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The CIA World Factbook has gone, long live Country Profiles

In February, the CIA World Factbook quietly disappeared. No warning, no explanation. The Factbook was one of those dependable, slightly dull places you sent students to look up the basics about a country.

The mild silver lining is that building a replacement is no longer the job it once was. With agentic coding tools, one person with some time and a clear idea can put together something fairly serviceable, so I had a go.

It’s called Country Profiles. It’s free, it’s on alltheway.education, and it’s built for IB DP Geography in mind, but should be useful for all.

Search any of 200+ countries, and you get the figures that matter to the course, each one sourced inline (World Bank, UNDP, UN World Population Prospects, WHO) with a trend line alongside. And because it isn’t a frozen archive, the numbers refresh as the official datasets update, so you’re not teaching from a five-year-old snapshot.

There are also a few activities students tend to take part in:

Country Clash — Top Trumps for nations, essentially: pick your stats, two countries go head to head, and the highest wins. Play against the computer or a friend. You can also print decks to PDF.

Compare Countries - up to six nations side by side, indicator for indicator, with an export to a spreadsheet option.

Rank & Reveal - students predict how countries rank on a given measure before the real answer appears. They’re often some way off, which makes for a useful conversation. Hans Rosling would, I hope, approve.

The Factbook’s closure was a shame. But it was also a reasonable excuse to build something a little more current, and aimed squarely at the geography classroom.

Country Profiles

David Attenborough’s life’s work, searchable

I came across this today and thought it was worth a share:

Nearly 5,000 episodes across 90 series — from Zoo Quest in 1954 to Secret Garden in 2026. Search by animal, habitat, location, natural phenomenon, or theme to find exactly the episode you’re looking for.

David Attenborough’s work, searchable

The new International Geography .training is live, now with more IGCSE and AI

The 2026-2027 season of International Geography .training webinars is available for booking.

We have tried to focus on what we perceive as gaps in available training for geography teachers. You will find three IGCSE-focused webinars, two on artificial intelligence, and three for IB DP geography.

International Geography .training

alltheway.education

alltheway.education is a one-stop shop for all I am working on. Have a quick look at ‘The Shed’ for things I am tinkering with at the minute.

alltheway.education

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Two new projects

Revise

Revise is an active-recall flashcard platform that does not create flashcards for students. It does, however, help students generate efficient active-recall cards for syllabus points and supports educators in monitoring students’ flashcard production and review. Currently set up for IB DP Geography and IB DP ESS students.

If you are interested in using Revise as an educator or would like to know more, get in touch.

Revise

EE Coach

The EE Coach is designed to help students think critically about their Extended Essay research question in preparation for their first meeting with their EE supervisor. By working through the questions, they will arrive at that meeting with clearer ideas and more focused questions to discuss.

Feel free to have a go yourself, either pretending to be an IB DP student starting out with the EE or pointing your students towards EE Coach. If you are an EE coordinator or DP coordinator and want to know more, get in touch.

EE Coach

Big things that your students need to write

The final webinar of the academic year, from International Geography .training, is fast approaching. Saturday 9th May 2026 – 10h00 to 13h30 CET focused upon the two significant writing challenges that our students face: the mandatory 2500-word Internal Assessment and the 4000-word Extended Essay.

We are starting to plan the 2026-2027 webinars, so if you have any suggestions, please get in contact.

International Geography .training

Recent changes to geographyalltheway.com

Podcasts

The podcast library has moved from a separate standalone site into the main geographyalltheway.com website, with all episodes synced directly from Spotify. You can now browse podcasts by IB DP Geography unit, search by keyword, sort by lesson sequence or duration, and subscribe to Spotify playlists; all organised around the IB DP Geography units.

🎧 Podcasts

Key terms

The glossary page now loads instantly using a new interface. You can filter terms by unit, search in real time with auto-complete, browse alphabetically, and download the full list as PDF or CSV.

🔑 Key terms

Exam style questions

The exam questions page has been rebuilt with a powerful multi-filter system; you can search by paper, unit, sub-unit, command term, and mark allocation. There is also a random question generator for quick practice, and every set of filters produces a shareable link so you can send specific question sets directly to others.

🖋️ Exam style questions

Subscription and resubscription process

The signup and payment system has been completely modernised with Stripe Checkout, replacing the old embedded form. Subscribers can now pay using 16+ methods, including Credit Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, TWINT, Bank Transfer and SEPA Direct Debit. VAT is calculated automatically for EU customers, and proper invoices are generated.

Subscribe to geographyalltheway.com

alltheway.education

alltheway.education is a one-stop shop for all I am working on. Have a look around!

alltheway.education

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For a little while now, the BBC World Service has been putting its podcasts out on YouTube. I am finding the channel a valuable and accessible source of both podcast content and videos for DP Geography (What is climate change?), as well as for DP TOK (such as Why do we lie?) and DP ESS (What happened at Fukushima 10 years ago?).

BBC World Service

geographyalltheway.com is excited to partner with Discover the World Education on their Big Christmas Geography Quiz. Back for another year, this hugely popular free resource includes 10 fun, curriculum-linked rounds created by Geography educators and expert Geography organisations.

