Supporting Geography Teachers

Tomorrow, an event will take place in a hotel in Derbyshire to discuss some key issues for geography teacher support.
The Geographical Association has supported geography teachers ever since it was formed, but the nature of that support has to reflect a rapidly changing educational landscape. This means that it is perhaps time to consider the nature of the support that teachers want, and how the GA can provide it.

Some questions to think about:

What additional support do Geography teachers want / need, and in what format is this best delivered ? 

What kinds of support are possible / practical / desirable ?

How can this support best be provided ? 

What are the barriers to this ?

How can we let the ‘hard to reach’ know that the support is available and encourage them to make use of it ?

We hope to produce a resource to use by members of SGNG, which will hopefully evolve during the day as discussions are captured, and then be available after the event as an interactive resource...

You can contribute to the meeting in several ways – importantly, this can be done by those who can't attend in person.
1. Add a post to Twitter with the tag #sgng giving your thoughts on any of the questions that have been suggested – feel free to retweet (don’t worry if that means nothing to you...) 

2. Log in to the ETHERPAD document which has been created and make your contributions – remember to add your name and choose a contrasting colour: E-MAIL ME FOR THE DOCUMENT's URL

3. Join the Supporting Geography Network Group on the GA’s NING (http://geographical.ning.com) , and you will see some discussions which have been started around the key questions. Feel free to add a reply to one of those discussions

4. Add a comment to this blog post.

5. E-mail me for an invitation to the FLASH MEETING that has been booked for the afternoon session, when hopefully things will start to be pulled together to form a statement of aims for the new group.

6. Keep an eye out for the new GEOGRAPHY SUPPORT blog, which will continue to grow as the support develops.

Comments

Wendy North said…
Hi Alan - Many thanks for this.

Perhaps your first question might be `What support do you currently offer to other teachers of geography.
David Rogers said…
The GA offers lots at the moment but sometimes schools are unaware or unable to access the information.

The conference can be very daunting for single teachers so maybe hosting informal receptions / breakfasts for new comers

With the reduction in LA specialist advisers I think that the GA should be filling the gap. The regional advisers with CFBT (I think) were inaccessible and at the events that I attended just reeled off a generic PowerPoint. Departments want face-to-face contact and tailored support.

Regional CPD events that are low cost - personally I wouldn't be opposed to a slight rise in the group membership fee if it included some events and visits from a local specialist.

The Quality Marks are great - but are very daunting for those departments that are a long way off.

Clear publications that are well timed - the Toolkit series is excellent but needed to be out before the new Curriculum got into full swing.

I would like to see more collaboration between tertiary and secondary education - much like the Open University event last year.

All of the nings are great - but is there (and there may be) an easy to find them (one page) and a corporate or common image.

The GA training events are excellent - but more of them!

Take into account local networks in areas and work with them
Alan Parkinson said…
Thanks David and Wendy for your inputs.
Some interesting points made !
Alan Parkinson said…
Many thanks to all those who attended the meeting or contributed remotely. I will write up and feedback as soon as is practical...