From Japan to the Jurassic Coast (and others)

I have promised my s2 that the Japanese Tourist Board leaflet task will be self assessed, and have created a short checklist for them. I think that we will spend perhaps two more periods on this-one to complete the research and start the leaflet, the other to assess the task. I may ask one of the s6 mentors to video the leaflet with students talking in the background about what they have presented as part of the self assessment, an idea shamelessly stolen from Noel Jenkins at www.digitalgeography.co.uk . I have tried doing something similar with my own phone, but although pictures, mp3's etc download from the phone, I have a problem with video, despite getting the settings changed.
I will also be doing quite a lot on coasts with my classes today. My Higher class will be watching a new Coasts DVD during the double period, and although the work is aimed at a few years below, I think I will be able to use some of the animations on this page. I also want to create some taboo cards suitable for Higher, but I am actually going to use them as an assessment tool-instead of excluding the words, I am going to use them as a checklist after explaining feature formation to ensure that the correct and appropriate vocabulary is being used. I will upload the cards as soon as poss. I may also use some of the resources here , to reinforce some of the work we have already completed on mass movements, but putting this in the context of coastal processes.

Eastenders or Corrie?....

...is a question you might be asked by someone from an overseas call centre (allegedly). s4 will be finding out a bit more about why, and we will use a couple of good resources available on the web. I used the mystery from sln last year looking at why Dilip changed his name to David, and I see there are some articles listed on another geography blog, http://drhutchinson.blogspot.com . This also has some other links which might be useful-the lucky goldstar links and those to Industry in South wales. I have created a powerpoint plan of the classroom for s1 and we are going to be on the move as we learn about direction in map skills. s3 are finishing the Lake District Case Study, and I will supplement this with a homework today. Higher are doing all the coastal features at the moment- there doesn't seem to be a really suitable text for this yet, so I will supplement your notes with a couple of statement sort style activities that we can drag around on the whiteboard.

Journeys in Geography

Categories: Coasts, Industry, Glaciation, Environmental Hazards, s1 and s2, Writing & assessment
I have been meaning to highlight programmes by Dr Ian Stewart, pictured, since I saw 'Journeys from the Centre of the Earth' last year. He is now showing documentaries on the Ring of Fire (find out more here ) which are useful for s4 (Environmental Hazards) and s2 (Japan, Earth Forces). I am hoping that these will be repeated at some point on BBC 4, but in case not, I am trying to get a hold of the excellent episode on Japan. My s2 are working on their leaflet introduction to Japan, and we are about to look at the Physical Geography, so this will come in very handy.
I am also toying with the idea of setting up a seperate blog to display your work. We are getting some extra PC's in the department, and there will be a lot of opportunities for presenting work through ICT. This will be particularly useful for the new s1. My experience of previous open nights tells me that parents are always very keen to see examples of excellence, and this might present a continuously updated method of doing so.
Tomorrow, I am doing coastal landforms with Higher. Students are doing a little peer assessment revision exercise on this to see what they remember from last year and I will also adapt Tony Cassidy' spreadsheet to start building up our glossary. s3 are doing some time last week on land use conflicts in glaciated uplands. With s4, I will probably do some dominoes on the Paris Industry case study to see where we are at before hopefully finishing the work and moving onto the Call Centres Case Study.

Now that summer's gone

Categories: s1 and s2, Glaciation, Limestone, Urban, Industry, Population
Welcome back. Hope you have all enjoyed the summer break and are well rested. I must say that in general, I have been extremely pleased with the exam results and it is good to see that much of the last year's hard work paid off for you, so well done.
I have not been near the blog for a while, and I have several s2 Japan homework resources which I will link here over the next week or so. Tomorrow will be a little hectic for everybody and that goes for me too. For s1, there will be a lot of getting organised, but having met the classes before the summer break, I would like to use some unusual maps from the links below to start us thinking about maps-What makes a good map? What can a map show etc..
wales
world'sfirst
ufo's
jedi's
s2 will do a little refresher activity on Italy before a class discussion on what we would want to find out about a country if it was up to us. I then want to introduce Japan, and will link back resources later.
s3,4 and Higher have all started the courses, so the lessons will be aimed at reviewing what we did before the break. I will use mapping from memory with s3 for Glaciation-a field sketch showing glacial features and land uses, before groups discuss the conflicts. With s4 I will show the 2006 paper, before doing a bit of walkabout talkabout to review the Human Environment topic, and with s5 for Weathering and Mass movement, Glaciation and limestone. I might throw in a bit of holiday geography to ease us in.
A little reminder-for the new higher class, please feel free to start using the wiki, just ask for the password. I also have this for Intermediate, but it needs a lot of work, so watch this space for some activities appearing to attempt.