Operational notes
Apologies for there being no newsletter last week. Last week got rather busy and I had promised myself that I will just skip a week rather than get too stressed about it all - so I did!
It feels like autumn is very much on its way here in Geneva. Maximum temperatures are now in the high teens. Here is a link to our school weather station so you can see what's going on here.
All Geographers
A recent release (30th June 2022) which already has over half a million views. This is a useful video for any educator tackling development and disparities.
IB DP Geographers
A map of national dishes and how they could be impacted by climate change.
Climate change and the hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere, including: changes to agriculture, including crop yields, limits of cultivation, soil erosion
Impacts of climate change on people and places
As IB DP Geography educators our job is to give context to the content. I love to find resources that help link syllabus content to the experiences of my students. This resource from Carbon Brief, from 2019, is great. Who knew that Canada ranked 13th in the world for potato production and that heat-waves are impacting potato growth. All of this having an affect on the well known Canadian dish Poutine.
https://www.geographyalltheway.com/in/ib-global-change/02-006-climate-change-biosphere.htm
Updates
I will be leading an official International Baccalaureate Category 2 workshop, for the provider InThinking, in February 2023.
Category 2 workshops are for educators who have had some experience of teaching the DP Geography course. Maybe they have done an examination season or two. It's an opportunity to reflect and collaborate with colleagues working in other schools - thinking about the most effective approaches to prepare students for their exams.
The workshop is online. I realise this impacts the possibility for a 'trip away' but it does reduce the overall cost of the professional development, minimises the carbon footprint, and does not leave you at the mercy of transport delays and increasing fuel prices.
Random
I like to 'follow' a whole variety of different sources of news and updates. These sources keep me up-to-date with new ideas, technological updates and the possibilities of new teaching resources.
Using what is called a RSS reader or news aggregator makes this 'following' of many sources super easy. When an update is made, by an author or organisation, it is delivered to the news aggregator so I can read and process everything in one place.
Feedly is my news aggregator of choice and has been for a number of years. I use the service a couple of times a day to keep on top of updates. Things I then want to go back to and consume later I send from Feedly to raindrop.io [mentioned in past issues].