Geography Teaching Today

This section of the website is for Chartered Geographer (Teachers) and other geography teachers to hear about the activities, websites and other interesting things Chartered Geographers are up to. We will put the spotlight on a different Chartered Geographer every month.....

Latest spotlight is on Adrian Taylor and Helen Young, who have recently won Ordnance Survey Teaching awards

Two of our Chartered Geographer (Teachers) have recently won the Ordnance Survey award ‘for excellence in teaching geography at secondary level'. The awards were presented at the Royal Geographical Society with IBG in June 2010.

Adrian Taylor is Head of Geography at St Mary's RC High School, Chesterfield. A Chartered Geographer, Adrian is actively engaged in connecting new research in geography to classroom practice, both with the Society and with the Geographical Association. Notable is his imaginative involvement of out-of-school experts in fieldwork. For example, local planners for urban fieldwork and magistrates to provide a citizenship dimension to KS3 work on crime.

Helen Young is a geography teacher at The Friary School, Lichfield. She has been instrumental in the integration of ICT and GIS in this and her previous schools. Her website, geographygeek.co.uk, has a large following of teachers who benefit from numerous free resources for classroom use. She has also developed GIS materials for educational publishers. See an article about Helen from her local newspaper.

Previous spotlight was on John Halocha, President of the Geographical Association 2009-2010

I have worked in geography initial teacher education since 1991 following seventeen years in primary school teaching. I became involved with the Geographical Association in 1993 serving on the Publications Committee as it then was. My connection with the RGS-IBG began in 1999 when I was elected a Fellow and deepened when I was registered as a Chartered Geographer in 2004: I was delighted with this achievement as I felt it recognised the work I had been doing in the world of geography within teacher education. I am currently Reader in Geography Education and Head of Geography at Bishop Grosseteste University College Lincoln. This is a position where I can promote as fully as possible the roles of both the Geographical Association and the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) to geography education in its broadest sense.

I received the phone call at Christmas 2006! Would I be willing to be nominated to the Presidents' Group of the Geographical Association? I accepted and have found it to be a role that has been demanding, educative and most enjoyable. The Geographical Association currently has twenty-two paid staff at our HQ in Sheffield. We also have a huge number of volunteers who are involved in committees, projects and branch activities. As a member of the Presidents' Group for four years, one gets heavily involved in the strategic development of the Association and how these groups of people make their contributions to the development of and support for geographical education. During my Presidential year I have been able to visit many branches and take part in some of our national initiatives such as ‘Worldwise'. I am also a ‘Geography Champion' for the GA which gives me the opportunity to support teachers in the East Midlands. Perhaps the busiest time for a GA President is our annual conference. This year it is at the University of Derby, 8th - 10th ApriI. I would be delighted to meet any of you who are able to join us for this major event in the geography calendar.

Previous spotlight was on Paul Hunt from the Appleton School

Paul recently visited Ethiopia to look at the schools that he is linked with through connecting classrooms. While he was there, he was able to observe and comment on a geography lesson and discuss how geography is taught in the UK. He also visited a nature reserve where 2 million trees are being grown and then replanted throughout Ethiopia to combat soil erosion. His group then made it on National Ethiopian TV (photo above) where they discussed the geography and cultural differences in both countries.

Previous spotlight was on King Edward VI Five Wyas School, Birmingham

L-R Alan Parkinson CGeog, Bob Lang CGeog. Iain Stewart, Paula Cooper CGeog, Kate Donovan

Joint RGS-IBG CGeog network and Geographical Association branch event.

On September 29th over 350 students and staff from across the Midlands Region braved the Birmingham traffic and travelled to King Edward VI Five Ways School in south-west Birmingham to hear Professor Iain Stewart, intrepid traveller, geologist and broadcaster talk about ‘Unnatural Hazards'. The audience of geographers and geologists were treated to an outstanding presentation on the nature of hazard and risk by Prof Stewart with stories of earthquakes in Iran, garbage slides in Manila and man-made mud volcanoes. Kate Donovan, a postgraduate researcher with Prof Stewart at Plymouth University, gave a highly accomplished and intriguing talk on her research into the geo-culture of risk on the Indonesian volcano Mt Merapi. Prof Stewart said he enjoyed the evening so much he wants to come back next year!

