GIS for All 27 November 2008

I am running a seminar on GIS.  Please see details below or refer to the pdf file here. E flyer for 27 Nov

Developing GIS within the Curriculum

Thurs 27 November

Simon Balle School, Hertford

9.30am – 3pm

Cost: £69 (including follow up on Wed 4 February)

Lead practitioners have been appointed by the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust to get teachers working together and share good practice seen in local schools. Simon Balle School Hertford is a Humanities Specialist School with Geography as the lead subject. This is an excellent opportunity for current geography teachers to meet other teachers and find out about issues that affect us all.

Who should attend?

Anyone teaching geography will find this event useful. You will be able to be part of a network of teaching planning and preparing material to be used in schools.

There will be sessions on using different types of GIS within the curriculum and opportunities to plan lessons with other teachers.

This is an exciting opportunity to make the most of the resources that we all have access to.

For more details please contact Jo Baynham, Simon Balle School on baynhamj@simonballe.herts.sch.uk

Or, to book a place on this course go to www.ssatrust.org.uk/lpseminars Humanities events and the booking code is SVN1007376

Your school should be a member of the SSAT but it is still possible to book even if you are not. Please contact us for details.

Last year…..

“Meeting teachers from other schools was really useful. I took away lots of new ideas”.

“The discussions and time we had was invaluable”.

SSAT Humanities Conference 16-17 June 2008

Planning an Africa Day.  This my presentation for the event.  Please do contact me if you have any further questions.

First Meeting of Hertfordshire GA Branch

Thank you to everyone who attended the meeting last night.  It was a really positive start to what I hope will be a successful branch of the GA.  Those who volunteered to help will meet in the next few weeks and discuss the next steps so I will keep you posted.

Minutes of first Hertfordshire GA Meeting 30 April 2008

 The following were given as ideas for future events:

• Regular meetings to discuss good practice and student involvement
• World wise quiz – organise a question master.  Organisers send questions.  Aimed at Yr 9 and 10.  Enfield already doing this.  Richard Gill is the person to contact.  You can apply for the World wise Challenge – fieldwork with a competitive edge.  Possibility of Herts. uni as a venue
• Primary – smooth transition from Ks2 – KS3.  Lose interest?  Regular meetings would iron out this problem.  Claiming back the time as a primary teacher – not just numeracy and literacy etc.  Want flexibility in the curriculum- follow children’s interest / topical events
• But non-specialists sometimes want a framework – lack subject knowledge.
• Geography Matters, Shift Happens etc – promoting geography/inspiring / etc
• Resources (esp. fieldwork equipment) kept here – use Simon Balle as a hub.  One evening a week come to Simon Balle to use resources
• GIS – use Google Earth, but it’s hard for a lot of people to do anything more.  Need to expand our knowledge and understanding of GIS.
• Promoting 6^th form conference – uni.  Twilight sessions – venue/jobs/etc cause problems.  University lectures deliver topic specific talks, Chief Examiners etc
• Local fieldwork
• Running the branch – 4 full members to be a committee and need to have specific roles – Chair, Treasurer and Secretary.

Hertfordshire GA Branch

The first meeting will be held at Simon Balle tomorrow evening at 7pm.  Please do come along and here David Lambert speak.  If you can’t make the meeting but want to get involved then please contact me.

Presentations from 6 February

Here are the presentations from the 6 February.  If you have any problems then please do let me know.

Mapping your current Curriculum – This sheet needs to be enlarged to A3 for you to map your current provision.

Lead Practitioner Event Wednesday 6 February 2008

Plan for 6 February 2008Geography for the 21^st Century Please bring with you programmes of study, examples of schemes of work and anything you thing has gone really well and you are willing to share with everyone.  Everyone will get a memory pen/usb stick so you can take things away with you.    

9.30 – 10.00	Arrival Register and coffee
10.00 – 12.00	Review of changes to NC and what it will mean for us in our departments.  Sharing current programmes of study and any changes we have already thought about.  Then map our current plans to the new orders.  Areas of current weakness – ICT provision, GIS.  Discuss strategies for tackling this.Look at the idea of geographical concepts and how this could shape our curriculum.
12.00- 1.00	Lunch
1.00 – 2.00	Jonathan Harris – Ideas for using GIS – Aegis, Google Earth, etc
2.00 – 3.00	How can we make it enjoyable – Exemplars form each school on topics that work well / Planning time choosing a topic and planning either individually or in small groups depending on what we want to do.

 Various people have requested issues that they want to talk about so I am hoping there will be plenty of time to discuss other issues as well as KS3.  A Level changes are also a concern so hopefully we could have short discussion on that as well.   I have Jonathan Harris coming to discuss GIS. He previously worked with us at Simon Balle and has great ideas on the use of GIS.  I hope this programme suits what everyone wants to get out of the day.  There are 12 of us this time so it should allow for much more discussion.  Anything else anyone wants to do just let me know.   Lastly I have set up a blog to post things that are relevant so if you want to make a comment or want me to add anything let me know. Thanks JoIf you have found your way to this blog and want to join us please get in touch baynhamj@simonballe.herts.sch.uk

Ideas on how to get students to choose GCSE Geography!

We have been working on this for a few years.  I wrote my Masters thesis on understanding pupils perceptions of Geography and how this can lead to an increase in participation in GCSE geography. I will put up more information about this in the next few days.

This presentation is one that we use with our Year 9s to ‘sell’ geography to them

Starting a new Hertfordshire GA branch

David Lambert has agreed to speak at the launch of the Hertfordshire GA branch at Simon Balle School.  The first event will be at Simon Balle in Hertford on the 30 April so please keep that date free in your diary and I’ll let you have more details as and when I get them.

Planning your New KS3 Geography Curriculum

New KS3 Geography National Curriculum

This is the new KS3 NC document.  Use this for helping to plan your new curriculum

6 Feburary 2008

This is the date of the next meeting.  The purpose of this day is to look at planning for the new KS 3 curriculum.  Details will be posted here.

If you would like to attend and have not already told me then please send me a message.

Thanks

Jo