Geography and all that Jazz

Sharing the blog on Substack

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Parkinson) — Sat, 15 Nov 2025 11:33:24 +0000

I've been sharing my blogs over on my Substack Newsletter. This comes out weekly and provides an update on blog posts, projects, news, books, images and events linked to geography.

Subscribe here.

A new blog for 2026 - contributions welcome

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Parkinson) — Sat, 11 Oct 2025 13:09:00 +0000

This blog started out with the idea of sharing some musical geographies...

I've been working on preparations for a new 365 project blog: a post a day for a year and now its time to get more people involved if you have a few moments.

I've completed several of these 365 projects before, including my GeoLibrary blog, Geography on/in Film and Fieldnotes from Iceland.

My latest blog is going to be on the theme of music and its geographical connections in the broadest sense, including how it connects us to specific places or moments in time, captures landscapes and emotions or forms part of our cultural geography.

Most people have some personal connections to particular musical genres or musicians.

Few people go through life without music in it... we pick music for giving birth and saying goodbye for the final time; the 'first dance'; 'our song'... travelling music... music to get us to sleep or get us going in the morning.

Music provides comfort, enjoyment even personal moments of ecstasy. It can lead to obsession and collections and also provoke anger. It can be political and radical or anodyne and mainstream and called "elevator music" for its blandness.

The creation and consumption of music has an environmental, economic and social impact on the planet: From Taylor Swift's billion dollar plus ERAS tour, to a folk performer in an upstairs room in a pub.

Every generation has its opinions on the music of the past, and the new music that is emerging and becoming popular. Music or noise? "What's that you're listening to?".

We've also seen other changes to music over the decades.

Different formats - the decline and rebirth of vinyl (and even the cassette tape)
The rising price of concert tickets and the replacement of cardboard tickets with stubs to print your own or show me them on a phone screen... complete with animations in the case of AXS.

The hybridisation of music to create new genres.
Our consumption of music from the physical product in our hands to streaming and skipping from track to track - not the ritual of playing all of Side One then all of Side Two.

In preparation for the launch of the blog on the 1st of January, I've created a Google Form which I hope you'll help me with by completing as much of it as you can. It includes some of the areas that I will explore through 2026.

I'll post this request again in November and December to hopefully get a good response and also add it to a few other social media locations.

Thanks in advance if you feel able to help me out.

There will be other surveys too, once the blog has launched on the 1st of January 2026 - the first few weeks' posts are already scheduled so that I can hit the ground running.

There's plenty of great things to come...

Click the link here to open the form.

I'd usually embed it, but there is an opportunity for you to add images you've got of favourite concerts, tickets, t-shirts, memorabilia or anything else you'd like to share.

And don't forget Public Service Broadcasting's awesome public service announcement before their gigs... plenty more from them to come on the blog.

300 000 page views

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Parkinson) — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 09:53:00 +0000

This blog was mothballed years ago, but still gets regular visitors and another milestone passed.

Thanks for reading.

Why not head over to LivingGeography or subscribe to the Substack...

And while you're here...

A request to cast a vote for Rayburn Tours in the Best School Tour Operator (Large) category of the UK School Travel Awards if you can please, particularly if you have travelled with them with your school.

I work for them as a Field Studies Tutor and we are all proud to work for this family firm which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. This would certainly add to the celebrations.

The voting form can be accessed here.

Thanks very much :)

160 000 page views

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Parkinson) — Sat, 25 May 2019 13:52:00 +0000

Good to see people still coming across this blog, and finding it useful. Head over to LivingGeography for all my current bloggage.

The Great American Eclipse

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Parkinson) — Sun, 06 Aug 2017 09:00:00 +0000

I wonder whether anyone I know is heading to America to see this event...

A good swathe of the country will be heading to areas along a long strip of land stretching across the country, where they will be able to see a total eclipse on August the 21st...
It may well be the chance of a lifetime for many to see such an event.
There's a fantastic ESRI StoryMap made by Mike Zeiler of ESRI below, which tells you all you need to know about eclipses, and this one in particular...

