many of them would have travelled to the USA via Mexico. It describes some of the barriers which remain even when the physical border has been crossed.
This is an important reminder that this unit is not just about the actual boundaries, but the pyschological borders that remain, sometimes invisible.
I mentioned that some of the alienation and ghettoisation of minority ethnic groups described in the song still persist in parts of urban areas in the UK today.

America - West Side Story

Walls 2: Frida Kahlo

Take a look at this painting by Frida Kahlo, and explore the connections between the image and the stories of the US-Mexican border we have been exploring.

How are the two countries represented ? 

Walls - borders can mean conflict..

Year 8 students are currently underway with a unit on the theme of Walls, which explores conflict along the world's borders, particularly some of the disputed ones.

This connects with important geographical themes of inclusion and exclusion, and power.
There are many different types of boundary - some visible, some invisible. We cross some every day: postcode boundaries, school catchment areas, country and parish boundaries, mobile phone mast signal areas etc...

We'll be exploring life either side of the 38th parallel, walking the smoothed cobbles of the Great Wall of China, looking at Banksy cartoons in Palestine and considering the need for a patrolled barrier along the length of the US border with Mexico.
Some groups have started with the latter, and we've been exploring life as a pollo or coyote, with the aid of Michael Palin and a few other resources. We've played forensics with the belongings that are found in the desert and looked at the use of GIS to map the common routes so that help can be targeted in those areas.

Check out Miss Kyndt's blog for a starter activity for the unit that we used.

The first boundary we have looked at is the US-Mexico border (Miss Kyndt has shared materials about that too)

We started to tell stories of the migrants in visual form, with some really cool creativity shown - I'll share a few of those next week.

Check out global conflicts on this CrisisWatch interactive map resource here.
How many of them are related to borders and disputes over territories ?

Finally, two merits to anyone who finds me and identifies the location of this particular wall...

One for Year 8s

Make the connection with the work we have been doing this week...

Thought for the Day

From 'Mending Wall' by Robert Frost

I let my neighbor know beyond the hill
And on a day we meet to walk the line 
And set the wall between us once again. 
We keep the wall between us as we go. 
To each the boulders that have fallen to each. 
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls 
We have to use a spell to make them balance: 
'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!' 
We wear our fingers rough with handling them. 
Oh, just another kind of out-door game, 
One on a side. It comes to little more: 
There where it is we do not need the wall: 
He is all pine and I am apple orchard. 
My apple trees will never get across 
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him. 
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'. 

Gaza

Music for the WALLS unit....
What do the lyrics of this song say about the conflict that involves Gaza.... ??

Walls.... come tumbling down

One unit of work that is in progress, for teaching in the year ahead is about 'Walls'.

Walls divide, and act as boundaries. Walls protect, but walls also exclude people. They were, and still are built for various reasons. Peace Walls in Northern Ireland still exist in some places in Belfast. They are part of the fabric of the city, and also remain in people's heads (the phrase 'walls in the head' is sometimes used)

Readers of LivingGeography blog (which includes you I hope) may remember some previous postings taken from Lynsey Hanley's excellent book 'Estates', which looks at the Cutteslowe Walls
I read an extract from the book to Year 9 just before half term as part of the Reading festival, to show how a place can be described in fiction.

There are also walls such as the ones marking the edge of the West Bank, part of the disputes in the Middle East (an area that is mentioned in the new KS3 programme of study)

Migration has also been connected with the idea of borders. Often migration means crossing a border.

I noticed recently a review of a book in the Observer about walls. It's written by Marcello de Cintio. We have a copy of the book in the department.

This book is going to form part of the unit, and we have been collating a range of materials.
An extended extract from the book is also included in a recent issue of Geographical magazine 
(remember from an earlier recent post that King's Ely students have access to this in various forms)

The interactive linked to above provides some really interesting and fascinating stories, and is very well put together. This could form the basis for an independent student enquiry, which we shall look to develop through the next term.

Also sometimes, it's the walls that are in the head... the invisible walls that matter, just as much as the physical boundaries.
And finally, water can create boundaries and borders which are all too visible from the air (but not necessarily the ground) as well as other physical processes....

Image: Alan Parkinson