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Topics - kevincooper777

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General Discussion / The secret of longevity (and quality of life in the meantime)
« on: January 26, 2013, 03:15:07 PM »
Interesting research into Ikaria, a Greek island with a life expectancy 10 years above UK etc. - relevant to some Specs I guess - eg AQA AS Health? - or if like me you are just trying to take every opportunity to brainwash your students towards at least considering the value of a non-consumerist approach to life...! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20924967

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General Discussion / They Might Be Giants
« on: January 26, 2013, 03:10:01 PM »
I love these people - I'm sure not everyone's taste, but for me... so when I recently found that they have some geographically-related songs other than Istanbul not Constantinople http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo0X77OBJUg (which I played to Y11 as they were discussing about New York being New Amsterdam before - and they loved...):
Alphabet of Nations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drgrvDypOjA
I am a Palaeontologist (for the geologists on here) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7zo2zY1Zqg

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General Discussion / Excellent sounding INSET re Ds to Cs in Geography
« on: January 17, 2013, 06:56:09 AM »
http://osiriseducational.co.uk/all-pupils-pass-geography.html  - Weds 13th March London 20th March B'ham
Not cheap at £279 but if your INSET budget holder is persuadable I'd def go for it, especially if Ds to Cs is a focus for your school / department...
Osiris INSET I went on a few years ago was the best I've ever been on - inspirational - and that's from me, quite a cynic, hard to please, etc.
And the leader of this INSET is the one and only Alan P...

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General Discussion / David Rogers - Teacher Blog of the Year
« on: June 14, 2011, 04:41:07 AM »
http://www.sec-ed.co.uk/cgi-bin/go.pl/article/article.html?uid=84420;section=News;type_uid=1

Not sure if people have seen this...

(see http://daviderogers.blogspot.com/)

Apart from the quality, I'm always amazed by the time commitment many geographers seem to put in to stuff additional to the 'day job', David among them.

Have to say, I do feel that geographers largely seem to lead the way with web stuff, and with being a 'connected, sharing community' (I think SLN plays a big part there - though I've noticed fewer posts of late -wonder if it's because more people are tweeting, blogging, etc.)

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General Discussion / Painted favela in Rio
« on: November 25, 2010, 11:01:50 PM »
Nice image to add to lessons on favela improvements

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/picturegalleries/7826854/A-Rio-de-Janeiro-favela-or-slum-is-turned-into-a-rainbow-of-colour-with-paint-and-local-help.html

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General Discussion / good resource for mobile phones lesson
« on: November 21, 2010, 04:57:31 PM »
If like me you do the mobile phones lesson linking us with gorillas and guerillas - and toxic e-dumps in China - then this website will be useful: http://storyofstuff.org/electronics/

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General Discussion / Dubai changes since 2000
« on: November 03, 2010, 09:55:17 AM »
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldOfChange/dubai.php

'Movie' of aerial photos from 2000-2010 - guess might be useful if you teach Dubai at all...

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General Discussion / Hydraulic Action - clarification needed
« on: September 17, 2010, 08:26:03 AM »
Can anyone confidently help me with this:

I have always taught hydraulic action as erosion caused by the 'explosive' release of air in cracks following compression from a wave or river water in a joint or other crack in the river bank / cliff.

My AS text book (Barker et al, AQA) doesn't mention this at all and simply talks about "movement of unconsolidated material due to the frictional drag of the moving water on sediment lying on the channel bed".

I'm guessing that both of these processes can be classified as hydraulic action, but I am mystified as to why the AS book doesn't even mention the first bit...