130 000 page views...

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Parkinson) — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 21:20:00 +0000

Thanks for reading...

100 000 page views

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Parkinson) — Sun, 25 Sep 2016 08:52:00 +0000

Not quite the 2 million of Living Geography but thanks for continuing to read this blog. Although it's archived and has been for some years, there's still plenty here that will be new to some...

GA CPD Courses for 2013-14

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Parkinson) — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 14:18:00 +0000

The details of the CPD courses being offered by the GA in the new academic year have been released, and are available for booking now.
Visit the website for details of all the courses.

I'm delighted to say that I will be leading the following days... at various venues around the country from the middle of November through to June 2014...
Hope to see some of you at one of these events...

Last post

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Parkinson) — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 18:48:00 +0000

For all future geographical information, please visit Living Geography.
Thanks for reading for all these years :)

Some news...

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Parkinson) — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 09:20:00 +0000

Over on LivingGeography - another chapter about to start...

40 years ago today...

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Parkinson) — Sat, 25 May 2013 18:50:00 +0000

40 years ago today, an LP was released which 'broke the rules'...
Tubular Bells was the work of teenage Mike Oldfield. He was backed by Richard Branson, who decided to create a record company called 'Virgin Records' so that he could release the album. Mike played all the instruments, and multi-tracked them. He created a continuous piece of music, rather than a lot of singles.

I first heard Tubular Bells when I was aged 10 or 11. My uncle Steven had a copy, and played it all the time when I went round to my nana's house. I loved it so much that I bought my own copy.

I have probably played this album well over a thousand times in my life. I have seen it performed live several times, and was also present at the world premiere of the 3rd version of the album - getting very wet on Horse Guards Parade.
Oldfield has also recorded other albums which together have formed the soundtrack to my life for the past 40 years.

Ommadawn is my 'train journey' album - 'Hergest Ridge' is my 'relaxation' album, and 'Crises' reminds me of my visit to Norway, and listening to 'The Lake' by the most wonderful glacial lake on a balmy evening...

LocateStreet

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Parkinson) — Wed, 22 May 2013 09:06:00 +0000

Here's a mention for a new Geography game called LOCATESTREET

This is a 'variation' on GeoGuessr, with various points being offered for guidance, although the Elevation option doesn't offer that much help...

You can choose to play on a Global basis, or other scales.

You are presented with 4 options of location to choose from, and if you pick the correct option you can earn bonus points for clicking on the actual location on a map...
The site takes you to some fairly out of the way places... I seemed to end up on rural roads, and in cul-de-sacs on industrial estates quite often.

Hardcore players should choose the GLOBAL option... and discover that South America looks a lot like Australia in places...
Choose the COUNTRY option, and explore a range of countries from a list, which includes the UK. This offers potential for a CITY based search for example.
There are also some US based Thematic search options.

The game is addictive. Had to stop myself playing on it last night....
If you get one of the highest scores so far you can enter your e-mail to be added to the High Score table. May be an incentive for some to use additional 'support' to search for business names etc., but that wouldn't be in the spirit of the game...

Also, while playing, I've come across a few random sights.
This looks like some sort of hawk diving into a field to catch something ?

And what is this bloke doing standing in the road ?

The game was developed by Nick Burkhart of Chelonia Labs in California.

As with GeoGuessr, there are various clues that you can look for to help with locating yourself in fairly random housing estates.

Telephone dialling codes tend not to be blurred out. 020 will tell you that you're in London.

If on a main road, head for junctions where there'll be road signs.

Look at the vernacular building materials - some places have distinctive stone or house designs.

Become familiar with the basic geography of London, which features heavily in the UK option.

Be aware though, that they can be misleading. I spotted a Yorkshire registration on a motorbike, which ended up being up in the far north of Scotland, flipping tourists...

