I am a Geography teacher, I love teaching it and I love seeing students getting enthused about the topics we are looking at. Therefore I was naturally delighted when the teacher I was providing relief for said “Do whatever you want with them, I haven’t got anything planned” (admittedly, this lack of prep seems to be a focus of relief teaching in Australia from my experiences). Obviously my mind wandered to thoughts of Geography, something that they had nothing of in the previous 2 weeks I had been teaching the finer points of division and clauses.
I had one evening to plan an entire day of work and decided on a central focus, with it being earthquakes. An old favourite but a classic none the less. To put things in context, this class is in a very difficult school with numerous very difficult pupils and getting them to do anything was a real struggle but earthquakes seemed like something they may have a little knowledge about and could be enthused by.
Earthquakes went down a storm. The entire day felt like I was really teaching them and they were learning all the time. I created a range of activities and used things I had on memory sticks around the place. The pupils genuinely engaged with the entire day, there were no discipline issues, no falling out or similar, which was a massive thing for this class.What struck me most though was the clear thirst for Geographical knowledge, not just images but the finer details, like responses and applying independent thought to difficult open questions. The pupils had done no ‘Geography’ all year but some elements of plate tectonics are infused into science in aussie schools, which helped a little, but this lack meant that the pupils wanted to know everything about each aspect, biggest, whats it like, numbers, figures, shapes, sizes, which made me feel awesome and allowed the pupils to engage with some difficult ideas and learn plenty about the geography of earthquakes.
It was evident from my time at the primary school that Geography is a dying art in Australia, people outside of some private schools do not seem to appreciate it’s value in the curriculum. The school was starting to plan for next year and no geography was present in their planning apart from a year 2 week long project on a country of their choice, with very little structure to enhance the pupils’ geographical skills. I am now seeing a few more geography jobs coming up in senior/high schools which bodes well for me personally and the subject as a whole it seems.
Whilst teaching the primary age group, I wanted people to see how engaged the class were in the geography we were discussing. A class that were a riotous, quite nasty bunch were listening to me deliver a story about being in an earthquake intently and every single pupil had a question, all considered, all intelligent and all wanting to learn. It really buoyed me about the prospects of teaching Geography out here, that the lack of exposure to serious geography may mean that engagement with the topics is increased and pupils become as passionate about it as I am!
To put the impact of Geography in context, the day after, when the day was pre planned, consisting of English, Maths and Persuasive writing, the pupils were incredibly ill behaved, several ended up in tears, a fight broke out, a child was suspended for beating up a 6 year old and very little work was done. Even though it has been quite a testing teaching contract, I have learnt a shed load about my own practice and strategies that work for me even with the most difficult and have been delighted with the impact that good quality, engaging Geography lessons can have, even on the most disaffected and uninterested pupils. It is such a shame that the pupils, particularly those in state schools do not have much of an opportunity to really get into Geography or explore the numerous possibilities that the subject has to offer, and as a Geography teacher, that genuinely makes me a little sad.
The next test is the last week of the Australian academic year. Could be interesting.
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