David Rogers

I've been reflecting for a week now on the outcomes of a residential course I was on last week.  There are a number of points that will impact on my practice. 1. My core purpose is learning.   I've often struggled over my subject or the education of the whole child.  I now certainly think that the whole education of young people is more important than the survival of my subject.  My core purpose is not teaching. I was stunned to learn that the on average 95% of all questions in a classroom are asked by teachers. Is this the way it should be? Is this encouraging independent, reflective learners? I also found that most activities within a classroom are teacher led. Are pupils just learning what we want them too or should we allow them to direct their own learning? 2. Staff in school are a mixed ability cohort I differentiate for my young learners and will use these approaches for adult learners. 3. Knowledge and Skills will change 'Shift Happens' has been around for a whi...

http://saislochaber.blogspot.com/ It's time to keep track of the Scottish Winter conditions!

A big thank you to all those who have taken part in the survey. I would ideally like the opinion of some non-specialist teachers of geography. If you have some in your department, faculty or school I would be grateful if you directed them to the survey here .

Year 7 are starting the new unit: Portsmouth: our amazing place. This year all KS 3 schemes of work will not end with an assessment. This is to encourage pupils to make links between units. I think that if a unit ends with an assessment pupils are more likely to compartmentalize the information. For example, in Year 8, Rainforest's is followed by Tourism in the Rainforest with sustainability being the key concept that runs through both units. Year 7 start off with Amazing Places and the Place, Space and Scale concepts will run through into the next unit. The Year 7 unit is available here . s part of the new unit I hope to report on the different fieldwork techniques used with Year 7. To me, fieldwork should be small scale and embedded into the curriculum - within an hour lesson it's really easy to get out of the classroom. This unit will employ lots of on-site and local area fieldwork as well as integrating the use of maps, both electronic and paper, and GIS. In a trial this ye...