One of my daughters has been looking at course options for university and checking out the halls of residence. It’s all really exciting! Only one problem: she’s currently 10 years old.
After some interest in the geography reading list to support post-16 students, here's the link to the completed version... Synopsis sourced from
@Waterstones
(credited in PDF version via the link). Thank you to everyone who has sent suggestions!
Delighted to have been appointed as Assistant Headteacher yesterday, leading teaching & learning
@StJamesSchool
@TedWraggTrust
. Excited for the term ahead and beyond. In the meantime, happy holidays!
Last week, I was offered and accepted the role of Head of Geography 🌍 at St James School in Exeter. So excited to be working with
@lindsayjskinner
and
@MsEmilyHarper
as well as a new team of geographers!
Two lessons for Year 7 for the start of the coasts topic. Using a five question retrieval quiz with Microsoft Forms to check for understanding of the processes of erosion between the two lessons
#geographyteacher
#onlinelearning
Yesterday, we said a sad goodbye to our beautiful old labrador. Poppy was a gentle soul and had a wonderful life. Today has been strange. We will all miss her so much 💔
#NationalDogDay
Spent an impromptu day with my parents ahead of the lockdown. My dad broke out one of the tubs of Quality Street that he bought and stashed away for Christmas. There are clearly no rules any more. Anything goes.
So easy to forget useful activities as you replace them with new shiny ones over time. Went back to an old favourite last month with mixed ability year 9. Hexagons for notetaking from
@Jivespin
We are delighted to announce the safe arrival of Mabel Payne. She’s our long-awaited eight-week-old Labrador puppy 🐾💕 Poppy the 10-year-old Labrador is currently practising social distancing!
#LabradorsOfTwitter
My husband and I are both teachers and sat in the same room to listen to the same information from Gavin Williamson. We now discover that we have completely different interpretations of what he said! 🤷🏻♀️🤯
I am completely in love with the visualiser! So much easier teaching Year 7 to draw a climate graph when you are able to model it at the same time 😅💛
#teacherlife
#lovemyjob
A group of year 10 boys were playing the card game Exploding Kittens while I was on duty yesterday. Never heard of it before but they were having a great time. Added it to the Christmas games list (age 7+).
The girls finished school for Christmas yesterday. They’re on their school website checking out the lunch menu for January. They are excited about every meal and have declared that they cannot wait to go back. I’m trying hard not to take this as a personal attack on my cooking.
Enjoyed using the visualiser to revise our rivers topic with year 8. It has completely changed the way I teach this year. Teaching a lot of hybrid lessons at the moment so it is perfect for students in the room and for those at home to engage in the same lesson.
Experimenting with
@olicav
advice on graphic organiser mind maps with the Boscastle flood case study. Yes, I know it is old, but always a memorable one. New OCR B textbook being updated with Storm Desmond, so I will enjoy this one for a little longer!
#geographyteacher
Still a couple of days to go, but I’ve removed the ‘Assistant Principal’ words from my profile. Two years in which I’ve learnt a lot, but it’s time to refocus on teaching my subject. It won’t be forever, I’ll be back ☺️
Two weeks ago, I digressed and told my Year 7 Beliefs & Values class about my turmoil over Nutella having palm oil in it. Challenged them to find me one without, but only in jest. Yesterday, a boy from the class gave me a jar of chocolate spread that didn’t contain palm oil! 😇
To all my fellow nomadic teachers 😢 The impact that moving rooms every lesson has on the quality of teaching & learning is also huge. I am no longer the teacher I used to be.
I am now lucky enough to be teaching at the same school as my own children. Today, Year 7 joined Year 8 in their assembly. This meant I was there with my new tutor group and was able to witness my daughters collect their gold scholar award. It was a special day 🌟
#proudmoment
I am excited to be moving to
@ChulmleighAT
as Head of Humanities from September.
I will forever be grateful for the opportunity I have had to lead T&L and the geography department at St James. Watch this space for the advert of my AHT role later this week!
Completed the
#couch25k
plan this morning! Never did I imagine I could do this. Feeling great. The challenge now is to keep it up during term time! 🏃🏻♀️
Really enjoyed my lesson with Year 9 today on the journey of flip flops using this article
#geographyteacher
Used
@geography_kes
‘journey of a t-shirt’ lesson for inspiration! 👣🌍
Testing positive for Covid yesterday was not how I planned the half term holiday to begin, but we’ll make the most of the week with board games, reading, films, cross stitching, baking and puzzles.
New to AQA GCSE Geography. Enjoyed researching Lagos. Spent far too long looking at houses in Banana Island! What are
#geographyteacher
’s favourite resources for this case study? Here’s my Lesson 1 (thanks to a teacher on Schoology for one activity!)
Busy typing up the Easter revision programme for the GCSE geographers! Presenting the plan at our curriculum leaders meeting tomorrow. It’s an eight day plan to complete at home that replaces our traditional two hour revision session in school.