I contributed the Country Code Top-Level Domains round, helping provide what I feel is a high-quality, engaging activity for all Geography classes. The quiz is completely free to download and ideal for the final week of term, offering festive fun while reinforcing key geographical concepts.

The Big Christmas Geography Quiz

I am leading an International Baccalaureate online Category 1 workshop from Friday, 27th March to Sunday, 29th March 2006. If you are new to IB DP Geography teaching, or know someone who is, all the details are here.

Virtual Category 1 Workshop

Textomap is an interesting service that I recently came across while researching the Using generative AI as a Geography Teacher webinar I gave for International Geography .training. There is a free version that belongs in every teacher’s toolbox. I like the ability to point the service at the web address of an article and see a map produced of all the locations mentioned. A really quick and helpful way of giving a text-based source a more visual ‘place’ based narrative.

Textomap

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Spotify is something I've been focusing on lately. A vast majority of my students use it; therefore, that presents an opportunity to sneak a bit more geography into their lives. podcasts.geographyalltheway.com curates over 300 podcasts by IB DP Geography unit, but it’s a step too far for some students. I’ve started even more focused curated lists on Spotify, such as Unit 3 - IB DP Geography. I’m also experimenting with AI (NotebookLM) generated audio overviews - which can be found at geographyalltheway.com - IB DP Geography on Spotify.

geographyalltheway.com - IB DP Geography

The next International Geography .training webinar is fast approaching. 'Using Generative AI as a Geography Teacher' is on Saturday, 29th November 2025, from 10:00 to 13:30 CET.

Generative AI is transforming education, but how can geography teachers harness its potential while maintaining academic integrity? This cutting-edge workshop provides practical guidance for both educators and students navigating the AI landscape.

International Geography .training

Calling all IB DP Geography teachers working in Switzerland or neighbouring areas. Sign-up for the 2026 SGIS IB DP Geography Group meeting is now open. The 2026 event will be held on Monday, 1st June 2026, at Aiglon College.

2026 SGIS IB DP Geography Group Meeting

I have a soft spot for geeky gadgets. I’m currently enjoying my TRMNL, an e-ink (therefore long battery life) display that sits near my desk. It displays (currently) the weather forecast, my recent activity on Strava, reinforcing the need to get out and move, and geographyalltheway.com’s visitor numbers for the last week to see how things are progressing.

TRMNL

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I’m writing this while waiting for my flight home from Berlin, where I have been for the last couple of days delivering an IB Category 1 workshop for InThinking. In terms of professional development, I am now listed in the Royal Geographical Society’s Directory of Education Consultants, available here, in case you or your school are interested.

RGS - Directory of Education Consultants

Matt Podbury and I are leading two International Geography .training webinars between now and the end of the calendar year. ‘Making it matter for your students’ is happening on Saturday, 1st November 2025, from 10:00 to 13:30 CET, and 'Using Generative AI as a Geography Teacher' is on Saturday, 29th November 2025, from 10:00 to 13:30 CET. Get yourself signed up quickly!

International Geography .training

Google’s NotebookLM is a real game-changer when it comes to educators’ and students ’ use of AI. Google has recently released some curated ‘notebooks’, including Trends in Health, Wealth, and Happiness, which focuses on the data and writing of every geography teacher’s favourite, Our World in Data. For practical advice on the use of NotebookLM, sign up for the AI-focused International Geography .training webinar mentioned above.

Trends in health, wealth and happiness

I have mentioned my love of a good podcast before. I would like to give a quick recommendation for Titanic: Ship of Dreams, from the Noiser Network. We enjoyed it while driving around Iceland this summer. Carefully and considerately done with plenty of potential for use in Theory of Knowledge lessons.

Titanic: Ship of Dreams

The Dynamic Folio from MOFT is a great iPad case. Light yet protective, with numerous configuration options stemming from its funky, origami-esque design.

Dynamic Folio

Last bit for this month → Discover the World Education launches Morocco. Experience real-world learning in Morocco, where dramatic landscapes meet vibrant cultures. Designed by geography teachers and led by experts, these geography trips blend academic insight with unforgettable adventure. Explore more.

DTWE launches Morocco

I am going to try a new, shorter structure for these newsletters, getting directly to the point with near laser-guided precision.

geographyalltheway has a new updates page, powered by micro.blog, that provides a brief outline of the updates I make to the site. You can get the updates page from the menu on the left-hand side of geographyalltheway or directly here.

I did a lot of driving during the summer break. I enjoyed listening to John Green’s Everything is Tuberculosis audiobook. Download a sample chapter on your e-reader of choice and give it a try.

Do you teach the new CIE IGCSE Geography 0460 syllabus? If so, you need to book yourself on the webinar that my friend and partner in international geography crimes, Matt Podbury, is leading as part of the International Geography Training Project. Saturday 27th September, two 90-minute sessions, online, starting at 10h00 CET with the option of a follow-up meeting with either of us.

Have you just started teaching IB DP Geography? Are you about to start teaching IB DP Geography? Are you looking for an official IB face-to-face category 1 workshop? Why not join me in Berlin from October 3 to 5, 2025?

Last random share is Foodle. An excellent recipe search engine from the talented developer Silvio Rizzi, who also created Mela (which I shared many issues ago) and Reeder (the app I use to follow RSS feeds and other online announcements).

