BOSTES (formerly the Board of Studies) has recently released the new NSW Geography syllabus for review. This syllabus, unique to NSW, incorporates the Australian Curriculum for Geography already being implemented in other states in Australia.

The draft new syllabus can be found at the BOSTES website along with documents outlining the features of the documents for different groups (Primary, K-10, Life Skills). The draft document does not include a Senior Geography syllabus draft at this stage.

The consultation session will only run until August 29, 2014, so it is a fairly brief period.
There are a number of opportunities for people to become involved:

Individual responses to BOSTES

There is an online survey which can be filled in, which is fairly comprehensive but contains closed questions. The survey covers topics such as views on the rationale, aims, topics, whether current resources can be used, whether it caters for a full range of students, etc. You can also make more detailed written submissions which can be emailed directly to the Senior Project Officer, Geography, Brooke Prideaux (email available at the BOSTES page linked above).

BOSTES sessions:

A number of sessions have been organised by BOSTES during the consultation period. These are to be held at Liverpool, Pennant Hills, Gymea and Ashfield as well as regional sessions at Moruya, Coffs Harbour, Orange and Griffith. Each of these sessions require registration very soon. Check the above-linked BOSTES page for details and links to registration. This is being organised by Eventbrite, but I'm sure that Brooke would the any questions.

DEC sessions:

For teachers in NSW Public Schools, the DEC Learning and Leadership Directorate are holding consultation sessions to put together a submission on behalf of the DEC. This will be done using Adobe Connect, and registration should be completed through the DEC's Professional Learning database and management system MyPL. The title is "Secondary consultation on the draft Geography K-10 Syllabus" (Course Code: NR06641). This is to take place on Monday 28 July 3.30pm – 4:30 pm. Alana Ellis, the Relieving HSIE Advisor 7-12 is the contact person, and can be contacted through her DEC email.

Professional Associations and informal groups:

Interestingly, the NSWGTA Annual Conference falls mid way through the consultation period. I suspect that while there doesn't appear to be a consultation session on the agenda (the agenda was released before the draft syllabus) that there may be some slight rearranging of the program to allow time for it.

Online groups, such as Geography Teachers Online Australia (Facebook group) are already abuzz with discussions regarding various parts of the new syllabus. This is a great way to hear a few different perspectives and get involved in the debate.

Faculties

Don't forget that sometimes the best discussions can happen face to face in your own faculty. Consider what the difficulties are of the current syllabus for your students. Will the new syllabus solve these problems? Are there new issues? How will your students cope with the content? Will they find it interesting? What resources do you currently use that will fit in with new syllabus? What are the areas that are going to need a lot of work?


What we already know:

- Australia already has an agreed Australian Curriculum for Geography. The writing of the curriculum was completed in 2012, involved consultation between states, with professional associations and teachers, and was signed off by federal and state education ministers. There have been no discussions or public announcements about a review of this curriculum at this stage, despite reviews currently taking place of other subjects.

- All states/territories but NSW began implementation of the Australian Curriculum for Geography in 2013. Like the Phase 1 subjects (English, Maths, Science, History), BOSTES decided that the structure of the Australian Curriculum was not suitable for NSW teachers, and that it would need to be rewritten to more closely resemble the current/previous syllabi.

- BOSTES appointed a Project Manager to oversee the writing of the Geography syllabus for NSW as of January 2014. The former BOS had a procedure for writing new syllabi which involved hiring a team of writers, consulting with stakeholders, reviewing and refining. We can assume that a similar process was followed and that this has taken place between January and July to allow for the new document to be released.


- While we are in a consultation period, we can assume that some sections of the syllabus are "locked in" while other parts are open to discussion. These have been labelled in the draft document. 

Please make sure you take the opportunity to have your say while we have the chance. 

