"Look at it this way"

Image Alan Parkinson Poppies are a glorious temporary part of our landcape... We have also attached additional cultural resonance to them with their association with remembrance day... What other examples of these temporary landscape aspects can you identify, or your students record ? Why not use the NORFOLK WILDLIFE TRUST 's poppy field sighting record cards (link goes to PDF download - survey was carried out originally in 2006) Poppies are the county flower of Norfolk, and there are certainly plenty in the fields around my village. North Norfolk (particularly the area around Cromer and Overstrand) is known as 'poppyland ' and there are many fields full of these flowers at the moment. The local Eastern Daily Press reported that the particularly impressive blooms of poppies that can be seen at the moment are the result of changing farming practices... Farmers growing rape in particular are keen to keep the growth of poppies to a minimum as the plants compete for the avai

Me at the Folgefonna, Norway - 1980s (check the hair and nonchalant pose !) - image by Conor Kostic k Now up on the Geography Teaching Today website is a new unit on Glacial Environments. Some interesting ideas on teaching about ice, and the landscape changes that it brings about, with 6 resourced units of work. Don't forget that ice doesn't just produce the dramatic upland landscapes but was also involved in shaping the undulating lowland landscape of Norfolk...

The WHERE's THE PATH application (which my colleague just reminded me about) is a good way to visualise the relationship between a map and the landscape. Useful for interpretation of height and the impact of landscape on human activity. It's powered by the OS OPEN SPACE API. More on this later... The image above shows the location of the GA in Sheffield. Image copyright relevant imaging organisations and Ordnance Survey

Recently visited the Richard Long exhibition at the Tate: Heaven and Earth. Always been a fan of landscape-based art. There are numerous connections to be made here with geography and the creation of narrative as a response to a landscape. Many of the projects I have been involved with recently are related to this idea. Plenty of student-centred projects, and cultural aspects coming out... Loved the Norfolk flint circle in particular... I'd like to see students participating in the creation of more text works relating to the landscape. Check out Richard Long's textworks: click the titles to see the works... Some very impressive typography on the walls of the exhibition space at the Tate: wonder who had the job of sticking on all the letters ? Quite a feat ! Anyone know ? Also worth checking out the work of Hamish Fulton And of course Andy Goldsworthy Plenty of inspiration here too... Good review on the SOME LANDSCAPES blog, which is a useful resource to keep an eye on as wel

The use of SOUND is vital in lessons... I have recently been exploring the work of CHRIS WATSON , via my favourite site SPOTIFY. This allows streaming of the music, or in this case sound stories into the classroom. Check out WEATHER REPORT. This has 3, 18 minute tracks Ol-Olool-O: Kenyan savannah... The Laipach: a Scottish glen in all weathers Vatnajokull: a glacier sailing in Arctic waters The weather has created and shaped all our habitats. Clearly it also has a profound and dynamic effect upon our lives and that of other animals. The three locations featured here all have moods and characters which are made tangible by the elements, and theseperiodic events are represented within by a form of time compression. This is Chris's first foray into composition using his location recordings of wildlife and habitats -- previously he has been concerned with describing and revealing the special atmosphere of a place by site specific, untreated location recordings. For the first time here