What is my point? How do I make this subject come alive in my classroom? How do I take a living subject and resurrect it in the classroom? One could go on an endless number of field trips and excursions to experience the subject. Imagine going to Patagonia to study the effect of global warming on the Moreno Glacier over the past ten years. I am guessing many people would take geography and do really well in it if that was the case, but realistically that is not going to happen. My focus is how do I make geography come alive in my classroom or at the school?
I endeavored to move away from the normal "I teach, you listen" route. I allowed for time to be set aside every Wednesday so the boys in two of my classes could prepare their projects. Their topics were their own and had to be unique, related to geography of course. They were also not allowed to write anything. It had to be presented by Power Point, Movie or some other method. I also brought in guest speakers to present to the classes. These speakers also provided a break from the norm. The first was my sister who had summited Kilimanjaro a few weeks prior. I got her to talk about the landscapes her journey and a few other geographical things associated with her summit. The second speaker was a lecturer from the local university. She spoke about her career in geography along with how she has been sponsored to go to many countries to present at workshops and how she works with a team from Sweden and meets them there once a year for work and study. The final speaker was a land surveyor who brought his equipment for the boys to use and to show them how geography impacts on his job.
Many of the boys resorted to the Power Point presentations. This was good as it gave them the time in the spotlight and enabled them to educate their fellow class members on their topic. Most of the presentations, especially those with the unique topics, were very good. One young man's presentation stood out for me his topic was "Lights of the World: The Aurora and Lightning." Interesting enough one would think, but it was all copied from Wikipedia so by the second slide the whole class was bored. After he was done he asked if he could show two videos he had, downloaded from YouTube obviously, I thought. However, I was about to be proved wrong. He had obtained the videos from YouTube but he had edited them and made them his own using Windows Movie Maker. He had taken a video of the Aurora and put it to his own soundtrack and incorporated music that suited the visuals of the video. For his second video he did the same for a video about lightning. Both were amazing! I said to him if he had left out the Power Point and just did the music videos everyone would have enjoyed the presentation more. When the videos were on he had the whole class's attention.
The reason I chose to do this action research in the first place was because I wanted to improve my teaching and give the boys something interesting to do. In essence I wanted to empower them to put their own individual stamp on their understanding of geography. I made it my goal to make the subject interesting for my boys. Even if they found some aspects boring they had their project to be excited about. From their presentations and their correspondence with me it seemed to have worked. I endeavor to carry on challenging the boys I teach as well as encouraging other teachers to empower the boys they teach.
Bruce Henderson is a geography teacher at a boys school in South Africa. Bruce has a passion for physical geography and problem solving.
For additional ideas about geographic education, please visit the teaching geography section of this website.
