It seemed like every geography teacher that I knew had visited Iceland – apart from me. Finally, this Easter holiday, I got my turn to visit this geographer’s paradise. Along with my sixth form geographers, I went on a 5 day tour of South Iceland to marvel at the glaciers, waterfalls, volcanos and dynamic coastlines. […]
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As a geography teacher, I don’t think I’m alone in priding myself on developing a real passion amongst my students for the world around us. Geography lessons need to be interactive and full of high quality resources targeted at taking our students on weekly virtual field trips. I often spend my Sunday evenings running through […]
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Over the past few weeks my GCSE and A Level students have had their mock exams which has inevitably meant a number of revision lessons. I don’t know about you, but I find that it gets difficult to think of new and engaging ideas as the lessons continue and students learn in different ways, so […]
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Geographical issues are wide-ranging, important, complex, and they present themselves on a range of scales. As teachers, we happily spend weeks developing students’ knowledge and understanding of case studies that represent these issues. I want to question how this material is being assessed and why examination boards assess specific aspects of geographical issues. I am […]
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I was a relative late-comer to Twitter: I set up a personal account in 2011 really just to see what all the fuss was about. Reading tweets from celebrities and comedians was of limited interest to me personally but it was through following newspapers, journalists and current affairs programmes that I realised just how many […]
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Recent, relevant case studies are crucial elements of studying geography. That is not to say that older case studies are junk but dusting off the same material year after year will not only become tiresome for the teacher, but will limit the geographical awareness of the student. Certainly, the AQA exam board defines recent as […]
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Whilst writing about the regeneration of Gloucester for a GeoActive article recently, I was encouraged to reflect on what makes this city an interesting case study. As my school is in the Gloucester, the question of accessibility and personal knowledge/experience accounts for the choice from a pragmatic point of view but to be useful to […]
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When I ask my students what they particularly struggle with when it comes to exam preparation I frequently hear the exasperated reply: “case studies!” Some of the geographers I teach, especially in years 10 and 11, feel overwhelmed when they reach the end of a topic (or an entire course) with the realisation that they […]
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