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⚙ Operational notes

The past month has been busy (again). Internal Assessment moderation, sessions for parents at school on our journey with generative artificial intelligence and a great trip to Berlin to lead an IB Category 2 workshop.

🌍 All Geographers

🗓️ Turn Wikipedia articles into interactive timelines

🔗 WikiTimeline is a rather helpful tool that I came across last week. Paste in a link to a Wikipedia article of your choice, and Al reads through the article and extracts all the chronological events. This usually takes 10-15 seconds. You can paste in multiple Wikipedia articles for the construction of comparative timelines.

WikiTimeline

🧑‍🎓 IB DP Geographers

🗞 The IB Geography Class at the Financial Times

I have mentioned before that the Financial Times offers 🔗 free access to schools. Each week, I (try to) send to the FT a recent article that is linked to the IB DP Geography course and offer four or five exam-style questions that could be asked about the article’s content. All these articles are now available on the FT’s 🔗 IB Geography class page, organised by geographic themes, Global Change and Global Interactions units.

The FT's IB Geography class page

📑 Getting your students’ exam ready - Saturday 22nd March 2025

The next workshop from Matt Podbury and at International Geography.training is next weekend → Saturday, 22nd March 2025, from 10h00 to 13h30 CET.

There are just over 50 days until the 2025 IB Geography exam, so get your place booked for this online webinar now, where Matt and I will share what we do to get our students exam-ready.

Examination season is almost upon us, whether it be IGCSE, IB DP Geography, or the like. It is time to take stock of the knowledge, understanding and skills that will underpin the likely success of our Geography students. This workshop will be split into two sessions, the first focused on the exams happening in the next couple of months and the second session on those exams happening in a year's time. We will introduce you to a range of strategies to aid student preparation, as well as the effective time management of revision to combat stress and aid well-being.

International Geography .training

⬆ Updates

📊 Geographical skills on geographyalltheway.com

I have been working on the geographyalltheway.com 🔗 Geographic skills page. The idea is that each of the geographic skills listed in the IB DP Geography guide is presented with an example, a definition, links to the geographyalltheway.com lessons where that skill is practised, and a list of when that skill was required in an IB DP Geography exam. I hope you will find it helpful. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

Geographic skills

👓 Random

♻️ Doing our bit to reduce food waste

I was recently teaching the ‘solutions to food insecurity’ part of the 🔗 Food and health unit. The unit includes a section on waste reduction as a possible approach. An online search led me to apps that link consumers with outlets selling unsold items at the end of the day for a discounted price rather than ending up in the bin.

Since then, we have been using 🔗 Too Good To Go once a week. The class I teach has become interested in the contents of the ‘surprise bags’. I will try to get one from a local hotel so the class can enjoy some ‘food waste’ pastries during one of their final lessons. This sort of action ties the content we need to deliver with meaningful contexts that the students remember.

Too Good To Go

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Mock exams seem to have dominated the past month!

🌍 All Geographers

Two newsletters that may interest you.

📊 Daily Data Insights

Bite-sized insights on how the world is changing every weekday, directly into your inbox from the wonderful 🔗 Our World in Data. Click on Subscribe in the top right-hand corner.

Our World in Data - Daily Data Insights

It is possible to use a tool such as 🔗 Readwise Reader or 🔗 Feedly to subscribe to newsletters (and RSS feeds) so you can read them in one place rather than having them clogging up your email inbox.

🌳 Living Geography

The legend Alan Parkinson is doing a ‘weekly highlights’ version of his 🔗 Living Geography blog as a substack. Subscribe below →

LivingGeography

Sharing creative geographical explorations for geography educators.

By Alan Parkinson

🧑‍🎓 IB DP Geographers

📑 Getting your students exam ready - Saturday 22nd March 2025

The next workshop from Matt Podbury and I at International Geography.training is on Saturday, 22nd March 2025, from 10h00 to 13h30 CET.

Mock examination season is almost upon us, and it is time to take stock of the knowledge, understanding and skills that will underpin the likely success of our Geography students in their first attempt at a semi-realistic summative assessment. This workshop will introduce you to a range of strategies to aid student preparation, as well as the effective time management of revision to combat stress and aid well-being.

International Geography .training

🇩🇪 International Baccalaureate Category 1 Workshop

Those of you who will be starting teaching IB DP Geography at the start of the next academic year, or those of you who have new staff joining their departments, may be interested in the 🔗 International Baccalaureate Category 1 Workshop I am leading in October 2025 in Berlin.

Category 1 Workshop

⬆ Updates

🏃 A faster geographyalltheway.com

geographyalltheway.com has got faster? Pages load faster, navigating between pages is faster, and searching for things like 🔗 Key Terms and 🔗 Exam Style Questions should be faster.

🔊 A call for testimonials

geographyalltheway.com has a 🔗 testimonials page. It has been a while since I chased anybody for a new testimonial. If you would like to offer a testimonial about your use of geographyalltheway.com, which will be added to the testimonial page and appear on the site's front page occasionally, please email me.

geographyalltheway.com

👓 Random

🧠 Some AI Mapping to explore

🔗 Godview - try the prompt “Show me five glaciers in France” or “Show me ten hot tubs in Iceland”.

