Naughty Learning in Geography at #bmoble2011

Here are some of the session details as promised. The screencast below is not of the best quality, so expect it to be replaced as soon as I can get around to it. I’ve posted it here now though so that readers can get the general gist.

The session explored a number of naughty learning strategies within a secondary school context. All of these can be scaled according to your location. You could take the risky, whole school approach or create micro-naughtiness in your own classroom.

1. Matching music to locations / photographs or creating a soundtrack for a walk.

This activity allows young people to explore how they feel about spaces and places. Their descriptive and persuasive writing can be extended. It’s about the conversations around the selection of music rather than the act of listening that’s important.

2. Little Notices

This is all about getting young people to communicate their feelings about space to wider audiences. Mobile devices could be used to capture the location. For example, an audioboo justifying and explaining both the notice and location, or a simple photograph.

3. Take 5 (photos)

Use mobile devices to capture five photographs of a place. These could be focused. For example, 5 features of the school that you love / hate / are proud of. You could collage these (maybe using Microsoft’s free AutoCollage) and use them to analyse the images for patterns.

4. Photosynth

Not necessarily naughty this one, and blogged about here and here.

5. Chalk Graffiti

We wanted to map what young people got up to in their social time (breaks) in school. The tool we decided to use was chalk. See the images in the presentation for examples. This is linked to a wider project that is still on going. Update to follow at the appropriate moment.

6. Mission Explore

My friends at the Geography Collective provide a wealth of mini-missions that could provide a springboard to developing children’s understanding of their spaces. At our school, we have embedded some of these opportunities into the curriculum.

If you’d like to know more, feel free to get in touch using the Contact Me button.

Naughty Learning in Geography at #bmoble2011

View more presentations from David Rogers

Useful Links:

Mission Explore

The Geography Collective

My Walks Project

Noel Jenkins’ Wellington Planning Project

Comments

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

Search This Blog