In this second blog about working beyond your department, I wanted to share some of the various opportunities that are out there for geography teachers themselves to get involved with. I spoke about this at the recent RGS-IBG ‘Leading Together’ conference for Heads of Geography and stressed that whilst teachers are of course very busy and sometimes struggle to fit it all in, many of these opportunities connect you with other teachers and thus lower your workload in the long term!
Seneca Learning Online CPD Courses
Seneca Learning is rapidly becoming ubiquitous for students wanting to learn online but perhaps a little less well known are their offerings for teacher CPD. On their website they offer an ever-increasing range of free interactive CPD courses for teachers to complete- with most taking around an hour. The courses cover topics from dual-coding to language development with a certificate for completion at the end. The interactivity of the courses makes them highly engaging and enjoyable. More information
‘GeogChat’ and the GeogChat bulletin
If you’re on Twitter, you’ve probably come across the weekly ‘GeogChat’ hosted by Paul Logue and Jen Monk. Every Wednesday from 7.30pm they host an online chat (on Twitter, using #geogchat) discussing a different topic linked to teaching geography. It attracts a large number of geography teachers and is always an inspiring hour- with ideas, tips and resources being shared aplenty! In addition to this forum, they produce a weekly email bulletin which collates the best bits of geography twitter that week. To sign up, click here
UCL IOE Fawcett Fellowship
I was lucky enough to be part of the inaugural group of Fawcett Fellows who, in September 2018, formed a working group to discuss curriculum planning with UCL Institute of Education staff. There is two ways to get involved with the Fawcett Fellowship: ‘Mode A’ involves a sabbatical term for mid-career geography teachers or ‘Mode B’ is the curriculum working group that I’ve been part of. The group meets termly to discuss questions linked to academic reading and how the knowledge gained has informed our curriculum planning. Being part of this Fellowship has without a doubt been the best CPD that I’ve taken part in and so I’d encourage you to take a look as to whether it could be for you! More information.
Kate Stockings FRGS
Hampstead School, London