Geography in school was something that was never really covered – or at least not in my primary school. History was something covered well and to an extent mostly just about the local area – that was 60 miles away (if I did culloden once at school I did it a thousand times!). The most I remember is learning the countries and matching them with their capitals in Gaelic (which let me tell you is not as much fun as it sounds!). I personally would now argue as to whether or not I was doing literacy and language by learning the Gaelic words for all these places. To be perfectly honest it astounds me that we didn’t cover geography more, because look at where I come from! Surely perfect for some outdoor learning?

This is where I was brought up, perfect for a bit of Geography right?

Well, either way secondary school I dropped geography for modern studies and history which I then went on to get good grades in during my higher exams, so I can’t say I regret it. But I distinctly lack an awful lot of knowledge about Geography and what I have learned has been learned from my holidays – so going out to a school to teach it seems pretty daunting to me. The thought of teaching other aspects of the social subjects however, does excite me. I love doing projects with the kids and a period/event in history is a perfect theme topic.

During my work in the nursery, we did a little bit of geography. The principles and practice documents are split into 3 different categories – people, past events and societies, people, place and environment and people in society, economy and business. So with this is in mind we did a project with the children about different countries in the world – America, China,

This is a similar wall display to the ones we made with the children in the nursery

Italy and Australia. We did big wall displays with each countries shape being the main part and then the activities would go inside or around. Geography came into it with the countries names, the children would learn the names of the capital cities of the countries, look at pictures of the countries, look at the flags of the countries, find where the countries are on maps/globes and the children did activities relating to the landmarks in the countries (for example for Italy the children made little leaning tower of Pisa’s!). It was a great project for me and my colleagues as well as the children because we had to research a bit about the country before we could teach it – especially when the children asked questions. This is something I will definitely do when I am out teaching because how can I teach children effectively if I do not have knowledge about the subject myself?

It was mentioned in my lecture today, and I think to be honest we are all a little guilty, to every so often just rely on what comes up on my Facebook news feed. If it wasn’t for facebook and twitter the likelihood of me seeing this really cute video of the panda in Washington Zoo would be very slim.

When I was studying modern studies I was really good at watching the news daily (especially in the morning because who doesn’t love Bill Turnbull on BBC Breakfast) but reading and watching the news is something I only do when I think I should, just because it is on or if there is a political election coming up. Maybe it is down to student life but I think if I was to read newspapers and watch or listen on the radio to some form of news then I would start picking up on various things happening around the world in terms of geography, history and modern studies. After all history is happening around us every day!

Lastly, a great way which I will be starting soon is by visiting places.

Lake Geneva – where I learnt about water running into lakes from mountains

There are so many places around the world to visit. The majority of my learning, especially history and geography, has come from my travels like learning about the swiss mountains and the water that runs off them to form beautiful lakes such as lake geneva and swimming in the red sea and looking at the underwater coral reefs. Studying in Dundee I have such a wide range of accessible experiences on offer to me that I would be mad not to take them up like the Dundee Botanic Gardens and RRS Discovery just to name two!

So to round up my three ways of getting more focused on social subjects before getting out and teaching them are to watch the news, do some research and background knowledge about what I’ll be teaching and visiting places to get an interactive view of what I will be teaching. Goodness me that sounds a lot. I’d better get out there and do it then!