Experimenting with resource design
@MrThorntonTeach
style! Adapted resources from
@The_GA
&
@RGS_IBGschools
Resource itself needs more balance but will address that when I plan the lessons & know the next unit includes sustainable cities
#geographyteacher
Finished putting together our KS3 common assessments for the final 'cycle' of the year. Just one knowledge organiser left to make for cycle 1 in September. Four weeks to go...
#geographyteacher
Realised how much our lessons and PPTs rely on our 'teaching'. Adapted two Year 10 lessons for next week into resources that students can hopefully use independently. One task from OCR B Schoology; unsure of owner. Let me know if it's you! Uploading as an assignment in MS Teams.
First half term at my new school completed! Hasn’t been without its personal challenges (as someone who’s change-averse at the best of times) but I really love it. Such a caring school with great staff and students (I also think I can stop calling it my ‘new’ school now!)
Utterly exhausting first week in my new school after two days with my new Year 7 tutor group as well as a geography lesson this afternoon. Rounded off the day with four positive phone calls home. I have absolutely loved being back in the classroom!
Early morning reflections. Nobody’s leaving the humanities team of ten teachers next year! We’ll all finish this year and begin the next together. This is great for so many reasons. Wonderful team 💚
Trying to come up with a model revision timetable to help students to see how they *could* manage their time. Not prescriptive, just a guide! Ideas from
@Mr_Patel100
and
@Geoisamazing
Surprised myself today as I listened to a speech about me from a close colleague who I’ve worked with in the geography department for the duration of my time there and then I said a few words myself WITHOUT crying! Now for the summer holidays! ☀️
#endofanera
#newbeginnings
Yesterday included a visit to
@LavaCentre
before going to Seljalandsfoss, Skogafoss, Solheimajokull glacier and then Reynishverfi close to sunset
#Iceland
The new addition to our family at just two days old. She won’t be joining us until the middle of August. We are all very excited (perhaps our 10-year-old Labrador is less keen!). Welcome, Mabel 🥰🐾
Planning our new weather topic and wanted to keep the early lessons UK-based before moving on to extreme weather, focusing on recent typhoons and bushfires. Came across this excellent resource from
@MrsHumanities
Thank you for sharing!
#geographyteacher
To belatedly mark
#nationalfieldworkweek
, we are completing two whole days of fieldwork with year 7 and 8, both on the school site and in the immediate local area (adapted due to the weather). Lovely way to finish the year!
#geographyteacher
@MsRWalton
@Morsey
Photos being taken of our house by the estate agent today. We’ve found a wonderful house 🏡 that we’re desperate to buy! Very spontaneous, completely unplanned. We just took a drive along the lanes and discovered it in a tiny hamlet, now our hearts 💕 are set on it ☺️🤞
Better start packing up the house ready for the move. Luckily, we’re getting good at it! Six houses in nine years 😩 No plans to ever leave this one though...🏡
#houserenovation
#wheredowestart
#foreverhome
Eight years married to
@neiljpayne
Strange to have an anniversary that falls on Easter Sunday during a lockdown, but we’ll celebrate it nonetheless!
#weddinganniversary
I have spent the last four October half terms in Iceland 🇮🇸 with Year 11 students and
@DTW_Education
. Feels strange to be at home this year! Such an amazing country; I hope I get to visit again soon, perhaps with my own family 🌋
Resource for consolidating fieldwork experience for Paper 1 Section B
@OCR_Geography
Hoping it will be useful next week as we prepare to practise some 8 mark fieldwork questions. It was our weakest section last summer
You can see why children struggle with Tier 2 language. We wouldn’t sit around the table on Christmas Day and say ‘evaluate the extent to which this turkey has been cooked successfully’ Exam language seems to be a barrier for more Year 11s than ever this year!
Today we are putting up the tree, reading The Christmasaurus as a family and we’re also booked on our annual trip with The Train to Christmas Town 🎅🏼 I’ve worked both days of the weekend since half term; today is for all of us 👨👩👧👧
Next year is exciting! Back in a classroom after two peripatetic years, still Head of Humanities & back to Geography Subject Leader too, plus 1.5 days of Teaching School work running the School Direct programme for the secondary phase. Just as busy but ALL my favourite things!
I love a good parents evening. It doesn’t get better than a parent telling me they’ll give me a discount in their stationery shop because they’ve heard I’m quite obsessed with stationery 😌
One of my favourite holiday moments was when we played I Spy and one of my 7-year-old daughters said ‘I spy with my little eye, something beginning with B’ The answer was BASALT! She’s been taught well 😊🌋
#daughterofageographyteacher
#startthemyoung
On the interview panel today for the new Head of Humanities to replace me in September. Delighted with the appointment. I will be leaving the team in safe hands.
Apologies all, I cannot stop liking and retweeting scenes of the eruption in Iceland! Holding out until tomorrow evening before I put a few slides together to share next week 🌋🇮🇸🌍
#geographyteacher
Any teachers in school over Easter with the children of key workers? What are you planning to do for activities? I’m in school over the next three days.
Enjoyed putting together and editing another KS3 booklet for the summer term. Realised I’m Iceland obsessed. There’s a lesson in here about Iceland and one in the Resources booklet too. You can never learn too much about Iceland! 🌍🇮🇸
#geographyteacher