Legal Studies teachers would be well aware of the amazing services provided by the Legal Information Access Centre located in, and part of, the State Library of NSW. For all Preliminary and HSC topics you can find a vast array of information to support teaching of the topics for both new and experienced teachers. Research guides and publications have helped teachers and students stay up to date with legal developments. In the past, LIAC has been funded externally and this funding is no longer available. While support for Legal Studies teachers and students will be provided by more generalist services offered by the library, the research guides will no longer be updated. The LIAc website states: "Specialist support for HSC Legal Studies students and teachers will not continue after 27 June 2014, but will be integrated into the Library’s HSC support programs."

LIAC publishes the Hot Topics magazines which focus on one issue found in the syllabus (e.g. Shelter) and provide a range of articles with updated legal information. Until recently these have been published as hard copies for schools. At the recent Legal Studies Association Conference it was announced that the Hot Topics magazines would no longer be published as hard copies, but would only be available online. Thankfully, the LIAC staff are very organised and sourcing the online copies is relatively easy and they are quite user friendly. It would appear that these will now no longer be published. LIAC also maintained a blog of updated information for Legal Studies students with links to articles and updated legislation which will also no longer be maintained. Regardless, the State Library of NSW still has a vast array of online resources and a library card enables staff and students to access their online database of updated journal articles, legislation and other resources. 

HSC Online for Legal Studies has relied solely on links to the LIAC Research Guides in previous years. In a political environment that has seen many state and regional office jobs cut in the previous few years from the NSW Department of Education and Communities, the demise of LIAC will have a profound impact on providing updated resources for our students. This will put added pressure on teachers and professional associations (mostly run by teachers). 

Cold War history is predicated upon the difference between East and West. To that end the history focuses on Moscow and Washington. Rarely do historians focus upon the satellite countries of the Eastern Bloc and to a lesser extent the Western bloc. Czechoslovakia, now known as the Czech Republic, offers an interesting insight into the Cold War. In 1968, the Prague Spring occurred where the leaders of Czechoslovakia desired to have a say in the manner in which communism was to govern their country. Leonid Brezhnev the Premiere of the USSR brutally crushed the Prague Spring by invading the country with 500,000 troops and 4,500 tanks to crush any questioning of the manner in which Eastern Bloc countries were governed. This was referred to as the Brezhnev Doctrine by which the USSr was able to intervene in Eastern Bloc countries without ramifications from the USA and NATO.

Train stations and tunnels in Prague double as nuclear shelters. The stations and tunnels can be closed off with the use of lead doors to protect the population. The cavities for these blast doors are clearly visible to the trained eye at the base of the escalators at the entrance to each platform. 

Near the Flora railway station is a large bunker which now houses the Nuclear Bunker Museum. The entrance to the bunker resembles a graffitied, walled basketball court. To the general public it is not immediately obvious or accessible. To gain access the bunker needs to be unlocked by a tour guide. The shelter was designed to protect approx 2,500 people. The blast door to the shelter is nearly 1 metre thick and leads to a double helix staircase - one side for entry and one side for exiting. The staircases go down 16 metres to the bunker proper. 

Related article:
Soviet ghosts: An empire in decay

In teaching, you don't have time to do everything and know everything you need to. That is why it is imperative that you make use of other teachers' knowledge. A Professional Learning Network will allow you to get the most up-to-date resources, best advice and time saving tips. I am currently faculty where only one or two of us use social networking for education purposes. Most of faculty don't really use it at all. This post is really for people who are in this category. If you found this post through twitter or Facebook or the like, then you aren't going to learn anything new here.

People you already know
I have always found it amazing that some people in a faculty or school will share everything while others will share nothing. My theory is that if you want to encourage other people to share then you need to show them how it is done. Start with your faculty and any teachers you already know - share your email address and ensure that you swap resources regularly. Once you start emailing copies of some of your handouts, programs, etc other teachers will start doing the same. For older staff introduce them to shared drives, cloud storage or whatever will work to get them sharing. Keep in mind that some people may not share because the technological side of things is too daunting. Make it easy for them and try not to get frustrated - otherwise you may miss out on a great resource.

