Tweeting case studies, or historical events...

I'm a fan of the idea of taking a historical event, and bringing it back to life by tweeting (in real time if possible) the events that happened, and adding in images and other information to bring the event to life again...

I've mentioned Twitter and its use in the Badger book... including as a tool for revision purposes.

Thanks to Tania Grigg for the tipoff to a live-tweeting event happening to retell the story of the expedition to conquer Mount Everest in 1953....

Follow the Twitter feed... or the hashtag #Everest53
What events / anniversaries are coming up that could be re-enacted ??

How about 33 years after Harry Truman tweeted... "Feeding the cats... mighty quiet here..."

Or 27 years ago today perhaps.... an engineer at a nuclear power plant in Ukraine... "we have a problem"....

New OFSTED literacy report

As preparation for GCSE Geography, students should be writing a range of texts of different length and complexity to prepare for the particular formats they will face in the exam...

A new report by OFSTED on literacy was published earlier in the week....

So why should geography teachers be bothered ?

Well, as it says in my session from a few years ago down in Suffolk, literacy should be part of the planning for every Geography lesson, or listen to this slidecast, prepared for a Teachmeet in 2010

Speaking, listening, writing and reading should all be part of the experience of geography that all students participate in...

You can download your own copy of the report from HERE in PDF / Word format.

What's particularly nice is to see some work by friends being highlighted in the Geography mentions that are peppered through the report.

There's a mention for Tony Cassidy and colleagues in the geography department at Kirk Hallam Community College, with his innovative scheme of work based on Geraldine McCaughrean's excellent 'The White Darkness' (check out her book 'Fires Astonishment' too) to teach about extreme environments in the Arctic.

Remember that geography literally means 'writing the earth' and the more you read the better you'll be able to write...

Book still available to buy...

We're coming up to another GCSE revision season...
Remember that there are plenty of great revision ideas in the GCSE Badger Book....

Available to purchase HERE.

GA Conference write-up

18 posts describing my experiences at the GA Conference are now up on Living Geography.

Daniel Raven Ellison's TEDx Talk

Dan Raven Ellison, my friend and Geography Collective / Mission:Explore / Explorer HQ colleague was in Switzerland last month doing a TEDx talk on the theme of exploring...

This is well worth watching... Several ideas to use straight away with GCSE colleagues... particularly the idea of 'polar exploration'.