I'm going to have a go at some indoor gardening with this kit that I bought at the weekend.
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Sunday, 12 January 2014
You can be a growing boy... or girl...
As we are studying food this term in Year 7, there have been some discussions about possibly growing some food during this term, as the weather starts to improve.
I'm going to have a go at some indoor gardening with this kit that I bought at the weekend.
What else could you grow in a classroom ?
I'm going to have a go at some indoor gardening with this kit that I bought at the weekend.
Thursday, 9 January 2014
Risky Business
Which of these are the most risky activities ?
Cards used for card sort activity and to prompt other discussions. Further materials to come later, once the lesson has been taught for the first time and tweaked...
Cards used for card sort activity and to prompt other discussions. Further materials to come later, once the lesson has been taught for the first time and tweaked...
Antarctica Activity
Need a break from your Year 8 Geography revision ?
Try this fun Bitesize KS3 activity on how cold Antarctica gets...
Try this fun Bitesize KS3 activity on how cold Antarctica gets...
King's Ely Geography Twitter account now open...
This is a protected account.
Only those associated with King's Ely will be able to follow and see the tweets, which will be news items and resources of interest to the curriculum and exam specifications which the department teaches. All requests to follow the account will be moderated by departmental staff. The account will not be used to share any information that might identify any individual student, and follows the school protocols for the use of social media.
This will be another way of sharing useful information relevant to particular Year groups (identified by hashtags such as #year7) or projects the school takes part in.
Geography Ambassadors will also be helping to suggest tweets.
Food discussion cards
For discussions on food-related themes....
Check out my Flickr set with almost 500 pictures of food in various contexts...
A few of these by Richard Allaway.
I've extracted 9, which can be printed 9 to a page with the handouts option and used for discussions and/or card sort style activities... Use your imagination with them :)
Check out my Flickr set with almost 500 pictures of food in various contexts...
A few of these by Richard Allaway.
I've extracted 9, which can be printed 9 to a page with the handouts option and used for discussions and/or card sort style activities... Use your imagination with them :)
The desolation of SMOG....
A lovely headline on the BBC website for a not-so-lovely situation for many people in cities in China.
The air quality in many Chinese cities is not just bad, it claims thousands of lives a year. For Year 9s designing their sustainable cities, this is one of the key areas to tackle when planning a place that people will want to live in.
Reminds me too of a conversation with 8Gg1 yesterday about Benedict Cumberbatch...
The air quality in many Chinese cities is not just bad, it claims thousands of lives a year. For Year 9s designing their sustainable cities, this is one of the key areas to tackle when planning a place that people will want to live in.
Reminds me too of a conversation with 8Gg1 yesterday about Benedict Cumberbatch...
Tuesday, 7 January 2014
Food, glorious food....
Starting a new Year 7 unit today on the Geography of Food, called 'You are what you eat'.
Coincidentally, Sky News has just published a report from Environment Secretary Owen Paterson, which explores the way that we eat food that is imported that could actually be produced within the UK.
"As British farmers and food producers you know that we grow some of the best food in the world here - so why is 24% of the food eaten in the UK imported when it could be produced here ?"
What are the benefits of continuing to import this food rather than produce it in the UK - are there very good reasons why we don't actually do that?
Could also discuss the role of supermarkets in promoting (or reducing) food waste.
And also the fact that Prince William is doing a course in agricultural management at the University of Cambridge
Finally, we will be connecting the work that we do with the Year 7 effort on FOOD BANKs.
This is a reminder of the foods that we are asking students at King's to bring in during this term, and in particular during the week that each house has been allocated...
Coincidentally, Sky News has just published a report from Environment Secretary Owen Paterson, which explores the way that we eat food that is imported that could actually be produced within the UK.
"As British farmers and food producers you know that we grow some of the best food in the world here - so why is 24% of the food eaten in the UK imported when it could be produced here ?"
What are the benefits of continuing to import this food rather than produce it in the UK - are there very good reasons why we don't actually do that?
Could also discuss the role of supermarkets in promoting (or reducing) food waste.
And also the fact that Prince William is doing a course in agricultural management at the University of Cambridge
Finally, we will be connecting the work that we do with the Year 7 effort on FOOD BANKs.
This is a reminder of the foods that we are asking students at King's to bring in during this term, and in particular during the week that each house has been allocated...
Monday, 6 January 2014
Happy New Term
Wandering down to the cathedral this morning for a service to start the Lent Term on the theme of Epiphany. Organ soaring, choristers singing, sun through the stained glass and prayers and readings from students and the Principal. Along with the Junior school assembly where we welcomed back colleagues from absence, and new colleagues too, it was a good way to start 2014...
