Simon Jones Shines a Light on the design process...

Simon Jones - creater of the Slow Geography Club and Newsletter - has spent the summer putting together a design guide for Geography Teachers: a resource and a CPD provocation to improve the quality of the visuals that we use with learners and share with each other, and produce better slide decks to communicate our thoughts, along with ideas and practical tasks to consider in departmental meetings. It's been very nicely put together with a great deal of thought, and comes recommended.

There are ideas for making best use of CANVA, which offers free educator accounts for all teachers, and free image libraries - some of which you will probably not have come across before.

The publication, which is called 'Shine a Light' is now available in two formats.

Download a copy, get an invoice / receipt and charge it to your new year's departmental budget!

The basic version is available for a suggested minimum donation of £3.99

Product description:

‘Shine A Light!’ is full of practical advice, examples and exercises to help you improve your skills and unleash your creativity. Whether you're a beginner or an expert, you'll discover new and exciting ways to make your geography content shine. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from the experts and take your graphic design to the next level. Download your copy of 'Shine A Light – Inspirational Design for the Geography Classroom' today and get ready to wow your students and colleagues.

What you get: You get the following instantly on payment. A DRM free PDF of the latest version of ‘Shine A Light!’ to download & sync to the device of your choice. There are 108 high quality pages of really great content for you to explore.

Why a PDF & not a PPT? A PDF preserves the integrity of the design work to the highest standards. This means I can use a range of custom templates, fonts and images to create an outstanding resource for you & your classes, that otherwise would not work in PPT form. It can be used on any suitable device regardless of make.

Why adopt this Visual approach? Quite simply, Geography is the most visual subject on the planet, there is no doubt about that. So my aim is to introduce a 'Visual Literacy' to the subject & provide the best high quality resources to all the Geographers out there, to bring the subject right in to the classroom & help you transform a lesson into a powerful learning experience.

Alternatively, you can download the Bonus Edition.

For this bonus edition you also get a second PDF with all the classroom visuals from the original version along with two high quality posters for you to display.

On the trail of the 'Detectorists'

As I was in Suffolk last week, I headed for Framlingham as I knew that there were various locations from the series 'Detectorists' and also a wonderful pub just a few miles away where we could go for lunch. Parked up in the Market Square, and from there it was a short walk to several locations. Here are plenty more on a map. Managed to track down four locations: the outside of the 'Two Brewers' pub (the interior was filmed elsewhere), Lance's upstairs flat, the shop where Lance's former partner sells Spiritual goods and scented candles, and the village hall where the DMDC met. Here's me outside said hut. Don't forget the uniformbooks book of course. Still available and an excellent read.

Jonathan Meades on Sustainability

Have blogged about Jonathan Meades before, and his particular presentation style which I like... Lunchtime today was spent in the company of the first in the series "Off-Kilter", made for BBC Scotland and was about Aberdeen . I liked the look of the area known as Fitty. Towards the end, he moved on to Donald Trump and his controversial plans for a golf course in the sand dunes close to Aberdeen. He called the planned development "New Trumpton on Sea" and talked about gated communities and their absentee residents. He riffed on the idea of ' sustainability ' and how every architect and development trumpeted its sustainable credentials. New words like : "Sustain-abulous" and "Sustain-astic" ! Called it "architectural correctness"... "It's a slogan of conformist unoriginality..." "The very act of making a building is energy hungry and vastly wasteful even if the building is an eco-igloo of Fairtrade otter dropp...

Edexcel Cultural Geography Contexts

Those teachers who have opted for the Edexcel 'A' level specification in the UK (for students aged 16-18), there is a unit called "The World of Cultural Diversity" . Today, the pre-release titles were announced. Students will be expected to prepare OPTION 4: The World of Cultural Diversity • Explore what is meant by a global culture, how it is defined and, if it exists, what its characteristics are. • Research contrasting locations, some of which show the effects of cultural globalisation and others which seem to be resisting the process. Would be interested in hearing the thoughts of any blog readers on any suggested resources or thoughts on these particular contexts...

Cultural Geography Blog

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