Skip to main content

Campaigning for change–guerrilla geography

IMG_1813

One of the great features of working with creative practitioners is the unexpected outcomes.  As a result of a Creative Practitioners legacy grant, teachers from Priory were able to meet together and work with students and artists.

As a result of bringing together a geographer, an EAL expert (English as an Additional Language), two creative types and some students, we found out that there are 37 languages spoken at Priory School.  This set up an enquiry question that Year 7 students started to explore.

Guerrilla Geography is a concept developed by Dan at the Geography Collective and is a powerful tool to use in the classroom.  To me, geographers not only study their environment but aim to change it.  After all, the current National Curriculum demands that geographers at Key Stage 3 make informed decisions.  In a climate of riots and revolutions, it’s one of the jobs of teachers to model and introduce other, more covert, methods of protest.

During a series of lessons where on-site fieldwork was employed, Year 7 discovered that our school space could reflect the incredible diversity much better. 

Therefore a subtle campaign was developed.  QR codes linked to the pupil’s message and official looking signs were created to place over (non essential non safety security signs of course Winking smile ) signage and placed in prominent locations around the school.  Then we waited.  The QR aspect of the project was inspired by Sam Atkins’ work on the Olympic Geocaching project.

Students used the iPads to record a campaign message at locations and to record the adventure and these were shared using the mirroring features of the iPad and Apple TV.  DiGITAL LEADERS were embedded into the lesson in order to assist students with the filming and location of signs.

This activity is geography as school space affected learning.  The features of a space affect the actions of those within, and this powerful message has been passed (hopefully) to a wider part of the school community.

Check out their work by heading here.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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 
5 comments
Read more

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
4 comments
Read more

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).
1 comment
Read more