There's a lot of work ahead of us, so let's get started...
Make it one of your New Year's resolutions to follow this blog, particularly if you're a student at KEJ or KES...
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There's a lot of work ahead of us, so let's get started...
Make it one of your New Year's resolutions to follow this blog, particularly if you're a student at KEJ or KES...
Image: Alan Parkinson
Authentic biomes work...
It's always best to look to add some authenticity to work that you ask students to do. We're not just occupying time, we're developing Geographers. Geographers present ideas in particular ways as they explore the world in all its complexity.
An audience and a purpose always helps for writing and presentation tasks, and that goes right back to work when teaching ICT as well as Geography, and particularly when I was teaching the OCR Pilot Geography back in the day. I also like the idea of a 'narrative' or 'story' to the work.
One area that I have done some work on in the last year or so is the Great Barrier Reef. I worked with Jamie Buchanan Dunlop to create some materials relating to the Catlin Seaview Survey, in association with Google. We're hoping to welcome Jamie to our school in February for our 'The Big Outdoors Day'.
More on that event to come in some future blogposts...
The Reef Beat resource was designed to support students as they explore this threatened wilderness environment.
Students will be invited to use this as a model for exploring other ecosystems. This will also connect with work done on the Great Barrier Reef
With regard to Oceans, it's good to get some recognition for what you do, and these resources have had their fair share of nominations for various awards, including BETT and BERA, as well as within Exeter University.
There's also a counter argument that the idea of authenticity is essentially just good learning... These resources are certainly relevant to that too.
An audience and a purpose always helps for writing and presentation tasks, and that goes right back to work when teaching ICT as well as Geography, and particularly when I was teaching the OCR Pilot Geography back in the day. I also like the idea of a 'narrative' or 'story' to the work.
One area that I have done some work on in the last year or so is the Great Barrier Reef. I worked with Jamie Buchanan Dunlop to create some materials relating to the Catlin Seaview Survey, in association with Google. We're hoping to welcome Jamie to our school in February for our 'The Big Outdoors Day'.
More on that event to come in some future blogposts...
The Reef Beat resource was designed to support students as they explore this threatened wilderness environment.
Students will be invited to use this as a model for exploring other ecosystems. This will also connect with work done on the Great Barrier Reef
With regard to Oceans, it's good to get some recognition for what you do, and these resources have had their fair share of nominations for various awards, including BETT and BERA, as well as within Exeter University.
There's also a counter argument that the idea of authenticity is essentially just good learning... These resources are certainly relevant to that too.
Coming soon... Geography tweets
We'll be sharing our Twitter name and address and inviting people to follow us shortly. The account will be protected, so that only people who follow can see out Tweets as they are posted, and each request to follow will need to be approved. The account will be used to share information and ideas, as well as examples of student work. It is intended to act as a quick way of posting information, and to support (and not replace) the other existing channels for communication between the school and parents. Any content will fit in with the school's policies on the use of social media and other online forums.
Don't forget the official King's Ely Twitter account too: @Kings_Ely
Year 8 exam - extended question...
There is a question on the Year 8 exam next week which requires a longer answer than the others. The question will be marked on a level of response basis: instead of each valid point scoring one mark, the overall answer will be placed into one of three bands, with marks available varying as the answer improves.
A basic answer will stay at Level 1, whereas a more carefully worded answer, with supporting evidence and a valid conclusion will score Level 3.
The question will be related to a theme from the work we did on the Arctic and Antarctica.
This area has featured in the news over the last few days, and some of you mentioned the
Russian ship which got stuck in the ice, so a Chinese icebreaker was sent to save it, and that got stuck too... so now the Americans are sending a ship to hopefully rescue them both. The ship was stuck in the sea ice off the coast of Antarctica, which is still around even during the 'summer' months.
We also had this story in THE DAY, which the school subscribes to, which explores Canada's recent claim on the North Pole. I took the quote in the powerpoint below from this article...
Use the Powerpoint to help structure a long answer to the original statement in the first slide. Do you agree or disagree ? Why ?
A basic answer will stay at Level 1, whereas a more carefully worded answer, with supporting evidence and a valid conclusion will score Level 3.
The question will be related to a theme from the work we did on the Arctic and Antarctica.
