‘These highly interactive webinars [offered by the Geographical Association (GA)] provide primary teachers with the substantive knowledge to enable them to deliver relevant, engaging and stimulating geography lessons.
Focusing on different subjects each session, this course provides practical, transferable ideas to trial before rolling them out in the classroom. Take this knowledge even further by exploring the multiple connections, stereotypes and misconceptions that can make each element challenging to teach and learn.
Choose from human or physical topics in primary geography to build your confidence in the subject or take your primary geography to the next level.
Each booking also gives you complimentary access to a number of In the Know titles to take your knowledge even further.’
(See https://portal.geography.org.uk/event/view/E000158 and https://portal.geography.org.uk/event/view/E000157 for further details).
Our final session of the Geographical Association (GA) In the Know webinar series included three new themes: Development, Resources and Energy. Once again, we had a number of teachers attending throughout the UK and several accessing the recording and resources at a more convenient time. Over the course of three and a half hours, we explored the different themes, intermixed with plenty of activities, whole group discussion opportunities and contributions in the accompanying chat feed.
Since many had attended our previous session, I simply spent a couple of minutes introducing myself, (largely for any newcomers) and reminding individuals about the Geographical Association’s website (https://geography.org.uk/), its Professional Award (https://geography.org.uk/events-cpd/cpd-toolkit/ga-professional-award/) and Primary Geography Quality Mark (PGQM) (https://geography.org.uk/quality-marks/). We then moved swiftly on to explore ‘Development‘ in some depth. ‘Everything in the world changes. Living things grow and landscapes are transformed over time. People, their communities and the places they live in are also subject to change. We talk about the ‘development’ of a child: we can also see changes in neighbourhoods, cities, countries and across the whole world. These changes – especially when they imply an improvement in people’s lives and the places around them – are what we usually mean by ‘development’. When we describe or examine these changes at a global scale, we sometimes talk about ‘international development’. Alongside enhancing their subject knowledge, teachers were challenged to various activities and provided with additional teaching ideas.
The consensus among delegates was to continue and have a lengthier break later, so we pressed on to look at ‘Resources‘. ‘Resources are any materials or assets that humans can make use of. Every resource
(whether naturally-occurring, such as water or coal, or human-made, such as food crops or livestock) has its own importance in our daily lives. However, resources are unequally distributed globally; their availability depends upon their geographic location and the financial wherewithal to exploit them. Competition for scarce or valuable natural resources can cause international conflict; some countries have even gone to war to secure or safeguard the resources they need. The information here will give you a solid background for teaching about the world’s resources, where they are found, and the importance of preserving our vital resources for the future‘. Again, practical tasks and teaching ideas were interspersed with the drip-feeding of knowledge to ensure the audience remained suitably engaged.
Following a 20-minutes break, we reconvened to investigate ‘Energy‘. ‘All living organisms need energy to survive. The sun, directly or indirectly, is the source of all energy on Earth; plants use energy from the sun to grow the food we eat. Without energy, our way of life would be impossible: we would not be able to heat our homes or cook our food; cars, buses, planes and trains would not run; factories would grind to a halt. The information here is designed to give you a solid background for teaching about the different types of energy, where they come from, and the differences between renewable and non-renewable sources of energy’. As I had done previously, information was relayed and supplemented with activities and suggestions to support learning both in and beyond the classroom.
I allocated a few minutes for independent exploration and to take any questions from delegates after each section. The plenary offered time for deeper reflection. At this point, individuals were asked to complete a Google Form, which gave them a chance to identify the key takeaways and their next steps, as well as providing those at the GA and myself with invaluable feedback.
Some of their ‘concluding comments’ can be viewed below:
Sum up today’s webinar in five words or a sentence or two.
Brilliant. Very informative and up-to-date. Emma is a brilliant presenter and always provides useful, practical ideas.
Informative; engaging; interesting; knowledgeable.
What did you enjoy the most today and why? (WWW)
Teaching ideas – really useful, ready-to-go activities that can be used in the classroom straight away. I also really like being given some ‘exploration time’ to bookmark websites, etc. otherwise it’s easy not to do these things when you get swept back into normal classroom life.
Activities given.
What did you enjoy the least and why? (EBI)
Nothing.
Nothing.
List your key takeaways from today’s webinar.
Being careful about the ‘colonial gaze’ and telling a single story with regard to development. Looking beyond ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ and thinking about the extended waste hierarchy.
Complete staff meeting; use activities in lessons.
Consider your next steps. List three things that you intend to do.
Look for ways to get more fieldwork into the curriculum and understanding that it doesn’t need to involve big, costly trips. Thinking about how to weave sustainability through topics. Try and include more decision-making ‘real world’ activities that enable pupils to apply geographical skills, thinking and reasoning.
Complete staff meeting; use activities in lessons.
How has attending this webinar series supported you in your role as a Geography Subject Leader/classroom teacher?
Made me more confident. Provided a host of different activity ideas. Re-activated my enjoyment of geography and a desire to share that with the school community.
Enhanced my knowledge.
Additional comments inserted in the accompanying chat feed or from follow-up e-mails:
Thanks so much! This was really useful!
Thank you very much for sharing this framework. Very helpful. I also wanted to thank you for this morning. Your training sessions are always extremely well put together. I find myself actively looking forward to PGSLN meetings and courses you run because I know I am going to come away feeling inspired and with a host of ideas that I can use in the classroom straight away. Your sessions are always well-paced and very non-threatening and always leave me feeling that little bit more confident in my role as a subject leader.
Thank you, Emma. That was brilliant. Really informative and I love all the teaching ideas.
Thank you very much!
If you have happened to miss this webinar series, then PDF downloads are also available to purchase via the GA’s shop, either as ten individual titles or as a full set (https://portal.geography.org.uk/shop/index?profile=In%20the%20Know). These provide straightforward, accurate and trustworthy background knowledge, explanation, diagrams and glossary on topics in the geography National Curriculum so that teachers can develop their teaching with confidence.
I look forward to seeing evidence of, and hearing about, your endeavours both in and beyond the classroom over the next few months. Feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions or need further advice too.