10 years of the Edexcel Ning

Over ten years ago, while working as a Head of Geography at a school in King's Lynn, I came across the Ning platform, short for Networking. It offered a free (at the time) platform which had the features of all sorts of other sites in one:
- bulletin board for discussions
- chat room
- hosting of image galleries
- hosting of videos, with embed codes
- numerous groups with membership
- profile pages

Documents could be attached to discussions and this allowed for a community to develop, which could chat, share ideas and join groups around sub-themes.
I built a Ning to support 6th form students and it worked well - in fact I did my first teachmeet presentation back in 2008 on Nings.

In June 2007, faced with the changes that were coming at 'A' level, we opted for Edexcel as the most forward thinking of the new specifications. They were introducing new ideas for the time, including ideas such as Rebranding Places, and a unit on Cultural Geography. We were teaching the OCR Pilot GCSE Geography at the time, and so the Edexcel spec was the best follow on for a forward thinking and creative department like the one I led at the time. I had a background in supporting teachers through my GeographyPages website, which was still getting many thousand of visitors a day. I didn't want to have to resource and prepare a whole new 'A' level course by myself over the summer, so I started a NING called New Edexcel Geog.

The NING is now, I've just realised, 10 years old!
It's been a decade of teachers helping other teachers.
Thanks to Jon Wolton for funding the NING for the last 6 years or so.
There are over 4300 members now.

And thanks to anyone who has ever shared a resource, or joined a discussion.

We're now preparing for the New New EdexcelGeog from September 2016

New GeoCapabilties StoryMap

Free 'A' level CPD course

Geography teachers are invited to a one day workshop at the University of Manchester on 24th June, 2016 to support the launch of the new A-Level Geography Syllabus.

Parallel lectures run by Geography@Manchester researchers will deliver the core Geography of space and place theory, the carbon cycle and arid land Geography, the areas of the new syllabus which are perhaps less familiar to some teachers. 

In the afternoon, teachers are invited to a round-table discussion to consider how to translate the new learning to the classroom, in turn generating tangible lesson ideas.

The workshop will be opened by Professor Martin Evans who led the new A-Level consultancy on behalf of the Royal Geographical Society.

This workshop is FREE to attend.

Please book your place by 20th June and indicate which of the three workshops you would like to attend by choosing the relevant ticket.

Coffee will be served with registration from 9.30am in the Foyer of the Humanities Bridgeford Street Building.

WHEN

Friday, 24 June 2016 from 09:30 to 15:00 

WHERE

Humanities Bridgeford Street, Ground Floor Foyer, University of Manchester

Follow the link here to book your place

Bob Digby - Eduqas session from GA Conference 2016

Now available to watch…

British Red Cross coming soon….

Amongst all the other stuff that I'm doing at the moment, is a resource that is currently half way complete, and which I hope to complete before the end of the month. It's a new resource toolkit on natural disasters for the British Red Cross, which has a focus on the Nepal Earthquake, but looks at the issues linked to humanitarian aid by agencies, particularly the work of the British Red Cross, following natural disasters. It explores the impacts over time, and has resources for KS3, GCSE and 'A' level students.

Here's one of the resources that I came across during my research below. You can search this blog for more on Nepal as well using the box in the top left.

I'm grateful to Rachel Hay for her substantial support and sharing her own personal story of being in the earthquake.

Here's another traffic CCTV video too, which shows the everyday traffic before the earthquake.

 I'll let you know when the resource is available, and how you can get hold of it.

Still seeking contestants for Only GeoConnect

Still seeking contestants…

At the GA Conference in April 2016, I'm going to be presenting a special geographical version of the quiz, with the usual rounds.

I am seeking 4 more (to make 6) 'contestants' who would like to come and have a go at my geographical game show.

This is a first-come first-served opportunity, but if you wanted to get together a few other people and let me know that you had a team that would be great too.

I'll also be hoping for an audience, and of course you can all play along to, as I'll give you some score cards that you can use to write down your answers.

This is on the Saturday afternoon, and would make a good end to your GA conference 2016 experience…

If you want to get involved drop me an e-mail, or contact via @GeoBlogs on Twitter…

I have 2 volunteers so far and 2 people who are helping me run the event.

Good teachers need good textbooks...

Here's one I co-wrote...

Sample material for @OCR_Geography GCSE B spec now available! https://t.co/94MPJM8p28 #geographyteacher Save 20% with code WK0003733

— Hodder Geography (@HodderGeography) March 1, 2016