🔗 The 15-Minute City - drop a pin on the map, click Generate, and review the AI-generated report of facilities within a 15-minute walk of the pin drop.

🔗 mapsgpt.com - all sorts of options to play with here for AI-generated maps from trip planning to ‘text to map’.

Subscribe now

⚙ Operational notes

I got to 50 issues and then took a break. This coming calendar year, I plan to post once a month, early in the month - so hopefully, I can get to at least 60 issues by this time next year.

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🌍 All Geographers

📰 A more balanced approach to news

I use a lot of news articles with my students in my efforts to ensure we are using contemporary examples to give the required content meaningful context. Showing the students that all news sources are not the same is important. Discussing the skew that comes with some reporting helps the students understand the narrative they are reading.

I have been using 🔗 ground.news for about a year now and I think it is great. Watch the video clip (2 minutes 38 seconds) below to get an idea of the service offers.

You can do a lot with free access to the site. I have paid for the premium subscription at around $30 a year. I think it is money well spent. Try the phone app and the Chrome extension to really see what the service offers.

ground.news

🧑‍🎓 IB DP Geographers

💻 Online workshops for international geography educators

I am involved with something new. I have joined forces with 🔗 Matt Pods Podbury to offer 🔗 online training opportunities for international geography educators.

We are offering three online workshops during the current academic year. These can be purchased individually or as part of a bundle. There are discounts on the bundle for 🔗 geographyalltheway.com and 🔗 ibgeographypods.org subscribers.

The first workshop is on Saturday, 18th January 2025, from 10h00 to 13h30 CET. Start 2025 with quality professional development; 🔗 get signed up now.

International Geography .Training

⬆ Updates

📳 Moving social media

I am no longer using the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. I still need to get around to deleting my accounts, etc - it’s on my job list.

I am actively investigating 🔗 Bluesky as a ‘replacement’. I like the 🔗 ‘starter packs’ approach to get people going.

If, like me, you start a bit fast and find yourself following too many people and ‘starter packs’, you may get lost in all the content. If this is the case, try 🔗 sill.social.

🔗 Sill finds the most popular links in your Bluesky and Mastodon feeds to give you a clear picture of what’s happening.

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👓 Random

🌦 Weather in your calendar

I think I mentioned before that I live on Google Calendar. 🔗 weather-in-calendar.com displays the weather for a given location in your Google Calendar. I find it helpful when deciding what we will do at the weekend and which day will have the best/driest weather.

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The Massif du Mont-Blanc from Plaine Joux.

⚙ Operational notes

🥂 The 50th issue and getting close to the 1000 subscriber milestone!

🌍 All Geographers

🗓️ National Festival of Fieldwork, June 2024

The 🔗 Geographical Association encourages schools to participate in the National Festival of Fieldwork, which will be held in June 2024.

Fieldwork is an essential part of a geographical education...

It enables young people to develop their subject knowledge, gain a range of skills that are difficult to develop in the classroom and helps them to understand the ‘messiness’ of geographical reality.

Resources will continue to be added to 🔗 this page on the 🔗 Geographical Association website, so check back regularly!

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🧑‍🎓 IB DP Geographers

📢 Do any of you use Notion? Do any of you get your students to use Notion?

I think that 🔗 Notion is brilliant. I use it to plan lessons, schedule projects, curate ideas for this newsletter, and more. This year, I am also trialling requiring my DP1 students to use Notion, and this seems to be going really well. I have created some 🔗 ‘content checklists’ for my students and shown them how to copy them to their Notion set-up and add extra columns to the database to help them plan and reflect upon their revision.

It would be great to set up a little group of ‘teachers using Notion’. Email me, and let’s see what we can do.

📰 I have got my act together, and I am contributing to the Financial Times again

The Financial Times offers free online subscriptions to pre-college students aged 16-19, their teachers and upper secondary/high schools around the world, and to colleges of further education in the UK.

🔗 Click here to check if your school is registered for free access, to sign up and to request an individual FT account

I am trying to get back into the rhythm of contributing questions focused on an article useful for IB DP Geography teachers each week. Here is a recent 🔗 ‘Geography class’ contribution that anybody teaching Unit 2 and/or Extreme Environments may find useful → 🔗 Geography class: Ski industry navigates new terrain to fend off the threat of climate change.

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⬆ Updates

🇪🇸 Calling all geography teachers in or near Madrid - free CPD on Thursday, 21st March

Delivered in collaboration with Discover the World Education and The Geographical Association to bring you high-quality hybrid online/in-person CPD and networking opportunities for teachers in Spain, including:

How to improve your teaching using AI with me!

How to raise standards in your department with 🔗 Becky Kitchen from the 🔗 Geographical Association.

A workshop on achieving the best results for your students with 🔗 Jon Wolton from 🔗 Pearson.

Incorporating effective communication in the classroom with 🔗 Karen Corfield from 🔗 Discover the World Education.

🔗 To secure your space, sign up today.

Share How do you know what you don’t know?

👓 Random

I am presenting an online webinar titled “AI tools being used in the classroom today” as part of the 🔗 Ecolint Institute of Learning and Teaching’s series called 🔗 Digital Literacy in the Age of AI. The webinar will be at 17h00 - 18h00 CET on Monday 11 March. You can register for free 🔗 here.

