Guest Post: Space Explorers, Space Creators

The latest edition of the Geographical Association’s Magazine is available to members for download today. One of the articles was written by my colleague Jo Debens (@GeoDebs). I asked her to provide a summary of the article for this blog. The project is up for a European Innovative Education Award later in the year.

If you would like to read the article in full, grab a copy of the GA Magazine, or come along to our lecture at the GA Annual Conference in April.

Space Explorers : Space Creators

My name is Jo Debens and I am a Geography Teacher at Priory School Specialist Sports College in Portsmouth. This is a large city comprehensive school on a difficult site and was one of the many schools destined for the ill-fated Building Schools for the Future project.

The original aims of this project were to enable and empower young people at Priory School by developing their confidence with communication, to increase their understanding of spaces, and to use student voice to influence the decision makers. The project initially involved a small group of volunteers, however over time it grew to become part of the core Year 7 curriculum. We conducted a confidence poll using surveymonkey.com to assess how children’s confidence and understanding developed throughout the project and the results were very positive. My favourite quote with respect to this being “I was really nervous before [about speaking to adults] but I am confident now and they are just human”! The young people learned a range of skills through using a range of free technology and having the opportunity to work with professionals and school leaders.

We incorporated a range of software, mostly available for free via the Microsoft Partners in Learning Network. Students investigated their school space and interpreted it using AutoCollage and PhotoSynth, they also created videos as part of the BBC News School Report to share their work with others. Students created 3d digital floorplans of the school as they perceived it, highlighting what improvements they felt would benefit their learning. They were encouraged to consider compromise, to empathise, to consider budgets and to determine what is required – which involved being very perceptive about their own learning needs.

Finally, students’ work was shared with professional architects, school leaders and local councils and the feedback from these was very encouraging – students were seen as “professionally stunning”.

The project was supported in the early stages by the RGS (IBG) Innovative Geography Teaching Grant, The Geography Collective and the 21^st Century Learning Alliance. Recently, however, I applied for the Microsoft Innovative Teaching Award and was honoured to be a UK winner for the work involved. After attending the Innovative Education Forum in Manchester and displaying this work I am now taking the project to the European round of the award in Moscow 2011. It is credit to our young people and to the department as a whole.

For more information please contact me, visit the Key Stage 3 blog, or attend the Geographical Association conference in April 2011.

High Impact, Low effort

This month is the start of the #29daysofwriting challenge. I enjoyed this last year and will be using my Staffrm account to post. I'll also be reporting here, both to give a little more detail and to keep a log of what I have written. The challenge developed a great sense of community last year, which is why I'm choosing to write on Staffrm. What I would say to those who are new to writing or don't want to run out of ideas is: Write for yourself. Clarify an idea, write something out loud. The process of distilling thoughts into writing is immensely beneficial to your practice. If other read, comment and respond, that's a bonus. Ignore the muppets who know nothing of your context, style or students. Mix it up - I like to read about real stuff from real classrooms and schools and also about other stuff. If we always write about school, how does that work for workload? If you've nothing nice to say, don't say it. So, the following has been

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 is not always conducive to profound

The danger of Teaching and Twitter conversations: poorly formed bipolar arguments.

Sometimes in life, there really are only two options. Get the wrong one and you can look like a muppet. Take this useful sign for the toilets in Morocco. I successfully navigated it, choosing the right option. The result? No egg on my face. As a mountain leader, there are many right or wrong decisions that I’ve faced, as there are all over life. It’s not a good idea to let inexperienced young people walk themselves down Snowdon. They may die or be seriously injured. If someone is showing the signs and symptoms of hyperthermia, you need to treat it fast in a specified way. There is no real arguing with this sign: Other options are less obvious. Take this sign recently spotted near to where I live: Now, I wouldn’t consider sleeping in a bin. However, faced with a sub-zero night, I could see the appeal. The danger? Being tipped into one of those huge lorries with a compactor. (by the way, I only really considered all of this thanks to questions from my four year old boy).

David Rogers

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