This area has featured in the news over the last few days, and some of you mentioned the
Russian ship which got stuck in the ice, so a Chinese icebreaker was sent to save it, and that got stuck too... so now the Americans are sending a ship to hopefully rescue them both. The ship was stuck in the sea ice off the coast of Antarctica, which is still around even during the 'summer' months.
We also had this story in THE DAY, which the school subscribes to, which explores Canada's recent claim on the North Pole. I took the quote in the powerpoint below from this article...
Use the Powerpoint to help structure a long answer to the original statement in the first slide. Do you agree or disagree ? Why ?
Risky World...
Look at this image from the news in the last few days...
(Can't blog as taken from newspaper...) - also check the Daily Mail coverage of the story along with over 600 comments from readers...
The lifeboat at Aberystwyth had to rescue this student from an area near the seafront. Was he right to ignore the warnings? How risky was his behaviour? Did he need to be rescued?
Other people who went out 'to take some photos' are missing, despite being given warnings...
There are some interesting questions here about the nature of risk.
We discussed the accident of Michael Schumacher and the risk of certain sports, using an article from the Guardian datablog.
Here's a picture I took three weeks ago on the Norfolk coast at Happisburgh.
It's the final house on Beach Road in Happisburgh - the cliff was in danger of collapsing, and potentially could have collapsed while I was there. Was I taking a risk?
At a time when we have our attention on risks generally, it's worth thinking about this theme.
Is the world a riskier place than it used to be ?
Here's a sheet to construct an A-Z of risk
(Can't blog as taken from newspaper...) - also check the Daily Mail coverage of the story along with over 600 comments from readers...
The lifeboat at Aberystwyth had to rescue this student from an area near the seafront. Was he right to ignore the warnings? How risky was his behaviour? Did he need to be rescued?
Other people who went out 'to take some photos' are missing, despite being given warnings...
There are some interesting questions here about the nature of risk.
We discussed the accident of Michael Schumacher and the risk of certain sports, using an article from the Guardian datablog.
Here's a picture I took three weeks ago on the Norfolk coast at Happisburgh.
It's the final house on Beach Road in Happisburgh - the cliff was in danger of collapsing, and potentially could have collapsed while I was there. Was I taking a risk?
At a time when we have our attention on risks generally, it's worth thinking about this theme.
Is the world a riskier place than it used to be ?
Here's a sheet to construct an A-Z of risk
Sunday, 5 January 2014
Back to school...
Those three little words...
Back from a good holiday which had plenty of Geographical elements to it...
I travelled around the coast of Norfolk after a storm surge, went up to Yorkshire for a week in the woods, completed (almost) a new teaching resource for the Royal Geographical Society, had our Mission:Explore Water resource signed off, read 'Four Fields' by Tim Dee and planned out my plan of action for 2014 so far, which includes working with a good few hundred teachers and also a spot of foreign travel... excellent...
Thanks to all those who continued to visit this blog over the Christmas period. I'm under way for the new term with some initial posts and will try to post regularly between now and Easter as time permits...
Back from a good holiday which had plenty of Geographical elements to it...
I travelled around the coast of Norfolk after a storm surge, went up to Yorkshire for a week in the woods, completed (almost) a new teaching resource for the Royal Geographical Society, had our Mission:Explore Water resource signed off, read 'Four Fields' by Tim Dee and planned out my plan of action for 2014 so far, which includes working with a good few hundred teachers and also a spot of foreign travel... excellent...
Thanks to all those who continued to visit this blog over the Christmas period. I'm under way for the new term with some initial posts and will try to post regularly between now and Easter as time permits...
What I bought at the supermarket...
I'm currently getting prepared for the Lent Term, when we have 3 good units at Key Stage 3
The Year 7 unit is going to explore ideas related to the Geography of Food.
Here's a resource that I will make some use of. A year or so ago I took a picture of everything I got from one 'weekly supermarket shop'.... as you can see, it was a visit to Waitrose, which isn't my 'regular' supermarket... or does it matter which supermarket I went to ? How does that impact on the Geography of Food revealed by the products ??
What can you deduce about me ? my family ? my lifestyle ?
Which geographical connections can you make from this trolley load of shopping ?
The Year 7 unit is going to explore ideas related to the Geography of Food.
Here's a resource that I will make some use of. A year or so ago I took a picture of everything I got from one 'weekly supermarket shop'.... as you can see, it was a visit to Waitrose, which isn't my 'regular' supermarket... or does it matter which supermarket I went to ? How does that impact on the Geography of Food revealed by the products ??
What can you deduce about me ? my family ? my lifestyle ?
Which geographical connections can you make from this trolley load of shopping ?
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