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Light, dark and tourists near the Jemaa el-Fnaa, Marrakesh.

⚙ Operational notes

A positive return to being productive after the winter break. There are lots of things in the pipeline, both at school and within my ‘wider interests’. I’m really looking forward to the 🔗 IB Category 2 workshop I am leading in Paris. It is a very welcome return to face-to-face workshops.

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🌍 All Geographers

🇩🇪 Practical Pedagogies - 1st/2nd November 2024, Cologne, Germany

The educational wonder that is 🔗 Russel Tarr is bringing back 🔗 Practical Pedagogies, a two-day educational conference to be held at St. Georges British International School in Cologne.

"Practical Pedagogies" believes the best training is delivered by practising teachers, sharing effective and creative strategies and resources at an affordable price.

I was lucky enough to be involved in both the 2016 and 2018 conferences. It would be great to have a strong geography contingent there!

Practical Pedagogies

🧑‍🎓 IB DP Geographers

🇨🇭 2024 meeting of the Swiss Group of International Schools IB DP Geography Group

The sign-up for this free-to-attend one-day meeting for IB DP Geography teachers working in Switzerland is live and can be found 🔗 here.

SGIS IB DP Geography Group Sign Up

⬆ Updates

❓ Exam-style questions on geographyalltheway.com are now ‘dynamic’

Users of the 🔗 DP Geography section of geographyalltheway.com will have found more exam-style questions per page of content. The 328 (at the time of writing) exam-style questions that can be found 🔗 here are also now dynamically added to the relevant content web pages. As I add more exam-style questions, they will be automatically added to the relevant page of content, helping students and educators link content with possible assessment questions.

🎧 Updates to podcasts.geographyalltheway.com

🔗 podcasts.geographyalltheway.com now displays the number of podcasts curated to be associated with each unit. An extra function has also been added to each podcast’s page. If you click on the share button (a square with an arrow pointing up), the link to that page will be automatically copied to your clipboard so you can paste the link into whatever platform you use to share things with your students.

👓 Random

This might be a step too far for some people, but bear with me. The first recipe recommendation from the ‘How do you know what you don’t know?’ newsletter is for 🔗 Onion bhaji Yorkshire puddings.

Leave a comment

What a fusion! I love to cook and was looking for something to accompany an Indian-inspired meal I was preparing. They were easy to cook, and they went down well in my household of culinary critics.

The Agafay Desert, thirty kilometres in the south of Marrakech, was visited on the October 2023 Discover Ltd teacher inspection tour.

⚙ Operational notes

I failed to send out any newsletters between late September 2023 and now. Sorry. I enjoy putting this newsletter together, but it is always the first thing I will scrap from my to-do list if things at work and/or home are too busy.

Going forward, the plan is to try to send out a newsletter every three weeks. This gives me a bit more wiggle room in terms of collecting ideas, putting something together and getting it all queued up to send.

Subscribe now

🌍 All Geographers

In the words of Gapminder 🔗 ‘Many bad things happened in 2023’ so they collected a list of 100 positive stories from 2023 that might make you feel differently about the last 12 months.

It’s a great resource covering things from 🔗 Golden eagles reach record numbers in Scotland, to 🔗 Paris river to become swimmable for first time in 100 years to 🔗 Child mortality rate (probably) lowest ever.

🧑‍🎓 IB DP Geographers

🇫🇷 IB approved Category 2 DP workshop - Paris, 9-11 February 2024

I will be leading an 🔗 IB-approved Cat 2 DP Geography (in English) in Paris from Friday the 9th to Sunday the 11th of February. This is the first face-to-face workshop I have led since the pandemic, and I’m super excited (and a little nervous) about it. The registration deadline is 26 January. If you have completed at least one exam cycle or have colleagues in your department who have - get them or you 🔗 registered for what will hopefully be a really useful and collaborative couple of days in the French capital.

📢 Free webinar - Fostering Conceptual Understanding in the DP

I am involved in the presentation of a free online webinar for ManageBac - 🔗 Fostering Conceptual Understanding in the DP on Wednesday, 31st January 🔗 at 13h00 in London.

Join our expert panel for an exploration of concept-based learning in the IB Diploma Programme. Anna Androulaki-Woodcock will dive into Language and Literature, revealing strategies for unleashing the power of conceptual understanding, while Richard Allaway will guide you through mastering DP Geography and the 4Ps of success in unlocking key concepts. Paul Hoang will provide insights into CESC and WISE ChoICES, sharing effective strategies for teaching and assessment to boost student performance.

Register for the webinar 🔗 here.

⬆ Updates

🔑 Key terms now available by sub-unit

I continue to add to and refine the key terms associated with each page of IB DP Geography content on 🔗 geographyalltheway.com. There are now 428 key terms for the IB DP Geography course I teach. When I see that look of panic in the students' eyes, I point out that a lot of them are common sense! All the key terms can be accessed 🔗 here.

🔗 geographyalltheway.com subscribers can download key terms as PDF or CSV files. CSV files mean that the key terms can be easily uploaded to flashcard platforms such as Anki and Quizlet. The recent update means you can now download the key terms by sub-unit. It is useful if you are doing an ‘end of sub-unit’ test or similar.

