Who I am...
"The power of geography is that it lifts our eyes from the narrow focus of ourselves to the wider beauty and complexity of our world"
My name is Max Rayner. I am a secondary school geography teacher currently working in South London. I qualified to teach in 2011 and have been working in London ever since. I grew up in Thorney, a village on the edge of the Cambridgeshire Fens, which might explain my love of mountaineering! Geography was always my favourite subject at school and I was fortunate enough to have some truly inspiring teachers. Deciding to become a teacher was a bit of a no brainer for me. I love my subject and feel very lucky to be able to work with it every day. Geography is such an important part of our lives, it may be a cliche but we really are living it. Turn on the news and I guarantee that whatever is on will have some connection to the learning going on in geography classrooms up and down the country. Some of my favourite moments as a teacher have been when my students have come up to me the day after a lesson full of excitement that they were able to explain to their parents something they saw on the TV or read in a paper. I believe understanding geography makes us better people; more aware, more sensitive and more appreciative of the amazing planet we inhabit. |
My teaching philosophy...
Two books have influenced my teaching more than any others, Learning through enquiry by Margaret Roberts and Accelerated Learning: A Users Guide by Smith, Lovatt and Wise. This is more an explanation of my broad approach to teaching rather than a detailed discussion of how I look to achieve it.
Enquiry based learning
As I have already explained I believe geography is a subject that is 'lived' more than any other. Students will naturally have thousands of questions about the world they see around them. I believe it is the skill of a good geography teacher to harness, encourage and guide this curiosity. Every lesson that I teach will utilise some aspect of the cycle of enquiry that Margaret Roberts outlines in 'Learning through enquiry'. Margaret also explains her belief in enquiry based learning in this article from Teaching Geography, Spring 2010 which is well worth reading. As this site develops and I share more of my resources and ideas I will make how I have embedded enquiry into my lessons explicit. I truly believe this model of learning enriches the teaching and study of geography and I will continue to be an enquiry advocate until I retire!
Enquiry based learning
As I have already explained I believe geography is a subject that is 'lived' more than any other. Students will naturally have thousands of questions about the world they see around them. I believe it is the skill of a good geography teacher to harness, encourage and guide this curiosity. Every lesson that I teach will utilise some aspect of the cycle of enquiry that Margaret Roberts outlines in 'Learning through enquiry'. Margaret also explains her belief in enquiry based learning in this article from Teaching Geography, Spring 2010 which is well worth reading. As this site develops and I share more of my resources and ideas I will make how I have embedded enquiry into my lessons explicit. I truly believe this model of learning enriches the teaching and study of geography and I will continue to be an enquiry advocate until I retire!
Accelerated Learning
While the principles of enquiry based learning have informed how I present geographical knowledge and the way that my students work in lessons, accelerated learning has informed the way that I structure my lessons. I believe that the two methods compliment one another and have given me a clear focus when planning learning. When planning I try to think of the individual lesson or series of lessons in 4 parts. I admit the names of the stages have a whiff of multiple intelligence psycho babble but I find it a simple model that works for me. In the connect stage I look to plan an activity that connects the new learning with something learned previously or generates the 'need to know' for the new knowledge. Stage 2 is to activate the learning, this is where I introduce the new knowledge I want my students to learn, I would say that it is a 50/50 split between teacher lead and student lead as to how I achieve this. The demonstrate phase is where the students apply this new knowledge to a task or problem, therefore demonstrating that they have understood it. Finally I try to consolidate the learning, this is usually where I check that students have 'got it' or where they evaluate their own understanding and look forward to the next step. I have found the combination of these approaches has greatly improved the focus of my planning and as a result the quality of learning taking place in my classes. |