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General Discussion / Wycombe High School site
« on: September 14, 2010, 04:48:34 PM »
 ??? Does anyone know where this has gone? - there were loads of good things - guess they might have gone 'private' - seems they have a moodle, so prob the case - but just asking in case there is still a way of accessing the stuff (I use it as extra reading for A-level students)

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Coming up / Last train home - Chinese new year mass migration back to villages
« on: September 10, 2010, 09:07:15 PM »
see http://www.channel4.com/programmes/last-train-home

Last Train Home documents how, every spring, China's cities are plunged into chaos as a tidal wave of migrant workers return home by train for the Chinese New Year
Next on More4
Tue 14 Sep, 10PM
(loads of good stuff on 4od, incidentally)

More detail: Lixin Fan's extraordinary and visually stunning film, showing in the True Stories strand, charts one family's involvement in the world's largest planned mass migration.
Every year in the days leading up to the Chinese New Year, the train and bus stations of China's booming cities are besieged by millions of migrant workers seeking to return to the villages and families they left behind in search of a better life.
One such family are Suquin Chen and Changhua Zhang, who left their village 16 years ago, consoled by the knowledge that their wages would offer their children a better life. But their daughter Qin, feeling abandoned, has quit school and herself become

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Job vacancies and job seekers / Geography job in Padua, Italy
« on: September 08, 2010, 11:39:06 PM »
If anyone has seen this in TES and is considering applying, might be worth looking at:

http://www.justlanded.com/english/Italy/Forums/Education/The-English-International-School-of-Padua2

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General Discussion / Cantonese speaking geography students
« on: September 07, 2010, 03:21:20 AM »
Just to say I have a very useful (and comprehensive!) English-Cantonese glossary produced by Hong Kong education board if anyone has students who might make use of it I'm happy to e-mail the pdf - just let me know.

13
General Discussion / Thomas Cook was a teetotal preacher
« on: September 02, 2010, 09:59:28 PM »
Of all the ironies, the first package tour (to Loughborough!!??!) was an attempt to dissuade workers from 'the demon drink'.

Thought the rest of the article was thought provoking... encouraging 'outrespection' is probably my key motive as a teacher.

See http://outrospection.org/2010/08/30/584

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General Discussion / Which GCSE Spec? Edexcel B? OCR A? other?
« on: July 31, 2010, 11:18:28 PM »
Just in case anyone has a view on this they are willing to share... (had joint Y10/11 group this year so only starting new GCSE this year...)

I'm not normally indecisive, but I can't decide which Spec to do (starting new GCSE in September).

I've been involved with OCR A, including examining one paper this summer and starting the ning, but I am beginning to think it might not be the best for my students, even though I like it in many ways.

I also marked an Edexcel B paper this summer and began to think maybe this was the Spec for me. A couple of teachers on the OCR A ning are swapping to Edexcel B, which helped me feel more confident I might be making a sensible decision...

Another reason I've been thinking of swapping to Edexcel B is the ning - which has so much more stuff on than the OCR one - partly a result of the much larger numbers involved (only c.145 on OCR A) - but an important consideration in my book...

But then I have read on the ning disillusionment with the Spec in terms of the amount of content that needs to be covered, and I know my students will not be the best at working hard on HW etc., so that is worrying me.

I realise most people are (wisely) switching off from school just at the moment, but if anyone sees this and is willing to share their views (by e-mail if you don't want to publicise your views -see profile), I'd appreciate it in terms of helping me just clarify my thoughts a little.

Just off to do Coast-to-Coast (walk) tomorrow so won't be deciding until return in 10 days' time...

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General Discussion / Gulf Oil Spill and interesting geography teaching comment
« on: July 14, 2010, 02:02:41 PM »
On my regular TED talks update e-mail, interested to see the following comment 'headlined' - it was a post in response to the TED talk on the Gulf Oil Spill (which I will get round to listening to when exam marking is out of the way!):

Markus Gershater on Carl Safina: The oil spill's unseen culprits, victims   

"I remember a geography lesson I had at school: we were presented with an oil-spill scenario, with a certain amount of resources to contain it. We put our booms out, got the straw bales and put in place our contingencies. Once we had made our preparations, the teacher then gave us a series of 'updates' as the spill progressed, that we had to respond to. As the updates kept coming (wind picked up, oil spread out, etc.), all of our efforts failed, no-one had succeeded.

The lesson seemed to be one big trick question -- there were no winners, no ways to beat the scenario. I can remember being incensed by this, but on reflection it was probably the best geography lesson I ever had. Certainly beat those ones where all I seemed to do was colour rivers and coastlines carefully in with blue pencil!"

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