💳 Invoices and card payments now use Stripe

One of the things I have been working on (while not sending out newsletters) has been to move some of the backend systems to Stripe. I am now using Stripe to generate all invoices and collect credit card payments. Stripe should provide a better service in terms of making invoice (and receipt) generation easier and, therefore, school finance teams happier!

👓 Random

I have used 🔗 textexpander for years - basically since geographyalltheway.com became ‘commercial’ in 2009. It allows you to type a couple of symbols/letters, and the service will then paste an assigned word, sentence, or block of text.

In hindsight, geographyalltheway.com was a rather long website name - so I have textexpander set up to turn gatw into geographyalltheway.com, em into richard@geographyalltheway.com etc. A lot of the ‘default’ emails associated with invoice requests and resubscriptions are generated by me typing in just a few letters. The platform is available for Mac, Windows, and Chrome.

Textexpander is a subscription service, but for USD 39,96 a year, I feel it is well worth the money. According to the website, working on the theory that I type 50 words a minute, textexpander has saved me 25 hours and 47 minutes in 2023. Well worth the fee!

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Worms Head and Rhossili Bay, Wales, August 2023

⚙ Operational notes

The last few weeks have been really busy with various school, work and geography projects and commitments. Hopefully, things will settle down a bit, and I can try to return to a fortnightly newsletter.

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🌍 All Geographers

You must be aware of the recent devastating earthquake in Morocco. I have been taking students to the area for the last 14 years or so and am looking forward to visiting again in October with the 🔗 Discover Ltd teacher inspection tour. Tourist revenue will play a key part in the recovery of the area. Keep an eye on updates from 🔗 Kasbah du Toubkal.

🆘 How can we help?

Here is the link to the 🔗 Education for All campaign. Please share the link and the 🔗 Facebook page. The campaign set an immediate short-term fundraising goal, but the true extent of the need has yet to be assessed.

If you would like to donate more generally to the effort, please kindly consider making a donation to the 🔗 British Moroccan Society (BMS) charity, which has set up an urgent appeal for donations to support those in immediate need. BMS has worked for decades with local associations across Morocco, with a particular focus on the Atlas Mountains in the Al Haouz region around Marrakech.

📰 News and resources

There has been much written about the earthquake. I have tried to collect some content together in 🔗 this Flipboard magazine. There is plenty to work with from 🔗 ‘Buried under the bricks - How mud-brick housing made the Morocco earthquake so deadly’ from Reuters to 🔗 ‘Morocco earthquake: why traditional earthen architecture is not to blame for the destruction communities have endured’ from The Conversation.

⬆ Updates

🇩🇪 North West Europe Geography Conference

🔗 Discover the World Education, 🔗 The Geographical Association and 🔗 St Georges - The British International School, Düsseldorf Rhein-Ruhr are offering FREE in-person geography CPD on Wednesday, 18th October 2023. Develop your knowledge and teaching skills by 🔗 signing up today.

📈 N22 and M23 examples added to 🔗 IB DP Geography Geographic Skills

I have been through the November 2022 and May 2023 IB DP geography exams and updated the ‘Last seen in a DP Geography exam’ content on the 🔗 IB DP Geography Geographic Skills page of geographyalltheway.com.

👓 Random

It's not random for a geography-focused newsletter that seems to like everything digital! Have a play with this generator of 🔗 ‘population density joy plots’.

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Combloux Biotope Lake, August 2023

⚙ Operational notes

Last week was our first week with students back in the building. It is always a ‘busy’ week. Hopefully, the next couple of weeks will see things return to some kind of normal!

🌍 All Geographers

If you are a geography teacher, subscribe to the 🔗 Map Men on YouTube. One of their recent uploads 🔗 Why is North up? is worth a watch. DP Geography teachers may even find it useful for links with the Theory of Knowledge course.

🧑‍🎓 IB DP Geographers

I think I have shared the wonderful 🔗 VR Glaciers & Glaciated Landscapes from the University of Worcester before. A free access lesson on geographyalltheway.com uses it here → 🔗 ae.03 Exploring glacial landscapes.

The team have released a new ‘self-guided, immersive virtual field trip’ of the Arolla Valley, Switzerland 🔗 here. Well worth checking out.

⬆ Updates

📰 Flipboard magazines about Iceland and Morocco

In the last couple of months, I have started two new Flipboard magazines in an effort to curate contemporary news articles about 🇲🇦 Morocco and 🇮🇸 Iceland. You can find them here → 🇲🇦 Morocco and 🇮🇸 Iceland.

👓 Random

This one comes from my mother. Install the Merlin app on your phone and then download the regional data file for your area. Run the app, and it will listen for any bird song and identify the species making the noise. It’s an interesting, free app for looking at the bird-based biodiversity in your area. Visual identification tools are also included in the app.

Rochers de Leschaux, July 2023

⚙ Operational notes

I hope you have had an excellent July and August. I have walked up some mountains, swum in the sea, lakes and pools, decorated, and travelled to Yorkshire, where I ate and drank far too much.

This new academic year, with a very likely ‘busy’ start, promises a range of exciting projects.