Professional Associations
Join groups like GTANSW, EBE, WESSSTA and MESSTA. Each group will have strengths and weaknesses and may focus more heavily on one subject or specific year groups. The more memberships you have the greater your exposure to all of this information. Also the more you get involved the more you can influence these groups to provide anything that you think is missing. Click on the titles below to find out more about each association:

Geography Teachers Association of NSW
History Teachers Association of NSW
Western Sydney Social Science Teachers Association Inc
Legal Studies Association of NSW Inc
Economic and Business Educators

Social Networking
Social networking, particularly twitter is a great way to connect with other teachers locally and from around the world. You can use social networking to connect with specialists in your field. For example, if you are a History teacher you might subscribe or follow @archaeologynews and get the most recent updates about excavations around the world. You might also find it useful to subscribe or follow general blogs or tweets about teaching in general. DEC and TAFE staff can use Maang/Yammer, but I think most educators prefer Twitter. There are also a range of Facebook groups for teachers of certain subjects. A particularly active group is Geography Teachers Online, but there are many others. Don't forget to use tools like Skype and Google hangouts to connect with people and share ideas. 

Corporate feeds
Subscribe to corporate feeds from the DEC and BOSTES. You can do this using your email, Twitter, Facebook or a range of other social networking sites. You can also subscribe to organisations related to your specific subject such as WWF or Greenpeace.

Unions
You should also have a good knowledge of your rights and responsibilities. You can do this by staying up to date with union news through email subscriptions, the regular hard-copy publications and meetings at your school and within your region. When you first begin your career it can seem expensive to be part of the union, but it is important that you make yourself aware of what it offers.  You should also download a copy of the most recent Award as this sets out core hours you need to be on the premises, breaks that you are entitled to, behaviours that are acceptable, etc.
For the NSW Teachers Federation (DEC schools) visit the website: http://www.nswtf.org.au/
For the Independent Education Union for NSW/ACT (non-DEC schools) visit their website: http://www.ieu.asn.au

I was lucky enough to attend the first ever TM Geography a couple of weeks ago. The teachmeet was held at Saint Ignatius' College on Monday 5 and was hosted by Jessica Lonard. 

Using infographics in assessment
Jessica Lonard, our host, began the presentations with a presentation on how to use infographics in assessment of student learning. The room was decorated with examples of her students' work. There are a range of programs that can be used to create these infographics. One of the easiest is Picktochart. Other programs include Infogr.am, visual.ly, and easel.ly.

For further information you might like to check out 10 free tools for creating infographics.

Spotlight - ABS
Sharon McLean presented a session on Spotlight from the Australian Bureau of Statistics which I have discussed in a previous blog: Australia's Population. This program brings population statistics about Australia to life by presenting them in a fun interactive voiced by Shaun Micallef.

Flipping the geography classroom
Ryan Gill presented a session about the challenges and successes of flipping his classroom including creating the videos, winning over parents and keeping students engaged. Flipping the classroom is a strategy where students are exposed to new material outside of the classroom through the use of videos, readings, etc and then class time is used to consolidate the new learning through activities such as discussions, problem solving and debates. 

Google Tour builder
Mick Law from Contour Education showed us the latest and greatest mapping tools, concentrating mainly on the new Google Tour Builder. This seems to be a much simpler way to create a virtual tour than through Google Earth. 

Nearpod
Kate Corcoran showed us how she uses Nearpod in her classroom. Nearpod is a program that allows you to set up interactive quizzes and surveys and enables sharing between groups. Students log into a group and can access the resources that the teacher has made available to them on their devices. The teacher can control the students' screen while they are part of the group. 

Thinglink
Thinglink is a site which enables you to create interactive images. Di Laycock showed us how you can add comments, images, videos and music to create a multimedia experience from a still image. 

Creating virtual field sites
I went through the process of creating a virtual field site to give students access to field sites which they would not otherwise be able to experience. This is done by combining videos, photos, google tours, and links to articles all combined with the use of a blog site or website builder like weebly.