GA Conference 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Parkinson) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 12:20:00 +0000

I'm preparing my contributions to the Geographical Association Conference today.

The conference will be held at the University of Derby, which is my favourite of the three venues. It runs from the 4th to the 6th of April.

The first day of the conference doesn't involve any of the usual workshops.
I will be heading over to the Association at Work session to grab a bite to eat, and chat to Ian Cook (who features in this month's 'Geographical' magazine coincidentally) to talk about a Follow the Things project I'm doing between now and the end of June.

Later that afternoon, it's the public lecture from Ellen MacArthur, followed by the GA Awards. I know that something I worked on has won an award, and there may be a few more in the offing too...
Then it's the wine reception, followed by a few drinks with esteemed geographer colleagues...

Friday is the main day of the conference, with sessions from early in the morning to late in the evening. My draft schedule is as follows:

9am

Lecture 2

Oceans for the Geography Classroom from Jamie Buchanan Dunlop. I've worked with Jamie on three different projects this year for Digital Explorer.

Workshop 6

Ian Cook – Follow the Things

A controversial choice as this clashes with Bob Digby's Presidential Lecture, but I'll be going along to get ideas and pointers for the work I'm doing with Ian. I'm sure there'll be a big turn out for Bob's lecture so I won't be missed...

11.45

Workshop 11 – SPC

I'll be going along to support SPC colleagues in their workshop.

Lunch, and a chance to network with colleagues. I'll also spend some time on the Discover the World stand to share ideas on the mission booklet which we've put together with them.

1.50

Lecture 7

David Lambert

My old boss talking about the thorny subject of progression in Geography - what's not to like.

2.55

Workshop 20

APPening Geography

I'm up on this one. Katy Shipman and I will talk about apps, and their use in geography. We'll ask people about their favourite apps, and explore how they can support learning.

4.30

Workshop 26
I'm up on this one as well.. going to be a busy couple of hours !

Two Hundred Heads are better than one
I'm going to act as master of ceremonies, and introduce two sessions by Tony Cassidy and John Sayers. They are both on the theme of collaborative work, and the importance of sharing.

5.35

Lecture 13

Urban Vignettes - Emma Rawlings-Smith and other colleagues who are involved in setting up a website with writing on urban areas. I'm hoping I can get across in time to join this one.

SPC Meal - down into Derby Centre for a pizza and a chat with colleagues...

GeoBeerMeet - over to the Brunswick Inn near the railway station for a gathering of teachers and some fine ale...

Sign up for the event on Google+ here

After the GeoBeerMeet I shall sleep soundly, knowing that my major contributions to the event have been concluded.

The second main day of the conference is on Saturday.

9am

Lecture 13

Digital Earth - a lecture by Karl Donert, related to an EU project which I am involved in, and which has taken me to various European locations... which is nice :)

10.10

Keynote – the changing Arctic

Terry Callaghan lecture - an important element of the conference is the chance to develop knowledge and skills in new areas. This is an area that I've been focussing on with some reading, and will develop further for some writing I'm planning in 2013 and beyond.

11.45

Mission Explore fieldtrip - a quick trip out, with a trial of some of the missions in the book

1.50

Forum

Bringing knowledge back in
A range of contributors from the various UK nations...

If you're going along to the conference, come and say hello.

John Muir Trust Mission Booklet

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Parkinson) — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 11:36:00 +0000

For the last few months we've been working with the amazing folks at the John Muir Trust to put together a booklet of missions which marries the Mission:Explore style of missions to the aims of the trust, which are to encourage young people to experience the landscape, and care for wild places.
John Muir was the father figure of nature conservation, and quotes from him have been included to connect the missions with some of the ideas that he had over a century ago.
The resource is part of the celebrations for the Year of Natural Scotland, 2013

You can get to see the missions on this GRAPHICLY page. It will be available in other locations shortly, and I'll add the links to those as they emerge.

Here's a slide that I've used in many of my presentations...

