Skip to main content

Back to Burgate


Spent the weekend in the New Forest helping to train adult volunteers how to take young people into the outdoors. The course is based at the Burgate school in Fordingbridge. I really enjoy these courses as it's a chance top meet many like minded people who are passionate about outdoor learning. It does make me wonder about the number of topics that are unnecessarily taught within the confines of a classroom in geography.


For example - how many people teach map skills in the class room? To me this has never made sense and I try to ensure that map skills are taught in the context of outside. For example, using a 1:25,000 map of the school grounds to explore contours. Portsmouth must be the flattest place on earth (ok, maybe an exaggeration!). There is only 1/2 contour lines that cut through the school so Year 7 act a detectives to see if they can find them.


I'll be thinking about the other topics that could be taught outside using the school grounds and what is around the local area (e.g. 5/10 mins walk). I think that if I use the new KS3 documents to localise the curriculum (although I'm not getting rid of the global, regional or any wider context!) then more use of the local area can be made. So for example, I may remove rivers from the SoW and look at local coastal planning issues instead?


Also, one of my favorite navigation exercises has got to be night navigation. Exploring places at night not only sharpens up map skills but also creates a completely different sense of place. I'm a sensible sort of bloke, but I always get spooked when walking through a forest enclosure. The effect is multiplied as the group are very quietly counting their paces! Could there be an application in the geography curriculum? Are there opportunities to get pupils out into the night to get a different sense of place. How do spaces change at night? Are they better in the dark? Maybe during the proposed SLN meet this year we should go out into the night..........

Labels

Labels:

Comments

  1. Anonymous19 May 2008 at 20:34

    Great to see you back on the blog beat Dave! - This sounds like a fantastic initiative!

    ReplyDelete
  2. David Rogers20 May 2008 at 09:22

    Many thanks Ollie! Have been a little bogged down recently but have been re-energised from meeting people who have read the blog.

    Glad you like the idea - now it's only the rest of the dept to convince!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What makes a learning experience profound? Personal reflections and possible implications for classroom practice.

I have recently begun a Leadership Pathways journey.  As part of the first core day, we were asked to reflect on a profound learning experience. This got me thinking about how many profound learning experiences I have both been involved in, and how many I have been able to give to others.  Our group came up with a huge long list, but these are my five. Emotional Connected Demanding Reflective Collaborative As always, these are personal thoughts and quite mixed up.  I put them here so that I can look back on them (plus they’d get lost inside my world-cup-free brain) 1. Emotional I can’t think of a time where deep learning hasn’t engaged my emotions.  From being awe inspired to that tingle feeling when a student gets a light bulb moment.  From this-is-the-happiest-day-ever, to I-think-I’m-about-to die.  How often do we engage the emotions of those we teach?  Here, I would argue that having a safe learning environment i...
4 comments
Read more

Banned Word Board

Today I want to share some simple ideas that I have found to be very effective in the classroom. I can't say that they are my own original ideas, although I have played around with them. The first is the Banned word Board. This is a simple display in the classroom that lists a number of words that are not allowed to be used by pupils in their written or oral answers. The effect has been an increase in the quality of written work, and I have almost made comments such as 'Sir it's simple, the stuff just affects the thing and causes people problems'. Pupils are now more able to use specific language, something that is vital especially at GCSE. I have had to make a few modifications, such as the introduction of 'Heavenly Words' This is an additional display placed on the ceiling. I found this necessary as pupils needed some stimulus in finding replacement words. After advice received after posting the idea on the SLN forum , I have also introduced semi-banned words...
Post a Comment
Read more

Year 10 need your help! Can we get Twitter and Facebook in to a GCSE project?

I’ve been told that social media has no place in the classroom.  Now, this post is not to battle that argument head on.  Let’s smash it. This week, Year 10 are visiting Hengistbury Head .  They are investigating whether this piece of coastline should be protected.  They are wondering what you think? You may know the location well, you may not know it at all.  But we’d like to hear from you all the same.  This will either result in some usable data and comments, or not.  Either way, we'll know and I’m sure that your comments will help spark discussion in class! What would Year 10 like me to do? Just simply comment on this post or tweet me, with an answer to this question: ‘Should Hengistubury Head be protected from the Sea? Just answer Yes or No and give a brief reason.  It would also be useful if you could tell us whether you know the area or not. Many thanks in anticipation……   Image – my own.
23 comments
Read more