Normal service will be resumed in 2012...

I'm going to take a couple of weeks away for Christmas (although I probably won't be able to resist blogging if something important happens between now and the 1st of January 2012.)

I'm going to be doing one or two things over Christmas as well as enjoying the festive cheer

• Writing a GCSE book
• Completing a major resource pack for the Ordnance Survey
• Planning out a Children's book I'm going to be writing
• Preparing for CPD events in the New Year
• Writing some Online Updates for Harper Collins
• Edits and proofreading for 2 books I'm editing that are published in early 2012
• Adding new content to my Vital Geography Portal
• Preparing some thoughts for new Curriculum consultation
• Putting together some ideas for Mission:Explore Food

On 1st of January I'll be back with various New Year thoughts...

Please join me on the 5th of January for my Teachshare on New Year New Geography


It'd be great to have your company at 7pm with your plans for the year ahead for New Year New Geography, and if you are tweeting your plans, please use the tag #nyng

Thanks to Rich Allaway for his early contribution to the tag.

Thanks to everyone who's employed me during 2011, or visited this blog and contributed in some way.

HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS, AND WISHING YOU A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR

Moorland Ecology

I worked on a range of projects for the Royal Geographical Society a few months back, and the final pieces of the project that I contributed have now gone live on the RGS website.

They were part of the Goldsmith's funded FROM THE FIELD project.

The latest module which I contributed was for the KS4 series, and is on the theme of MOORLAND ECOLOGY. It explores the process of moorland regeneration, and its link with the ecology that is needed to make the regrowth productive.

It's worth remembering that all the resources from the Geography Teaching Today website have now been migrated to either the RGS or the GA websites, depending on which organisation was responsible for producing the original content.

If you're after the excellent KS3 RESOURCES they are available here on the RGS website.

If you're after the FIELDWORK resources they're here on the RGS website.

Thanks to Rose Wilcox, PhD researcher from the University of Hull for her guidance and support on the From the Field project and images, and thanks to John Lyon for the images that he contributed to the project as well.

Mary Portas Review: Saving the High Street ?

Regular readers of the blog will know that I have an interest in the changing fortunes of town centres and have written various posts on Clone Towns, Rebranding and other projects to revitalise town centres as they face competition from out of town retail parks and the rise of online shopping.

This was also part of the 'A' level specification that I used to teach, and some ancient resources from the Cambridge Urban Field Day that we used to run are available via the link.
I also started a Flickr Group called The Disappearing High Street some years ago, and several kind photographers have contributed their images to join mine.

Mary Portas, who has featured in a number of recent TV programmes looking at changing the fortunes of retail businesses, was asked earlier in the year to explore the ways that the fortunes of the High Street could be turned round. The report was published this morning....



There is also a free KS3 resource that you can obtain from the Harper Collins website that I wrote on the changes that have taken place in the High Street: "Shop, or they start to drop". This would sit well with the report, and also the diagram opposite, which is taken from the report.
While you're there, why not subscribe to the other monthly online updates which I'm writing ?

What is important is that they are 'vital and viable'.

The report is now live on Mary Portas' website, or click here to download as a PDF (1.9 Mb)

There are 28 ideas to explore with students, who can research them, and suggest how successful they might be in your local town centre.

Right, I'm off to Tesco Extra....

VITAL Geography Teachshares

Check over at Living Geography for the details on my Teachshares for this term and listen to the replay.

Sign up for the Geography portal.

Join me on the 13th for one on revision, and follow my new Twitter feed @VitalGeography

Culture: the latest Digital Explorer site...

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 Story Cubes

Regular readers of the blog will know of my love of Rory's Story Cubes. I use these in  my CPD sessions, and link them in with the creation of geographical narratives: geography as 'writing the earth'.
The latest set of cubes is now available to purchase from the Creativity Hub website, and will be in shops in the UK in a few weeks time.

Story Cubes Voyages is a whole new set of dice for story-telling which can be used in combination with the previous sets, or by themselves...

My cubes are on order...