The evening not only gave A level students and teachers topical and fascinating case studies for exams but also made us think about the fundamental importance of our subject and how thinking geographically may be the key in managing hazardous environments. Many thanks go to all colleagues who supported the event and a great thank you to Iain and Kate for coming to Birmingham.

Previous spotlight was on Ben Ward

Congratulations to Ben Ward CGeog from Penwortham Girls High School for coming runner up in The Teaching Awards North West region.
More information about the awards

Previous Spotlight was on Graham Goldup 

On Monday 8th December, the Cardinal Newman Catholic School in Hove held their prize giving celebrations at The Dome at Brighton Pavillion. Guest of honour was Jake Meyer, the youngest man in the world to climb the 7 summits and at the time the youngest Briton to climb Mt Everest. The following day, Jake was interviewed for a BBC School Report by several of the Cardinal Newman Catholic School pupils. Graham Goldup, one of our recently accredited Chartered Geographer (Teachers), was instrumental in getting Jake involved with the prize giving and the filming. Graham is pictured above in Jake's climbing suit!

Previous spotlight was on Richard Allaway

My name is Richard Allaway. I am the Geography Curriculum Leader at the International School of Toulouse (IST), the author of geographyalltheway.com - an online geography resources website, an International Mountain Leader and a Chartered Geographer.

At the International School of Toulouse we teach IGCSE and IB Geography with a high level of Information and Communication Technology with each student having their own laptop computer with school wide Internet access.

I have developed geographyalltheway.com over the last two and a half years to support my classroom teaching and to share my resources with other Geography teachers and educators across the globe. The site hosts complete IGCSE Geography and IB Geography courses plus the Key Stage 3 curriculum we teach at the IST. My online geography resources can be used with other GCSE, AS and A2 Geography courses. geographyalltheway.com has a showcase page to give users a feel of the range of resources available on geographyalltheway.com, the showcase page can be found here.

I am a big supporter of the use of web2 technologies in education. They have an important and developing role in my teaching, benefiting the learning experience of my students and helping to make my working life a little easier. I blog and twitter about my educational adventures at my blog - geogalot which can be read here.

Previous spotlight was on Alan Parkinson

I became a CGeog (Teacher) in April 2007, and since then I've had some major geographical changes in my career.

The last year has seen me involved as a Regional Subject Adviser for the new KS3 Curriculum, working with colleagues in the Eastern region. I also presented sessions at the RGS-IBG, the GA Conference, the SAGT Conference and Norfolk Geography Conference. I created the Edexcel NING network (http://newedexcelgeog.ning.com/) which, a year on, has over 170 members, supporting colleagues as they prepare for the new Edexcel ‘A' level specification. I also completed my 21st year as a geography teacher.

From September 2008, I have worked as Secondary Curriculum Development Leader for the Geographical Association, based in Sheffield, but with a lot of travelling. This is an exciting, and unique, job which involves me in curriculum projects including building teacher networks, controlled assessment, and all aspects of curriculum change. It is the culmination of five or more years of increasing involvement in the wider geography ‘community', particularly since the arrival of the Action Plan for Geography.

A month after hearing about my new job, I was delighted, and honoured to be awarded the Ordnance Survey Award for "excellence in the teaching of geography in secondary education", presented by Vanessa Lawrence and Sir Gordon Conway at the Society's AGM.

With other members of the Geography Collective, I have been involved in the creation of ‘Mission Explore' (http://www.missionexplore.co.uk/): which aims to get young people out of the house and carrying out geographical investigations in their local area.

I have also acted as referee for other potential CGeogs. I also have a plan to do a photographic transect around the Norfolk coast to be used in a range of new resources that I am creating.
You can follow what I get up to on my new blog: http://livinggeography.blogspot.com/, and I will be maintaining my website at http://www.geographypages.co.uk/.

The CGeog is a qualification which spurs you on to improve your own professional development, and maintain the curiosity about the subject. Teachers should also be learners, and the CGeog provides a framework for that process, as well as recognition when it is achieved.

If you are a Chartered Geographer and would like to be featured in the spotlight section, please email Claire at cgeogteacher@rgs.org