Twitter: #tmgeography

New app
This week saw the release of a new app for Taronga Zoo called Taronga Zoo - Wild Australia designed in collaboration with the Department of Education and Communities. This is aimed at primary students and allows them to learn about a range of Australian animals. You can choose whether you are at Taronga Zoo, Western Plains Zoo or not at a zoo at all. The app uses a map of the zoo as a basis (whichever one you've chosen, or Taronga if you are not at a zoo), in particular the Australian Animals section. Students can choose to focus on the emu, koala, platypus, kangaroo, wombat or echidna. After they have chosen an animal they can examine, choose or take their own photographs, select facts about the animal (true or false), watch videos, write their own facts, drag the animals onto its feeding area, or use the binoculars to get a closer look at the animal. All the activities culminate in the creation of a poster about the animal that can then be emailed to the student. This work is the follow up of the Rainforest Heroes app also created by a great team of people from what was formerly NSW CLIC. 


Read about Rainforest Heroes.

TTA events in 2014
In 2014 the Taronga Teachers Association will be running a number of events. They will be running morning and twilight walks with behind the scenes access to certain enclosures, an Animals in Schools Workshop, Sustainability Action Plan Workshop, Aboriginal Education Day Workshop, and an Implementing a Project in-situ Workshop.

Read about Taronga Teachers Association.

Dermot O'Gorman, CEO of the World Wide Fund for Nature, spoke at the Eco Expo a few days ago. The theme of O'Gorman's presentation was "Is it possible to live in harmony with nature?". 

To answer his question he discussed a number of different case studies around the world of individuals who have done extraordinary things to progress environmental knowledge, and cases where sustainable development options have been implemented. These examples included development in the village of Durian Rambun, cane farmer Tony Bugeja creating systems to manage sugar cane runoff, creator of the concept of the ecological footprint William Rees, and Dave Keeling who began the longest running atmospheric measurements of CO2.

Charles Keeling - CO2 monitoring
O'Gorman discussed the work of Charles (Dave) Keeling on CO2 levels in our atmosphere. Keeling conducted research on CO2 level during the 1950s. This work has continued at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography and resulted in the Mauna Record, the longest continuous record of CO2 measurements in the world. Despite the scientific nature of his work, it is probably best know as the inspiration for the Al Gore’s lecture/documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” (you can see the trailer below). Several years ago, Keeling’s son Ralph Keeling predicted that CO2 levels would surpass 400ppm in 2014 (human habitation of an area is best at around 300ppm). This actually occurred earlier this year.

Read more...
Scripps CO2 program.

William Rees - ecological footprint
William Rees of the University of British Columbia coined the term "ecological footprint". This developed from his awareness of his connections to ecosystems and the planet through his knowledge of local food production. He applied the concept of carrying capacity to population growth and our ever-expanding needs and wants. Below is a clip of Rees describing some of the key points which led him to his theory.

Read more...
Ecofootnotes.

Tony Bugeja - reducing runoff
Tony Bugeja is a third generation sugar cane farmer in Mackay. A serious issue affecting the Great Barrier Reef is the impact of runoff from sugar cane farms. This runoff contains fertilisers, pesticides and insecticides. When it enters the water the increase in phosphorous encourages eutrophication and algal blooms. The other nutrients and sediments in the runoff smother the corals. Tony was concerned with the reputation of sugar cane farmers as environmental vandals and wanted to ensure the effective management of the reef for his community. He set up a project to reduce runoff with other farmers in his area. In doing so, he has proved that it is also profitable to do so. 80 farmers became involved and they are promoting the systems to others. Monitoring has shown that the project has been able to increase water quality. The project has had the added benefit of influencing the thinking of the sugar cane companies who purchase the sugar cane. The companies are also under pressure from consumers who are searching for sustainable products. 

Read more:
Mackay farmers honoured with reef rescue accolades. 