Get out and about this Easter... and don't forget to take the opportunity to Mission:Explore...

New Year, New Geography

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Parkinson) — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 19:36:00 +0000

Happy New Year everyone - after 10 days away, I'm now firmly back in the room....

Join me on the 8th of January at 7pm for a VITAL CPD Teachshare, the first of the new year...

New Year New Geography

It's a chance to look ahead to what you have planned, and what might happen in the world of Geography.

I'll be previewing 13 of the things that I'm planning to get up to in 2013, and some opportunities for everyone to get involved...

1. Why not start a 365 project (if you're reading this before the first few weeks of the year are over you have chance to catch up...

I'll talk about my 365 projects past and future...

This year, I'm going to carry on Blipping, and also do a literacy blog at GeoLibrary 2013

I'm also going to be opening the archives (see previous blog post on that ) and have also created some new Pinterest boards to hold those images.

2. Blogging

I'm going to be hopefully breaking through the 5000 post barrier on LivingGeography.... and heading towards a million viewers....

3. Project 1

I USE Stats in Education is underway, and I will be going to Europe at least twice this year, and also spending time creating resources and sharing them as widely as possible. The theme is statistical literacy, which is of great relevance to geography, although this is a project that has relevance across the curriculum.

I'll also continue to be involved in another EU project called digitalearth. The first course, in Salzburg at the end of February is confirmed, and I am also going to Stockholm and Helsinki at the start of February too.

4. The Geography Collective

We're going to have a fairly big year this year. Watch this blog for more details as they emerge...

5. Writing

I am going to be writing another couple of books (at least) this year for a number of publishers, including Collins. I'm looking forward to it... More details here as they emerge - I still have a few contracts to sign. You still have chance to spend your Christmas book tokens on the books I wrote last year. I've also got an idea for another book that I'm writing a proposal for at the moment...

6. CPD

I am going to be working with OSIRIS for the first time, and also leading several courses for the GA as always. I'll be visiting various universities, CPD courses, schools (including Charterhouse) and doing the Independent Schools' conference in Oxford in March. I'm also heading for several cities. I still have plenty of space in my diary (at the moment) so get in touch If you'd like me to work with you...

7. Still High and Dry

Since I was asked to do my GA lecture on flooding last year it hasn't stopped raining and there's certainly few subjects that are more topical at the moment. If you have a good flood story, get in touch and I can squeeze it in there...

8. VITAL Work continues...

I shall be creating materials for the VITAL Geography portal until at least the end of March. The portals are continuing beyond then, but looking forward to continuing this strand of support for colleagues. There were some special codes tweeted by Peter Twining over the Christmas and New Year period for free access. These might still be live....

9. Discovering the World

I have been working on a booklet for Discover the World with John Sayers, Helen Steer and Tom Morgan Jones. It's coming soon....

10. Personal Development

This is the 6th year I will have been a Chartered Geographer. This is coordinated by the Royal Geographical Society. As part of the deal, I have to submit a CPD log which means I need to evidence my involvement in CPD: my own as well other people's. To that end, there are a few things I've got pencilled in to develop my own practice...

11. Photography

As well as my Blipoto album, I'm going to try and reach a total of 10 000 pictures shared on my Flickr account this year.

12. I'm going to get out more, and do more cycling....

13. Winds of Change

Fingers crossed that we won't be unlucky in bidding for a big project that could see me working (almost) full time for a year on a major science-based project involving real-world data.... I'll let you know if and when that happens...There's also a big project bid in

Join me over on Living Geography to read it all - don't forget to subscribe to / follow the blog... or follow me on Twitter: @GeoBlogs

Minecraft and Geography

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Parkinson) — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 15:27:00 +0000

Does this image mean anything to you ?

If not, then you've probably never heard of MINECRAFT: a game that has millions of players worldwide and is finding its way into lots of schools too.

My son LOVES Minecraft and has produced some amazing creations on the Pocket Edition that we have on the two tablets in the house. He and his sister play together in a creative world they have generated.