🌍 All Geographers

Why not join Matt, Karen and me for 🔗 ‘The Ultimate Geography Teacher CPD Course’?

As well as experiencing the geographical wonders of Iceland during your four-night trip, you’ll receive access to online webinars with our expert course leaders before you leave and when you return to help get the most out of your training.

🧑‍🎓 IB DP Geographers

💻 IB DP Category 1 workshop - Online - 13 to 15 October 2023

Are you new to teaching IB DP Geography? Or do you have new colleagues who are about to start teaching IB DP Geography? I am leading an online Category 1 workshop in mid-October. Full details can be found 🔗 here. A little something to celebrate - this will be the 30th workshop I am leading for the IB.

🇫🇷 IB DP Category 2 workshop - Paris - 9 to 11 February 2024

Now this is super exciting! I will be leading my first post-pandemic face-to-face IB DP workshop in Paris. Working with a group of DP geography educators on this 🔗 IB Category 2 workshop will be so good. A rough guide is that Category 2 workshops are for educators who have completed at least one DP Geography teaching exam cycle.

👓 Random

Random that it is an ‘online game’, but the content and point are spot-on. Use the 🔗 ‘You don’t know Africa’ to improve the geographical knowledge of you and your students. Start a leaderboard and get competitive!

Lac Leman, June 2023

⚙ Operational notes

This issue will be the last before the summer break. The next issue is tentatively planned for 22nd August.

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🌍 All Geographers

You may have some travelling planned for the summer. If so, here is a podcast suggestion - 🔗 The Climate Question from the BBC World Service. I only recently came across it and have enjoyed the first few episodes I have listened to.

🧑‍🎓 IB DP Geographers

Those who are IB DP Geography educators with new classes starting after the summer may find the 🔗 gatw Pre IB DP Geography course menu useful. Required and suggested reading, required and suggested watching and required and suggested listening all help students make a strong start to the course.

⬆ Updates

🎙 podcasts.geographyalltheway.com

I have been working in the background to relocate 🔗 podcast.geographyalltheway.com. It is now a part of geographyalltheway.com and not another (expensive) service. This saves me some costs and gives me more control. What is there is version 1 but version 2 is already in discussion. If you have any suggested features - please get in contact.

📣 How about sharing a testimonial about geographyalltheway.com?

If you are a user of geographyalltheway.com and you think it is any good, how about getting in contact to leave a 🔗 testimonial? Testimonials are featured on the site's front page and can include a link back to you.

Leave a comment

Genoa, Italy, April 2023

⚙ Operational notes

There will probably be two or three more issues before the summer break. If you have any content suggestions - please get in touch.

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🌍 All Geographers

There are a couple of spaces left on the teacher inspection tour to Morocco that I am co-leading with the fantastic Mike McHugo. Full details are available 🔗 here.

🧑‍🎓 IB DP Geographers

Have you heard about the review of the 16+ programmes? I hadn’t until the recent 🔗 SGIS IB DP Geography Group meeting. There has been a recent update made on the process and progress, which is worth checking out if you are involved in the world of IB teaching. The document you are looking for is called ‘Review of 16+ programmes: June 2023 update’, and it can be found on the Programme Resource Centre. You will be glad to read that one of the goals is ‘Designing for subtraction and for more manageable programmes.’

⬆ Updates

🔓 This subscription belongs to …

I have added a new feature to geographyalltheway.com showing who owns a subscription when accessing subscription-only content. Whole School Subscribers see the name of their school. Individual subscribers see their name.

☕ The geographyalltheway Educator Support Area

The geographyalltheway Educator Support Area is up and running on Discord. If you are a Whole School Subscriber, you will find more details here.

👓 Random

I have recently spent quite a few hours invigilating exams. This year we started using 🔗 examdisplay.com. At GBP 25 for a yearly subscription, it is some of the best money I have spent (on the IT budget) this year. If you work in a secondary school show 🔗 examdisplay.com to your exams officer now!

Looking up the Rhône and the Arve from Jonction, Geneva, May 2023

⚙ Operational notes

There was no newsletter last week as last weekend I needed to finish writing my reports, there were staff meetings to be delivered, and the annual 🔗 SGIS IB DP Geography educators meeting to be coordinated.

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🌍 All Geographers

🔗 Edpuzzle is a great teaching tool. The platform enables you to add questions to YouTube videos. The answers to these questions can be automatically assessed, and the student’s progress (or misunderstandings) will be documented.

The reason to share Edpuzzle now is ‘Teacher Assist’. Artificial intelligence magic can now generate those questions for you. This saves time and gets things started and ideas developing.

I plan to add Edpuzzles to geographyalltheway.com as I teach the course again, starting in September. I will share these Edpuzzles with Whole School Subscribers via the ‘support area’ described below.

🧑‍🎓 IB DP Geographers

I have mentioned 🔗 Flipboard before in 🔗 issue #5. I think it is an excellent service for curating content that is focused on a specific topic or teaching unit. I have created a Flipboard magazine for all parts of the IB DP Geography course. 🔗 They can be found here.

Last week Flipboard featured the 🔗 IB DP Geography Flipboard Magazine in an article titled 🔗 6 Flipboard Magazines Curated by Educators for Teacher Appreciation Week.

