This post is written as part of the May 2013 #blogsync click here to read more of the blogs in this series
Teaching is New Zealand’s 11th most trusted profession. This shows that we have a long way to go in the eyes of the public. This is quite critical as in our decentralised power system where Boards of Trustees are the governors of the school, it is the public that we are actually responsible to.
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Thinkpiece that I wrote for #GeoEdChat this week. Based upon one of the best cross curricular collaborations I have seen.
There is growing talk about collaboration between subjects in school. From what I see/read/hear there seems to be 2 schools of thought with a few ambivalents in the middle. The most vocal are those at each end of a spectrum ranging from ‘golden opportunity for amazing learning experiences’ to those who see it more as ‘crosscurricular mush causing the end of specialist knowledge.’
Recently, I enjoyed reading the experiences of Matt Podbury (@mattpodbury) and Jim Noble (@teachmaths) who worked together on a joint Geography and Maths project about population growth called World Village (and here). I encourage you to read these as I feel they capture the true essence of what crosscurricular projects can do. It is an authentic collaboration where they fit together naturally without any subject being forced to fit. The links provide an authentic learning experience that requires the specialist knowledge from…
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My Year 10s are working on a unit about Globalisation at the moment. We have done all the intro activities, looked at global economics, fashion, global links, globalisation at school and globalisation of media (including the class and me getting in trouble for writing in washable chalk on school buildings – must remember instruction of ground good wall bad for next time!). Today I split the class into random groups and gave them 2 lessons to investigate the 3 most positive aspects and 3 most negative aspects of globalisation. Essentially a basic research task but with the added critical thinking of what are the most important pros and cons.
The class know that they then have to give a 2-3 minute explanation to the class of their most positive and most negative aspects on Friday. To follow this up the class will enter a philosophical chairs discussion on “Is globalisation good or bad?” Continue reading
This was actually from the end of last term but have only just got permission from my students to share it.
Our Year 11 Geography classes were starting their Extreme Natural Events unit focusing on volcanic eruptions. After an introduction to plate tectonics I showed my class a video made by some students of John Sayers. You can see it here. My students fell perfectly into my trap by criticising the video at which point I challenged them to make one better.
A variety of videos were made utilising different props but this one was by the only group game enough to actually publish theirs online. Enjoy!
I spent the end of last week at a training camp for the New Zealand Geography Olympiad team. The team of 4 students head to Kyoto, Japan, for the International Geography Olympiad (iGeo) at the end of July. Anna Wilson (@Willssoooonnn) and I are the team leaders and the four students are:
They will take on 34 countries in a fieldwork assignment and report plus written and multimedia tests to see what Medals they can gain. There is also a non-medal competition of a Poster on the theme of “Traditional Wisdom and Modern Knowledge for the Future.” You can keep up with how the team is going in the lead up and during iGeo at http://nzgeographyolympiadteam.blogspot.co.nz/ and can help support their fundraising efforts at http://www.givealittle.co.nz/cause/iGeo .
They are a great bunch who have gelled well as a group and I really look forward to seeing how they go in Japan. The training continues with lots of reading to do and a competitive spreadsheet being kept with our GeoGuessr scores!
Here’s a post I wrote for #GeoEdChat last week
There is a lot of talk and articles online about 21st Century Education and what this looks like in practice. There has also been big structural changes to Geography curriculums across many countries in recent years. Have the Geography teaching programs evolved with these changes so that we are creating successful 21st Century Geographers? Or are we still continuing to act like this:
As many of these curriculum changes come into place it has been my experience that many teachers are looking at how much of their old teaching programs they are able to keep and just tweaking small amounts to say they have made the necessary changes. If this is the case (and Yes I am sticking my neck out here purposely to provoke discussion), are we adequately meeting the future needs of our students?
What are the skills that a person would need to be considered a…
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Hi all,
Sorry, I have gone a bit quiet with blogging lately. I have had a few other things in the works and have neglected this blog. I have a few saved up so expect to see more very soon.
Cheers, Steve
Steve Mouldey 