David Rogers

Well, another SAGT is over. I was privileged this year to be asked to present a workshop on some of my Citizenship ideas in Geography. They seemed to go down well - and I would invite feedback either via email or as a comment. The presentation is embedded below. To vuew the links and references, view the presentation on slideshare and click the 'Notes on slide #'. You will also find my notes for the session. I will post more detailed thoughts and reflections later - I want to ensure this is up for delegates to view. Citizenship Through Geography Sagt 2009 View more presentations from David Rogers .

I think teaching about ' Citizenship' (still don't like that word) is vital. However, I don't believe that it should be a discrete subject. Geography is ideally placed to explore controversial issues and the develop the confidence to successfully engage in our democratic society. Took delivery of these rather nice purple books this week. The project is aimed at teachers of geography and suggests 5 'blot-on' units to existing popular topics. I hope that the book will help teachers to make simple changes to teaching in order to help young people take informed action. Informed participation is in the National Curriculum Geography orders and mentioned in the Curriculum for Excellence. I will be talking about some of the principles and ideas behind Citizenship THROUGH Geography at the SAGT conference this weekend and at the GA Conference next year. Themes covered: 1. What makes it so complicated to decide what's British? 2. Is food really glorious? 3. Every...

What an interesting week! Leaving the school day to one side, there has been a storm of media interest generated by Thursday's Question Time on BBC 1. I wonder how many young people would have seen the broadcast? I wonder how that figure would compare to the number of young people who would be aware of the incident - whether it be through the internet or other forms of media? How many are aware of the BNP's views? How many are able to critically examine them? Leaving aside my personal feelings on the issue - I didn't watch the broadcast as I didn;t feel there would be anything I didn't now already. My view about who to vote for was certainly not going to change. But, how many of the BNP's supporters watch question time on a regular basis? To me, these events have highlighted the need for robust teaching about 'Citizenship' (for want of a better word). I think that Geography is at the core of helping young people to understand and become more informed abou...

It's quiz week and the observation round this year has included this clip: Gave me a lesson idea when examining British Identity. Some of our pupils next year will create their own 'I am' videos. I wonder what factors will be mentioned and which locations will be chosen!

Am back on the old laptop at the moment which has made me realise how easy the MacBook is to use!! Have just finished answering some of the queries attached to the latest resource I am producing. Here is a Wordle of the manuscript to give you a flavour: Details about the resource can be found here . There has been talk of Open Source textbooks on the SLN forum at the moment. I really like this idea and there are some plans underway for Folens to provide online updates of their Geography@Work series. I will let you know more as this develops. Wordle images created using www.wordle.net and used through a Creative Commons licnece

Geography is the perfect subject in which to consider the citizenship agenda. At the moment I'm working on a project for Folens. But how do you make geography overtly citizenship? Simple changes are all that is needed. For example a change in language to use rights, respect and responsibility. an;t go into too much detail - you'll have to wait for the book ;-) A classic example is the inauguration of President Obama. For example, why did he use his middle name? Hussien? What message did it send out? I am a great believer in suspending the usual curriculum when big events happen. All KS3 classes will have a lesson on the topic while KS4 will spend 10-15 minutes considering the impacts. Obama View more presentations or upload your own. (tags: geography obama ) This video flagged up by Cliotech: I used this youTube video to illustrate one of the ways in which we are linked to the USA within popular culture: Thanks to Dan for the declaration of interdependence idea Hat tip to: K...