When I upgrade my computer in the New Year, we will put the full version on, and really start to explore the Minecraft Universe.

Recently, after a Twitter exchange with Claire Rafferty in Australia, I created a Google Doc and started to put together a summary document which could form the basis for Geography teachers to start to think about how they could use Minecraft in the Geography classroom... and also explore where it was being used in other parts of the curriculum, and also as an extra-curricular activity.

I discovered Stephen Reid, who I'd quoted in the document was interested in the project, and he was happy to get involved too. He runs a free Minecraft project for schools to get involved with the game. Check it out.

Finally, there seems to be a movie of the creation of Minecraft that has been produced, and the trailer can be seen here - my son will be interested in this:

I'll open the document up to scrutiny and publish it in various places in the New Year so that I can work on it over the Christmas period
Get in touch if you have something you want to contribute...

ICT toolkit books...

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Parkinson) — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 19:36:00 +0000

Preparing some resources for the course on Geomedia in Salzburg that I am leading next week.

You still have chance to get funding to join me for a repeat of the course in February 2013, and the course is likely to run several times during 2013 - I'd love to see lots of you there... you can get your fees, accommodation and travel paid for.

I'm going to be using several activities from two books which I edited, and were published in April this year.

You really need to have a copy of these books in your departmental library.
They have been selling well, and getting good feedback from users.
You can order them from the GA shop - click to follow the link, and remember that GA members get a discount on purchases, and free P&P

Multimedia made Easy by Paul Cornish

GIS made Easy by Bob Lang

End of year debrief...

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Parkinson) — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 18:18:00 +0000

Don't forget to join me at 7pm tomorrow night for a VITAL CPD Teachshare to look back on the academic year, and ahead to the next one....

Geography Network Meetings

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Parkinson) — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 12:51:00 +0000

Over to a local school on Thursday this week for a network meeting organised by Rob Lodge. Rob has been organising these meetings for Norfolk teachers for many years, and they are always useful, so it was good to be able to go along and share some of my recent work, and also have a 20 minute journey to an event rather than one of three or four hours.

There was plenty of interest in the meeting, some of which may form a separate blog post. It was good to meet colleagues new and old, and also have the chance to wish a happy retirement to John, who I've known for many years.

There was some good sharing at the event, which had a range of activities. Some of you may be thinking of organising a local network meeting at your school ? This could be themed around a particular issue, or perhaps based on the Teachmeet style of event with short inputs from everyone. This could be cheap twilight CPD, or a more organised city-wide event. Over the last few years I've been fortunate to be invited to work with a number of events where all the geography teachers from a particular area were gathered in one place for a day.

I think it's vital that teachers meet face to face around a table where possible. In this age of competition and league tables, collaboration is more important than ever, particularly given the slow removal of advisory support.
Here's what we did at the network meeting so that you might get some ideas for organising your own.

Tea and coffee and biscuits on arrival. I put out a display of GA publications and other bits, and there were some freebies for everyone: a Digital Explorer mug, GeographyalltheWay pen, Mission:Explore bookmark etc.

We started by pairing up with somebody we didn't know and sharing something geographical that had happened to us that week, and I shared a picture of my daughter holding the Olympic torch, and the geographical connections that the Olympics has, as exemplified in my Londinium MMXII document, for those who haven't yet seen it.
We then told the other delegates about the person we'd just been talking to, and what their geographical connection was.

We then did a speed-dating activity where each person got to meet the other delegates and swap an idea that they'd been working on recently.
I showed what I'd been doing with Rory's Story Cubes and the idea of story cubes generally....

