A colleague and I presented some thoughts from ICOT2013 to the staff for our PD session this morning. I focused on Ewan McIntosh’s Keynote, The Learning Pit and the Key Competencies Indicator project. During this, I set a task to come up with an ungoogleable question based in their subject areas (with donuts for the best).
In the next step of helping my Year 11 Geography class develop as geographers I am working on developing their geoliteracy.
We are doing some basic skill work to start the year and as part of an introduction to mapping skills I normally give them a description to work from and create a map. This year I have added to it, thanks to re-reading some work on Luke and Freebody’s Four Resources for literacy. Continue reading
Statistics New Zealand have just launched an interactive population pyramid for New Zealand.
You (or students) can select a specific year, play it as an animation, see details for specific age-sex groups and see projections for the future population. A great resource for in our classes!
This post was prompted by #GeoEdChat this week where many of the participants used social media with their classes but I was the only one using facebook.
Our Department facebook page was started in 2009 (2 years before I joined the school). This decision was made as our students were already all on facebook so it provided a ready means of communication. The page was created as a person that they could become friends with. Students could then share field trip photos by tagging us in or posting on our page. The Department could also communicate with students with important meetings set up as events, reminders about forms as our status and an easy way to share resources such as links to revision videos. Students have also used it to ask questions when studying at home and requesting extra tutorial sessions. This page has also helped with students who want to be friends with teachers online. It provides a way for them to get that interaction without getting access to teachers personal holiday photos etc. Continue reading
I have been having some great discussions this week with Stephen Matthews (@srmdrummer) around teaching geographic concepts that have made me revisit my philosophy and teaching approach. This video of Sir Ken Robinson talking about subjects as disciplines provides a good example of the discussions we have had:
I believe that Geography is concerned with social issues and that geographic educators should be equipping their students to take action in society. Increasingly global issues such as climate change, globalisation, sustainability and social justice are making headlines and Geography should assist students with their understanding of these issues. Continue reading
To introduce my Geography classes to our key geographic concepts we have watched Step Up 4: Miami Heat (called Step Up Revolution originally) this week.
Before watching we did a concept and definition mix and match activity where the concepts and a definition were on laminated cards. Once all pairs/groups had sorted the definitions together the students wrote the concepts down in their books leaving about 3-4 lines after each one. Continue reading
I have come across some great competitions for NZ students over the past couple of weeks and wondered how many new about them. All 3 of these provide great, engaging, provoking tasks that Im sure at least some of your students will love!
The Barbara Petchenik Childrens Mapping Competition is an international competition that occurs every 2 years. It aims to promote children’s creative representation of the world in graphic form, to enhance their cartographic awareness and to make them more conscious of their environment. There are 4 different age groups and the maps can be made in a wide range of forms. More info is available here.
The Eggs Prize Competition is being launched at the Makertorium in April at Te Papa. It is a team competition to design a machine that can transport an egg. Teams are open to create a machine using any technology they choose (barring explosives) be it simple or complex. As well as an overall judged “best machine” there will be awards, such as most humorous, fastest, best technically, most efficient and most eco friendly. See more on the Makertorium website here.
Mix and Mash is a chance for students to get creative mixing up creative commons digital content into new stories. It will teach digital citizenship skills as well as letting them get creative. I saw this 2 days ago and we have already worked the first round of it into our Year 10 accelerate Social Studies programme – it is that great! Read more at www.mixandmash.org.nz.
What other great unknown competitions are out there!?
To participate in Guerrilla Geography Day today, my Year 13 class investigated media portrayals of gender. Our notes from the class are below:
A full write up of the lesson and it’s outcomes is on the Guerrilla Geography Day website here.
Had my second lesson of the year with my Year 11 Geography class today so decided to introduce them to the idea of geographic significance at the same time as doing some basic world mapping.
I gave the class a blank world map and brought up the World page of the New Zealand Herald website on the screen. First of all we read the introductions to each story locating and labelling the countries involved on a map for a bit of basic world geography (amazing how many students know the names of countries in the news but have no idea where these are e.g. Syria, North Korea).
Next we discussed the criteria for geographic significance that we would use to differentiate between the stories:
Criteria for Geographic Significance
These criteria were obtained from Teaching about Geographical Thinking by Kamilla Bahbahani and Niem Tu Huynh.
We then read back over some of the stories collaboraitively sourcing examples of stories that demonstrate each of the criteria well. Students then had to choose two news stories that they felt are geographically significant and justify their decision.
Will pick this up over the rest of the year with getting the students to source information about geographically significant events as I feel this is incredibly important in helping them to develop the ability to think geographically. We will also use this to help decide which case studies we will focus on in our various topics this year.
A new section has been added to TKI focusing on Key Competencies and Effective Pedagogy. It focuses on a tool developed by NZCER and University of Waikato who worked with teachers to see what the key competencies looked like in different learning areas. This has led to the 3 sections on the website: a self-audit tool, 14 learning stories and Insights into aspects of the key competencies.
The self audit framework could be used by a teacher, syndicate, department or whole school to inquire into how well the key competencies are embedded into learning rather than an afterthought. The framework is developed around the concepts of initiative, connections and challenge. Initiative is really about student agency – student voice, learning to learn etc. Connection is about meaningful links between activities, experiences and/or learning areas. And Challenge is about using, transforming, critiquing, and generating knowledge for purposes that students recognise as worthy of their effort.
I personally have found the framework to be an effective self-reflection tool (as I was lucky enough to see earlier drafts of the framework) and I would encourage you to utilise this if possible, particularly when planning out or reviewing a unit of learning. Continue reading
Steve Mouldey 