Cultural Geography Blog

  Simon Jones' design venture called the Pop up Geography Shop has had a bit of a sabbatical but he's now back in action. I have had his posters on my walls for some years now, including ones featuring comments on the value of geography. He has added a few new posters. With 'Star Wars Day': May the Fourth coming up, Simon has now added a special poster, which I shall be adding to my classroom...  (Scroll to the bottom) There are some other developments in the pipeline as well, which I shall be sharing here shortly. Watch out for further additions in the coming weeks. It's always important to support these individual projects by geography teachers who are looking to diversity away from the classroom (or to support their classroom work). Always support others in our geography subject community wherever possible.

  The Royal Scottish Geographical Society (RSGS) , along with the Scottish Association of Geography Teachers (SAGT) has been concerned for a while about a number of factors which are threatening the condition of geography in Scottish schools.  Recently, the two organisations held a meeting at Dollar Academy, Stirling and invited Alan Kinder and others to do short presentation. I have previously shared the YouTube channel  The key messages are also included in a report which has been made available as a PDF download. Access the full report here 👉 https://t.co/LqxYiWTSkH pic.twitter.com/nOhYXSDy3m — RSGS (@RoyalScotGeoSoc) April 18, 2023  

After four years as a trustee as part of my Presidential journey through the GA, my term in office comes to an end at the end of August 2023. At the same time, there is also the end of a term of office for several other GA colleagues who I have worked with for the last four years. This means that there some vacancies on the GA's Governing Body, which is of course a good training ground for those who may have ambitions to become more involved with the Association and give back to the association. There are actually four vacancies to be filled, which carry different responsibilities. You can read more about them on the GA website page, and the links here. Chair of Trustees Honorary Treasurer Elected Trustees Co-opted trustee For those who may have previously suggested that the GA and its Governing Body needs to become more inclusive and diverse, this is your opportunity! Happy to answer any questions about the roles and the wider work of the GA's Governing Body if anyone is inte...

Another one of those networking images which looks at recent tweets. Interesting to see which accounts are included here. Make your own by visiting the Twitter Circle website. This tool allows you to generate a visual representation of the people and friends you regularly interact with (like, retweet, mention) on Twitter. It allows you to generate an image of your Twitter circle. No login required to use this tool and it will always remain 100% free. How does it work? Twitter Circle works by grabbing your likes, retweets, and tweet mentions of other users and using an algorithm it detects who you mostly engage with. It then generates a circle image out of it which represents your Twitter interaction circle also known as Twitter circle of friends. Inspirations Twitter Circle was inspired by Chirpty, but uses a different algorithm with improved accuracy/depth for calculating engagement and generating the Twitter interaction circle. This tool can be seen as a Chirpty alternative. As expec...

 Cross posting from LivingGeography blog. When people of a certain age get together, the talk often turns to children's TV programmes from their youth. One which I remember was set in an unnamed town, perhaps a New Town, with high rise blocks and a somwhat unusual trio of friends.  A girl called Mary, and her dog (who could talk) and a mouse (who could also talk, and play the flute...) Mary Mungo and Midge was made by John Ryan, who also created Captain Pugwash. It was made using the same style of animation, with backgrounds and flat characters who were moved to create the  animations in real time using levers in a system that Ryan called 'captions'.  It was first shown in 1969 (when I would have been 5 or 6 years old). I remember quite a few of the programmes and also have a DVD which features all the programmes. The music was by Johnny Pearson and some of this can be heard on Spotify. Here's an example of the music which took me back when I found it. The narratio...

  From an appreciation of Barry Lopez's work by Robert MacFarlane came a mention of J. B. (Brinck) Jackson .  He was someone I could not remember hearing about before, although some of his books looked familiar when I looked further: "American vernacular landscape, J.B. Jackson, whose essays and lectures were so influential in dignifying and directing scholarly attention onto gas stations, lawns, woodlots, road-layouts, ballparks, and other everyday human structures as part of “the full imprint of human societies on the landscape,” in Jackson’s phrase. Jackson was a vocal critic of the exclusionary wilderness aesthetic as it existed in much mainstream North American conservation and (dread phrase) “nature writing.” He apparently focussed on writing and research about elements in the landscape that were defiantly prosaic in nature, and were those seen and perhaps overlooked through their ubiquity and ordinariness. He died in 1996, and his obituary was published in the New Yo...