Durian Rambun - community ownership
Durian Rambun is a remote village in Indonesiawhere surrounding forests are being wiped out by forestry companies. Rosidi is the village chief who has overseen vast change in his community. The Asian Pulp and Paper company announced the creation of a forest plantation on village land. The community was concerned over the company's reputation of exploiting indigenous people and stripping forests bare. This is a significant site as the area is populated by the last 400 Sumatran Tigers in the wild. These tigers have evolved to suit these condition, and much of their home has been destroyed for paper production. Following the announcement of the plantation the community fought back. The community successfully lobbied the government and secured the rights to the forest for the next 35 years. In February APP announced cessation of natural forest clearing, and agreed to review their human rights issues and NGO scrutiny. 

Read more:
Seeing the forests for the trees.

So, is it possible to live in harmony with nature?
The examples discussed provided insights into how even the smallest ideas can have huge impacts down the track. Many individuals and communities can make decisions on how they choose to live their lives. Consumers wield enormous power in that they can determine the products and practices by business through their consumer decisions. We have the knowledge and skills to live in harmony with nature, and we have the connectivity to each other to share the methods with each other and motivate change. We all have the potential to do this.

O'Gorman left us with the following challenge:
What difference will you make?
What is your story and how will you tell it to billions of people?

How can we use these ideas and case studies in our classrooms?
Keeling's work ties in very well with Year 11 Geography if you choose to explore Climate Change in the Biophysical Interactions topic, or, if you choose the Natural Resources topic, it could be discussed in the environmental and social issues dot point.

The ecological footprint conceptualised by Rees is important background information for any discussion on ecological sustainability which can be found in both Year 11 and Year 8 Geography.

Tony Bugeja's cane farming strategies feed into a case study on the Great Barrier Reef in Year 12 Geography, providing specific examples of management strategies.

The Durian Rambun case study could be applied to a range of topics across a variety of years. For example, it could be used when looking at Forests in Year 7,  Endangered Species in Year 8, Ecologically Sustainable Development in Year 8 or 11, and possibly in Year 12, depending on your case study of an Ecosystem At Risk. If you're about to implement the Australian Curriculum (I think every state but NSW) then it is also a great case study because it is based in Asia and addresses the Cross-Curriculum Priority of "Asia and Australia's engagement with Asia".

Another interesting question that Dermot raised was, "Does social media have the capacity to change the world or is it the biggest ever sinkhole of productivity?" In light of some events that have occurred over the last few days I will examine this question in a separate blog post, Are We Tweeting While Rome Burns?

The title for this blogpost came from a comment Dermot O'Gorman made in his presentation at the Eco Expo last weekend (you can read my post Living in Harmony with Nature for more information).  As I listened to his presentation I was typing away on my iPad and yes I did tweet. I was a little taken aback by the comment because I have used twitter to connect with environmental groups, researchers, other geography teachers and whole range of like-minded people. As a teacher, Twitter has given me access to current research in education, geography and science, newspaper articles from around the world and discussions on a whole range of issues. It came as a bit of shock to think that maybe sharing all this information wasn't actually achieving anything beyond my own classroom. 

Last week as the new Federal government axed the Climate Commission and moved forward with plans to cut the carbon tax, I saw a plethora of disheartened people conversing, but it seemed that everyone was feeling a little helpless and depressed. Links to a few petitions regarding the axing of the Climate Commission were making the rounds, but they were interspersed with a number of other petitions about new government policies (NBN, cuts to universities, etc). O'Gorman's comment came back to me. Is all this discussion actually going to get anywhere?

At midnight, a new twitter and facebook account opened - the Climate Council. People were invited to sign up and donate money to get the Climate Council off the ground. Made up of many of the same people as the Climate Commission, this group are set to continue the work of the Climate Commission without using federal government money. So many people signed up and tried to donate that the twitter account got suspended several times and the facebook account kept requiring captcha requests to ensure that the popularity and spread of the site was legitimate. In the first 13 hours they had raised $160,000 to get the council up and running, and by the end of the day they had reached over $247,000. This is a great example of how the virtual world can create real change in the real world. 


Read more...
Scientists say climate cuts leave public in the dark.
Support for Climate Council takes off.
Climate Council