Poems for the Geography classroom

Teaching Geography (Spring 2010) says...

2010-07-18T14:31:00.000-07:00

This is a great little book, full of poems designed for use in geography lessons...The poems are easy to read and very accessible.

The book is very reasonably priced, and would be a fantastic resource to use as a starter or plenary, to inspire, engage and hook students into topics (Teaching Geography, Spring 2010).

On a different note, here is my take on the recent oil spill:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/34501567/Oil

Fair Trade Fortnight Poem

2010-02-13T14:08:00.001-08:00

With Fairtrade fortnight approaching, I thought I'd look to raise awareness amongst my own students about the importance of fair trade...

Fair Trade Fortnight Poem

View more presentations from Mark Cowan.

Just what is this about?

2009-11-01T13:46:00.001-08:00

Who am I?

View more presentations or Upload your own.

To commerorate the moon landings...

2009-07-22T09:41:00.000-07:00

How did it feel, Neil?

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The Teacher (NUT) magazine review of Poems for the Geography classroom

2009-07-19T14:07:00.000-07:00

Poems for the Geography classroom, as featured in the NUT's Teacher magazine for June 2009:

"This book is a great way to bring cross curricular links into Geography. It contains a set of poems matched to the curriculum...and is ideal for the introduction of plenary session of a lesson to help to illustrate a theme linguistically".

Glaciation - a poem

2009-02-20T15:29:00.000-08:00

Glaciation - a topic which splits opinion - wonderful or utterly boring? Personally, I rather like it. Here's my take on things...

We're just misunderstood...

2009-02-16T12:06:00.000-08:00

Done in a tongue in cheek way, but with a serious message too. Perhaps useful for an assembly. I've used it with my Year 11 students...

Success....What does it mean to you?

2009-01-21T14:39:00.000-08:00

A poem about success....what does 'success' mean to you?
Used this in a recent assembly with students gearing up to exams...

A big thank you...

2008-11-14T12:12:00.001-08:00

A big thank you to all those people who have bought the book so far, and particularly those people who have taken the time to give me such positive feedback. It really is appreciated. As a point of note, the book can be now bought via Amazon.co.uk http://www.amazon.co.uk/Poems-Geography-Classroom-Mark-Cowan/dp/1905637640, and Geographical Association members can receive 15% of the price of the book. Details of how this can be done are found here...

http://www.geography.org.uk/news

Now available...

2008-09-22T14:57:00.000-07:00

NOW AVAILABLE
As of October 2008 this resource is now available!
The resource can be viewed at the Eprint website

http://www.eprint.co.uk/product.asp?strParents=352,371&CAT_ID=442&P_ID=1723

Welcome!

2008-04-03T14:35:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome!

Below you will find information about my new publication, Poems for the Geography classroom .

I am a Geography teacher in the North-east of England. My interest in poetry pre-dates my role as a teacher, but increasingly I have used poems in the classroom to stimulate students' interest. Geography is such a visual subject, and it has always surprised me that poetry seems an under-utilised, if not quite untapped area of the subject. I have put together fifty poems in this publication, covering diverse areas of the subject, from earthquakes and volcanoes to map skills, a sense of place and the range of difficulties that face our fragile environment. The poems are such an open-ended resource that students of different ages and abilities should be able to understand them, but at different levels. Primarily, my thinking is that they can be used with older Key stage 2 students and more generally within the Key Stage 3 curriculum. However, I myself have used them with GCSE students too and found them to be just as effective. A list of the poems can be found within this blog. In addition, I am fully aware as a practising teacher how important it is to have practical strategies and suggestions on hand to use. Consequently, the first chapter in the book gives twenty extensive and imaginative suggestions as to how the poems can be used in the classroom to stimulate discussion and further understanding. Equally, consideration is taken of how to make them appeal to different types of learners, whether it be visual, kinaesthetic and so on.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and please do feel free to utilise the example resources provided below. Should this stimulate any further interest, details of the book and how to order it can be found at the EPRINT website at

www.eprint.co.uk

Best wishes

Mark Cowan

An audio example: 'Volcano'

2008-04-03T14:28:00.001-07:00

Please feel free to use the following audio example of one of the poems from my new publication, Poems for the Geography classroom. I'm afraid the only drawback is that it is me reading it!:)

Click here to get your own player.

A contents page for the book...

2008-04-03T13:14:00.000-07:00

Alternatively, if the above is not working, please try clicking here to access the direct, fullscreen version...

http://www.scribd.com/full/2436543?access_key=key-2a9tzqotvnmexvww8y9x

Water woe - a free poem and guide to use

2008-04-02T14:12:00.000-07:00

Please feel free to use this poem and its attached guide if you find it useful. It doesn't feature in my new book Poems for the Geography classroom' but is reflective of the style and tone of many of the poems found in the book.