As I said, this blog is for me to also talk about any geography fieldwork I’m doing or whatever and this week I’m in the Lake District…
Today we didn’t do much to be honest, it was lunchtime before we got here and then we had to sort everything out! Just leaving the school the coach driver managed to break the wing mirror – so that was a great start!
Anyway, this afternoon, we went for a walk into Keswick. It was alright, but the weather was awful. Rain, hail, wind. I hate the cold – I know hate is a strong word, but I really do. So that ruined that for me…
Aside from the trip into Keswick, we didn’t really do much, other than a bit of prepping for tomorrow’s walk and revision of glacial landscapes – which was not really that helpful to tell the truth.
The centre is nice enough, if a little secluded, and the scenery is beautiful (when it can be seen through the snow). I think that the main issue is that most of us would rather be at home in the warm!
Natsbythesea 
Hi Natalie,
my boss pointed me towards your blog, it’s been good to read a student’s perspective on a field trip! Sorry about the weather this week… as someone who does this every week, this weather didn’t actually seem too bad to me, but it’s good to be reminded how much it can put people out of their comfort zones if they’re not used to it! If you do study geography at uni you’ll have more bad weather experiences I’m sure, but also good ones to leave better memories! I spent a week on Skye at uni when it didn’t stop raining, but the next year a week in the Alps with wall to wall sunshine. Both are good memories!
Thanks for your feedback about the glaciation intro- I’m always trying to improve my teaching, I’d be interested to know how I could make it more helpful for future students. We have to judge how much students know about topics quite quickly, and maybe I got it wrong on Monday. What would you have liked to cover in preparation for Tuesdays fieldwork?
I hope you enjoy the rest of your fieldtrip at Blencathra!
Hi!
I think I’m getting used to being out in the cold now – plus my cold is starting to go!
The lessons were definitely more useful once we’d moved onto the fieldwork, I would say that glaciation is one of my stronger units, which is probably the reason I found it less helpful than some of my friends did! The lessons themselves were good and interactive etc – I just felt that I already understood the content! But as I am aiming at an A then I’d say that lessons that help the majority are potentially covering content I already understand very well anyway – if that makes sense!
Yup that makes sense, but we should be stretching the most able as well as the majority, so I’ll have a think about how we can make sure we do that effectively in the future.
One option I’ve tried for students who are clearly already confident in the content being covered is to give them a range of resources around the topic of glaciation- such as news articles and journal publications- to read and respond to. But that depends on me spotting who needs them. If they were available on the table for you to pick up if you wanted, would you have used them?
Fair enough! That’s a good idea – I probably would have picked them up if they were on offer – providing they didn’t involve too much writing (though your other lessons haven’t – which is good)! I think the lessons were really good, they just weren’t that challenging – the glaciation one anyway! That’s the only problem really – you’ve been lovely and the lessons were obviously well prepared and very organised!