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Ok, sorry  don’t have time for this blogging until I get more on top of these placements ….

My previous life was working in the IT industry – software development in particular.  One of the challenges of building good software is about managing complexity.  The colleagues I always had the most respect for were those who could convey complex technical concepts in a simple intelligible way to a non-technical listener.  The most non-technical were normally their managers (often myself included) or clients and prospects who understood their business but were not prepared to get their heads around post-backs, or service oriented architectures! 

So what has this got to do with teaching? Today is the end of my first week on my PGDE placement; I’ve been ’blooded’ by giving my first lessons.   Reflecting on my first lessons I’m continually reminded that the best communicators (teachers included) need to strive to keep thinks simple – while at the same time avoiding patronising or talking down to their audience. Bit like the software industry … well sometimes?

Last night I was at the inauguration lecture of Pete Higgins to the position of Professor of Outdoor Education at Edinburgh University. Apparently the first such appointment in Europe. His talk was entitled ‘Why Indoors?’ His lecture ranged across what had inspired him to be so passionate about the outdoors, the pedagogy of experiential/outdoors learning and ended on an impassioned plea as to why we should be continuing to push outdoor learnig on its benefits to health, citizenship and inquiry skills.

Ok … so he was preaching to the converted, but he did summarise well the ways that teachers (etatl) should be using ACfE as a vehicle to advance (or at least stop the retreat!) of outdoor learning within schools. I hope I share Pete’s enthusiasm for what outdoors can bring to the learning experience … sadly though, as early as I am into the teaching profession, already at times I find it hard to remain optimistic that the outdoors really are seen as a priority in practice or legislation of mainstream education.  But then if your ideal professorial title was to be ‘Professor of Picnics’ then you have to live life as an optimistic kind of guy …

After a filthy wet Saturday I was expecting the river in Woodhall ‘gorge’ in East Lothian to be a complete torrent this morning – but it wasn’t.  I was working for East Lothian Outdoor Ed, the job was to work with a group of six year pupils from Mussleburgh to see how far we could get in one of the classic ‘gorge walks’ of East Lothian.  I still continue to be surprised at how wet and young folk get and still come back for more. 

If you care about your geology/geomorphology I’m pretty sure that the gorge was formed by the melt water outwash at the end of the last glaciation – there just hasnt been enough time for the depth of it to have been created by the current stream.  The gorge is a real wee adventure, it gets pretty narrow , you can bridge a lot of it – but at times there is nothing for it but to wade/swim on through.  We didn’t encounter any real issues – if you’re interested in doing it the only thing I would be wary of (other than awkward exits, but you just need to backtrack) is to be careful of any loose materials slipping on you above – and there are some pretty unstable log-jams.  Apart from that … enjoy!

Attended the SAGT conference at the weekend. It was my first SAGT as a proto-teacher, not on behalf of ESRI(UK) … seems I still cant leave the old life behind. I’d offered to introduce the ESRI sponsored keynote, and so ended up on the stage – much to the confusion of some of my ‘new student friends’.

Highlights of the day included the keynote from Ian Stewart on how natural hazards are , well … no longer really natural. The cycling hero that is Mark ’round the world’ Beaumont was inspiring, and the excellent seminars. Maybe next year I can final attend as a teacher and will have left the ESRI life behind ….

Yesterday I was working a day for East Lothian Outdoor Ed, delivering a navigation course to ELC employees as part of the staff development programme. Two of my three my clients (victims) were teachers.   Despite a bitter wind and the odd shower we had a great afternoon down at Yellowcraigs. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. I got to practice that ‘I know where I am, now the heat is on you’ torture that I’ve been subjected to on my ML assessments. 

Being the first Outdoor Ed work I’ve given since starting my PGDE teacher training course really made the instruction feel different.  I now felt compelled to spell out the learning outcomes,  ensure that I mixed direct and activity based teaching methods and prompt for open higher cognitive responses .. or something like that.  Actually, seriously it did feel different.  In a good way.

And what’s with the seemingly random post title?  Couldn’t resist it  … see http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh0F41AvO_Q

Yesterday was a day out for the PGDE biologists and geographers to the SNH offices up at Batteleby just north of Perth. The topic of the day was a blend of biodiversity and learning in the outdoors.  Presentations were given from teachers delivering cross-curricular projects that embraced biodeiveristy,  an update from  Patrick Carson of LTS/ACfE on outdoor/biodiversity outcomes and Laura Welford of HMIe on an inspectors view of teaching that is constructed specifically within the context of ACfE.  Following this we also had the opportunity to attend smaller seminars with more chance to discuss.