⬆ Updates

🆕 New lesson added to Unit 3

I have added a new lesson to Unit 3. I felt that ‘the growth of the “new global middle class” was worth its own dedicated lesson → 🔗 3.1.2 The growth of the “new global middle class”. I start the DP Geography course by teaching Unit 3, so this would be the second lesson of the course after I have taught a lesson or two on the Concepts and Approaches to Learning.

💬 Dedicated 'support area' for priority support and additional resources

I am trying to offer more to those of you with a Whole School subscription to geographyalltheway.com. I am setting up a space on Discord. This space aims to give Whole School subscribers quicker support with their use of the site, answer questions about the demands of the course, and share resources such as quizzes and assessments. Whole School subscribers should receive an email about this later on in the week. If you would like access before then just email me now.

👓 Random

This week’s recommendation is for something that has been around for a while now, as the following video shows →

I have had a Cocoon Grid-It for years now - but I only recently dug it out again and have started using it daily. I have one of the smaller ones - around A5 size - and it holds my laptop charger, cable, pen, USB A to USB C adapter and a USB C cable. They are all together, usually near the top of my school bag, and ready to throw down on the hot desk I’m working at. They seem to be available on Amazon.

A little bit of street photography while (recently) in Genoa, Italy

⚙ Operational notes

A relatively ‘normal’ week last week. Hopefully, this coming week is ‘normal’ too.

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🌍 All Geographers

There is loads of geography in this clip which was recently shared during an engaging session at the Geographical Association Conference lead by 🔗 Denise Freeman and 🔗 Brendan Conway.

It reminds me of the ‘classic’ iOS game Flight Control which is no longer around - but 🔗 Planes Control! is a worthy clone.

🧑‍🎓 IB DP Geographers

I rather like this special series from npr - 🔗 Beyond the Poles: The far-reaching dangers of melting ice. Articles and audio all based around the impact of melting ice (glacial and sea ice) at their centre. Useful for 🔗 Unit 2 and 🔗 Extreme environments. I am sure that this series would also help with any discussions focused on possibilities, processes, power, place, and perspectives.

⬆ Updates

🙌 Another time through the IB DP Geography course

🔗 geographyalltheway.com hosts a complete IB DP Geography course including the 🔗 Freshwater, 🔗 Extreme environments and 🔗 Food and Health geographic themes. Seeing that the IB DP Geography exams are at the end of this week it means that I have journeyed through all the resources once more, polishing, reflecting, and evoling.

📣 Are you a ‘Whole School Subscription’ holder?

I want to offer ‘Whole School Subscription’ holders more support. If you are a ‘Whole School Subscription’ holder drop me a (very brief) email to start a discussion on what you need and what might be the best way to deliver it.

Email Richard

👓 Random

I like apps that bring order to the chaos. There is so much amazing and useful content being regularly shared on YouTube. However, YouTube’s way of doing channel subscriptions is choas. This is where 🔗 PocketTube comes in.

🔗 PocketTube is a browser extension that helps you organise your subscriptions into groups. This then helps you monitor groups for updates. Maybe you are in the mood to watch what is new in your ‘News and documentaries’ or ‘Food’ group. 🔗 PocketTube makes this easy. Check out the tutorial below for a fuller overview →

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Eaux-Vives, Geneva - a while ago, but I only got the film developed this week.

⚙ Operational notes

I will be back at school tomorrow after Spring Break. I am working on something special for educators with a geographyalltheway.com ‘Whole School Subscription’. Check out the details below.

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🌍 All Geographers

The first thing I am sharing from the 2023 Geographical Association Conference is 🔗 ‘Weather and Climate: A Teachers’ Guide’ from the 🔗 Royal Meteorological Society.

In this teachers’ guide and the accompanying online teaching resources found on metlink.org, we aim to give UK geography teachers all that they need to deliver relevant, engaging and thorough weather and climate lessons to 11–14+ year old students.

A gold mine of information, resources and links for any educator covering weather and climate with a class. Useful even if you don’t teach in the UK and if you teach students older than 14.

🧑‍🎓 IB DP Geographers

If you teach the 🔗 Extreme environments geographic theme, you need to be showing this video.

⬆ Updates

📣 Calling all ‘Whole School Subscription’ holders

I want to offer more for educators with a geographyalltheway.com ‘Whole School Subscription’. I plan on creating a dedicated community, probably using Discord (but this is open for discussion), where I can share insights, updates, and extra resources, offer professional development opportunities, and provide enhanced support. If you are interested in shaping this offering and currently have a geographyalltheway.com ‘Whole School Subscription’, email me at richard@geographyalltheway.com.

Email me

🧵 Twitter #GeogChat

I will be hosting 🔗 GeogChat on Twitter on Wednesday at 8 pm UK time. Join me, and others, to share approaches around the idea of what you do when you find a ‘geographical treasure’.

🇨🇭 SGIS IB DP Geography Group 2023 Meeting agenda published

The agenda for the meeting happening on Friday, 12th May, can be found 🔗 here.

👓 Random

How about having one place to send people to find the links to all your various online presences and projects? Check out 🔗 bento.me. Check out my page at 🔗 bento.me/richardallaway.

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