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Showing posts from June, 2010

Gone to Glastonbury

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Updates via Twitter @GeoBlogs until Monday :) Picture by chelsea steve on Flickr - CC licensed

Glasto tickets...

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Some tickets arrived this morning... Now very excited.. See you in the Green Kids field for some Guerilla Geography... I will be writing up a series of posts about the experience, and also producing some links and resources to supplement existing ideas relating to music festivals... Just a reminder of the nice things people are saying about our Mission Explore book. .. "Mission:Explore is a brilliant way to stimulate children's and young people's interest in their social and physical environment, their curiosity and their sense of the absurd. The case for risk as a necessary and exciting part of life, that needs handling intelligently, is acknowledged well. This is geography, and fieldwork, at its most creative, and has the potential to inspire a new generation of thoughtful, ethical and courageous geographers." Susan Buckingham, Professor of Geography “it is very important for children to experience adventurous play and risk so they can learn to manage risk and keep

The Cotswolds

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Been sent another book via the Cultural Geography blog... This time it's a book called "The Cotwolds: a cultural history" , written by Jane Bingham, and part of a new OUP series called "Landscapes of the Imagination" Will take a look when I get a moment Plenty on the relationship between the landscape and the people who encounter it in various ways...

Glastonbury

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I'm getting excited about my first visit to Glastonbury, to do missions with MISSION EXPLORE and members of the Geography Collective... To get me in the mood, I've downloaded the wonderful MISSION EXPLORE festival guide from the wonderful GEOGRAPHY COLLECTIVE BLOG page... Come and see us in the Green Kids Field... I hope we won't be needing those... Going to be working on some resources on music festivals of course too.... All images on this post by the wonderful Tom Morgan-Jones

A corner of some foreign field...

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Image by Flickr user Trojan Llama made available under Creative Commons license The World Cup kicks off in a few days time... Don't forget the wonderful World Cup resources at the GA website ... (already had around 2000 views apparently...) The flags are coming out. Saw a customised car at the weekend with vinyl red cross, and red crosses on the wheels... Had an idea for an investigative project using web searches and other information to build up a picture of the locations where there are groups of people who have a connection with each of the countries that have qualified for the finals. For example, students will perhaps have heard of Chinatown in London (and Manchester, and indeed several other towns and cities....) But what about the Little Italies, or South Korean communities ?? My nearest town (just about) is Swaffham in Norfolk. It has a large Portuguese community, and in the last few years, this has grown substantially. So, there will be a lot of supporters of Portugal

Notes from a Small Island

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Have been accompanied on my travels for the last week by Bill Bryson via a 10 CD audiobook version of his " Notes from a Small Island " borrowed from the library ( don't forget your local library ! ) I've been developing some activities based around his travels, and the impressions that he gives of some of the cities he visits, compared to the views of others, and also the changes that might have occurred since he visited them in 1995 (which is about the time that GCSE students would have been born, so handy for thinking about changes "in your lifetime"...) You can also find a range of video clips from the accompanying TV series on YouTube of course, such as this one... Plenty of cultural geography inspiration, as well as the chance to discuss the nature of the British landscape. Bill Bryson is currently the President of CPRE : the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

China in your hand...

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Earlier this week, I took a trip through the online resource at CHINA CLUB HQ. This is an online, subscription based service for schools wishing to teach about China as a cross-curricular context for a range of activities. The website offers a range of pricing options for schools of different sizes, starting at £195 a year for a single department. The emphasis is on CHINA as a theme to be explored through the school, and the site offers a range of activities and downloads, image galleries and other inspiration, with plenty on Chinese culture and language. Thanks to Fraser from China Club for allowing me guest access to the site, to explore what is on offer. Members can now see a new BLOG post which features me talking about the links to China that we had in the school where I used to teach, and other ideas for teaching about China. Also a feature on Bob Lang 's Geography and Art project which was supported by an RGS-IBG Innovative Geography teaching grant...