So what were my main impressions that I took away …

• On ACfE… I really think now is an exciting time to be entering teaching – for two  reasons. Firstly I’m optimistic that ACfE looks like it will provide teachers with a framework in which to deliver lessons that are more cross-curricular, more about teaching kids how to learn (rather than just teaching them facts) and looks to include more emphasis on learning in the outdoor/environment.  Secondly, unlike experienced teachers, I’m naive enough and have no preconceptions!  So I’m spared the explicit or implicit reaction I see in some teachers to ACfE – these range across …  ‘God, not again!’ , to ‘ACfE, what a good idea, guess – we’ll need to bin The Curriculum for Mediocrity we current use” and of course the ”No time!  No time!’. I don’t mean this in any way to denigrate those with these views – if you have been delivering excellent teaching it’s only human to  have a slight niggle … but then ACfE is about proliferating existing best practice not saying it doesn’t happen ?  (I guess my main concern regarding ACfe from a geographers point is that although we present geography as ’the cross curricular glue’ - I have a fear that geography has been diluted and carved up (and some big bits seem completely lost) amid the subject outcomes.)
• On education in the outdoors … One of the reason I want to teach is because of my interest in the outdoors. There was some excellent examples presented here … from taking kids on field-trips to a local beach to immersing them (not explicitly) in week long sailing adventure through the Western Isles.  Despite these types of activites,  in terms of the total amount of out of classroom teaching they are still very much the exception.  The ever cited barriers of cost,  disruption of other subjects and the H&s/paperwork issue meant that there was more emphasis on the value of the outdoors in the imediate vicinity, school grounds – eco-schools etc. 
• On just get on an do it …One of the best presentations that emphasised this was from Sinclair Dyer of Hamilton.  His presentation what I believe was I bleieve entitled ‘from little acorns’ – or should have been. He talked about how his school’s projects had grown from planting up a small patch of playground as an alternative to ‘pots on the window sill’ to where they are today – international links to mango plantations and Aids projects in Ghana! Truly inspirational. See www.hamiltonscience.org , but this doesnt really mention the eco-projects in detail.

And the best bit of advice was given by a teacher from Monifield.    Get inviolved, do something - BUT dont go in all guns blazing.  Keep your head down in your first job, for the first couple of months. Observe the politics,  take it slowly – then come up with ideas.  You can’t do everything yourself, you need to understand your workload, you need the support of your colleagues. Then go for it …

My PGDE Outdoor Ed elective for today has been rescheduled to January – leaving my Friday free. Ok … so I could use this time to start my shadow study, methodology essay, getting ready for placement etc etc.  But arent we also supposed to put by time for reflection?  What better way to clear the mind than a climb a hill and get some stuff straight in your head – power-reflection in fact.  And it was great – Perthshire amber at it’s autumn best.

This term’s Geography PGDE assignment is the Methodology Study. The task is to get us students to research a methodology relevant to teaching Geography. The purpose is to get us to undertake a predominantly literature based research project, augmented with some personal observations. The end-product is a 1500 word essay. The assignment is also seen as pre-cursor towards the larger Professional Project; a major part of the summitive assessment of the PGDE.

To help me get started I’ve set out my chosen task in terms of a research question, snappily titled: ‘How can Landfullness be used to deliver Geography field-work that is productive, relevant and fun?‘ With this I want to try and explore how putting more emphasis on place and understanding place in the land-scape (as encapsulated in the term Landfullness) can be applied to Geography field-work.

For me field-trips are that made Geography, but I was much less enthusiastic of the field-work exercises that were done on some trips. Does measuring rivers with flow meters, soil with PH kits, counting cars or classifying land-use make the best use of the limited time that you have pupils ‘in the field’? Maybe it does and maybe my experiences and current (somewhat negative) pre-conceptions about this are wrong? This assignment will give me the time to investigate this. Hopefully at the end I’ll come out with better ideas for my own practice of field-work as it is now , or how it could be improved so much the better.

Given the fact that Landfullness seems to provide many applications for teaching Geographic enquiry skills this seems an interesting topic. And through being conscious of applying a more Landfull approach hopefully I’ll deliver better outdoor-learning generally, and also deliver better understanding of Geographical concepts/processes – and have a whole heap of other cross-curricular/citizen-ship/ACfE benefits.

If you have a view on this and would like to provide me with pointers towards interesting sources, example of best practice … or anything else, then please email me via the details on my the About me page.

Alternatively leave a comment below – I moderate all comments via email before they are posted.