I picked up ideas on: a unit on researching using the Internet which looked really useful and came complete with a worked example and peer-marking sheet, some work on the 'mantle of the expert' (as featured in the Oops book I blogged about recently), a set of cards with key words and connectives to encourage sentence construction (a manual version of David Riley's Triptico 'Word Magnets' resource), an activity with slides which had limits on slides/words etc, an idea of dialogue between two pupils where one of them has to knock on a door and persuade the other to support their campaign (this came with an activity based on the Malaria no more campaign), a memory challenge with associated card sort, and one colleague had posted a series of videos of geography songs and I then realised I was in the presence of Mr. Sims ! (see earlier blogpost)

One of the ideas I liked best was to go to a sports shop and buy some Captain's Armbands. They're currently £1.50 at Sports Direct. If you're teaching in a school with sport's mad boys in particular, there is a great sense of the need to perform if pulling on the armband, and leading others...

Rob then talked through the new OFSTED framework from September. We were split into groups to discuss the 'geographical implications' of the new judgements. What would 'Good geography' look like and how could it contribute to a whole school judgement ?
Schools that had recently had OFSTED inspections (of which there were three) shared their experiences and observations. There was mention of the need for multicultural developments, better use of LSAs, an appreciation that 'behaviour' didn't just refer to disruption, the need for marking to become a dialogue with an appreciation that students had responded to comments, and the importance of developing independent learning.

There was also mention of the importance of data, with Rob's old classic that it's like underwear: 'what it shows is interesting, what it hides is vital'.

We then had an input from a guest speaker, and someone who was a real expert in what she was talking about. The session was on Literacy and the Global Dimension, and was led by Fran Nantongwe, Outreach Co-ordinator from NEAD, Norwich.

I have blogged about NEAD before, having done some work for them in my time. In fact I wrote a supporting letter for the Paul Hamlyn funded project that Fran is currently working on, while working at the GA.

What was particularly good was that Fran was not a geographer, but was discussing issues which are relevant to all geographers. As Graham Butt has said before in his work on literacy in geography, all geography teachers are also literacy teachers.
Fran provided some really useful suggestions on tackling poor literacy.
She took us through an activity with a geographical focus, on the Sichuan Earthquake of 2010, and provided a range of nice ways to target literacy while keeping the geography angle.

We were then joined by Katy Jones from the Norfolk branch of CPRE, to tell us of an excellent opportunity for Norfolk schools to take part in a photographic competition with the theme of 'Norfolk: a changing landscape'.

I then did a quick update on the work of the GA's National Curriculum Review group, and talked about the use of apps to support fieldwork.
Colleagues then continued to discuss ideas for the coming year, and do some planning.
I had to leave at this point to collect my son from school, but it was a really useful day, and nice to be involved from a different perspective.

I am grateful to Rob for the organisation, Tom and colleagues at Neatherd for hosting and all colleagues who attended.

So, when is your next network meeting ?
Why not organise one ready to kickstart the new academic year ?

My latest book on pre-order

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Parkinson) — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 14:55:00 +0000

At the start of the year, I spent rather longer than anticipated putting together a book for Badger Publishing. It brought together some of the ideas I'd been working on for a while, along with a few more that were kindly lent to me by colleagues (who are all acknowledged in the book, and will also be listed here once I have my hands on a physical copy of the book....)

The book will be useful to those who are preparing students for external assessments, but I would say that a lot of the ideas are transferrable - they are basically good geography....

The book is now available to pre-order (it will be out in April)

GCSE Grade Boosters: Geography Contents

Introduction – what does a C grade geographer look like, and how can students raise their grade to a C and beyond.
Memorable geography – a range of geography activities which can be re-versioned for other topics or particular pupils; includes thinking graphs, lucky lines, maps from memory, and ideas funnel to name just a few.
Students as experts – establishing students as experts and joint creators of resources.
Enquiries – how to introduce, explore and communicate the Big Geographical Questions.
Controlled assessment – how to approach controlled assessment, complete with examples to illustrate the support that can be provided.
Revision techniques – graphic organisers, memory techniques and the power of blogging.
Help from the examiners – exam specs and question types – where and how marks are gained and lost.
Memorable vocabulary – key vocabulary for exam success plus techniques for learning it.
Exciting new tools – word clouds, triptico, google docs and google earth.
Geography after the exam – why a good grade in geography can take you places.

