My Place through Maps

Just received the latest issue of the Pilot Newsletter - sent to all Pilot GCSE centres.
If you want to get a copy, you need to get in touch with Nicky Reckless via the Geography Teaching Today website.
The newsletter features some useful content. It also seems to mention me several times: there's a link to this blog, and also details of my membership of the Pilot GCSE Steering Group.
There's also an article by Professor Noel Castree from Manchester University which has an excellent quote relating to the MY PLACE unit that we are doing at the moment, but could also refer to a lot of what we do in Geographical topics:

"..the ultimate value of the unit is that the 'divide' between the 'real world' and 'teaching about it' should dissolve.... The point is that the 'everyday' is shown to be connected to the immensity of national and global forces in a way that students might not have appreciated before."

Over at the GeographyPages website are details of a book that I used to read on the settee by the standard lamp with a mug of Horlicks when I was about 8 years old...The book was published by OUP in 1948, and was 'described by' H. J Deverson and drawn by RONALD LAMPITT (who I discovered on doing a little research - was responsible for a large number of illustrations for these types of books, and Ladybird books). I took this book out of the junior school library repeatedly and read it from cover to cover, following the journey of 2 children and a dog which was told through a map and a description and a picture so you could see the way that the map portrayed the landscape. A section of one page is shown below.

You can also read the WHOLE BOOK and see for yourself what I mean by visiting THIS SITE.

About 20 years after I'd last seen the book I came across a copy in the excellent second hand bookshop in Burnham Market for £4 and bought it. It's good old-fashioned stuff. Maybe it should be redone for the 21st century. Also gave me an idea for an activity for MY PLACE: to provide a story to guide the reader along a section of grid squares.

Having spent a bit of time looking at Ronald Lampitt's illustrations and legacy, I'm quite excited at the ideas provided by some of them for possible resources and projects to get students interacting with maps and creating creative ideas... More to come on this soon...

Also got a DHL delivery today of the latest batch of GeographyPages pens. Each issue is a strictly limited edition, so if you have a copy of the:

1. Green granite pen
2. European flags pen and
3. Great Britain pen

you now need a copy of the GALAXY pen, as produced by National Pen to complete the set.
If you would like a GeographyPages pen, add a comment and I'll let you know the details. It'll cost you £1.00 to cover the costs of the pen and the postage.

Also for those teachers teaching the Pilot, don't forget the planned conference, in Birmingham on 10th of July 2007