Author: Alan Parkinson an experienced and award-winning teacher with an international reputation for creative and innovative teaching. He has worked with thousands of teachers at hundreds of CPD events in the UK and Europe. This title draws extensively from the experience of successful schools around the country.
Featuring:

A wide range of activities to make the topics covered memorable. Activities can be used for class, group, pair and homework tasks. They can be versioned by you for other topics or particular pupils
Support for exam preparation including a distillation of examiners reports to pinpoint common errors and show
how easily marks are lost and gained, as well as revision and memory techniques that have been shown to work
Help with controlled assessment and how to approach it to get the best results
The key vocabulary for exam success plus techniques for learning it
80 page photocopiable book with re-versionable activities on accompanying CD-ROM.

A perfect gift for Easter.... :)

Culture: latest Digital Explorer site

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Parkinson) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 18:54:00 +0000

I've been working with Jamie Buchanan Dunlop over the last few months, adding some new resources to the OCEANS DIGITAL EXPLORER website.

The Digital Explorer empire is now expanding to CULTURAL matters, linking in with the idea of Citizenship and (as always) a link with real world exploration.

Check out the new CULTURAL WEBSITE which has some superb resources.

The FILMS and PHOTOS section looks like being an amazingly useful resource for exploring Citizenship issues.

New GeoPacks resource and CD

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Parkinson) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 10:04:00 +0000

For over a year now I've been getting regular e-mails from Rick Cope and Mark Hacklett at GeoPacks - creators of the excellent COASTAL MANAGER software - to tell me about the latest free resource that they've shared.

If you want to catch up with the freebies that they've made available, there's now an excellent Resource CD which will get you right up to speed.

It's available for £12 from GeoPacks. Follow the link to find out more.

Make sure you SIGN UP to receive a regular free resource update too.

Follow the link to FREE STUFF from the home page.

VITAL Teachshare: Google Earth Placemarks

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Parkinson) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 10:07:00 +0000

My next VITAL Teachshare will be on Wednesday the 16th of November (that's tomorrow if you're reading this today) at 7pm.
It's on ways of customising Google Earth Placemarks...

Click THIS LINK just before 7 to join me. You'll need to allow the download of the plug-in to handle the Elluminate session, which will then allow you to see and hear me, and to take part.

Don't forget to check the KEYHOLE BULLETIN BOARD to get the full range of layers and files shared by Google Earth users. Use the SEARCH function to unearth the goodness....

This will be my little contribution to WORLD GIS DAY, which is taking place tomorrow, as part of GEOGRAPHY AWARENESS WEEK.

What are you doing for World GIS Day ?
Why not add a touch of GIS to your teaching tomorrow...

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Parkinson) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 20:42:00 +0000

Earlier this year, I was involved in an exciting project with National Geographic Education in the USA as part of the Geography Collective. This led to my friend and colleague Daniel Raven Ellison spending a week at the National Council for Geographic Education conference in Portland, Oregon, and working with educators from across the USA.

This project has been an exciting one to be involved with. It offers a range of activities which can be carried out in your neighbourhood, and earn points for completing them. Would be good for exploring local areas, local wildlife and ideas of community. These will be used across the USA for their Geography Awareness Week later in the year.

You will need to have registered with TES Connect, which is free and takes a few moments.

You can then DOWNLOAD THE BOOKLET as a 34 page, 13 Mb PDF and check it out.

Please take a look and let me know what you think...

noreply@blogger.com (Alan Parkinson) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 15:28:00 +0000

The flyers for the latest GA CPD events have been published on Scribd.

I am leading two NQT Conferences in November 2011

NQT Conference: Making a difference in the classroom

If you are going to be an NQT Geographer or you are going to have an NQT in your department, and you'd like to book a place, contact Lucy Oxley on 01142960088