2022 Membership Update

Our records show there is still a significant number of schools who are still owing their 2022 subs.

Any members who have not paid their 2022 subs have been unsubscribed from the AGTA Website.

If this has affected you please fill out your information here to subscribe to the AGTA for 2022. Anyone who had an overdue invoice has been resent them today.

If you have any questions please contact me agtassociation2@gmail.com

SCHOLARSHIP TALKS FOR STUDENTS

AGTA have partnered with the School of Environment, university of Auckland to present three scholarship sessions for students.

The first of these is a lecture by Tom Baker entitled “What is Urban Growth” It will be held on on Wednesday 1 June at 4pm – details below.

Please use the link provided below to access this.

Please click this URL to join.https://auckland.zoom.us/j/95271957596…

Passcode: 692601

The other two sessions will be:

  1. Urban Growth and Inequality – Larry Murphy – 4pm – 29 June
  2. Sustainable Urban Growth – Mel Wall – 4pm – 17 August

Details of these two sessions will be available later here and on the FB page.

We have included a flyer for you to advertise these workshops in your Geography area of the school.

AGTA Hui and AGM

We hope you have had a restful break. The AGTA will be hosting its annual AGM in conjunction with a curriculum change hui on the 25th May 2022 at Alexandra Park in Auckland. 


The AGTA Curriculum Change Hui provides the chance for discussion and professional learning to support and inspire Geography Teachers in advance of the incoming curriculum changes. This free event includes the following:

  • Dr Karen Fisher will explore Mātauranga Māori and Geography.
  • Dr Bronwyn Houliston and Eleanor Rattray will share their experiences of incorporating Geography in the Junior Social Studies classroom while navigating the Aotearoa NZ Histories and Social Studies Curriculum Refresh.
  • Mary Robinson (Kaiarahi) and Gill Hanna will provide insight into the future of teaching, learning and assessment in Geography.
  • This will be followed by the Auckland Geography Teachers Association AGM.
  • There will be opportunities for Q&A

This event is FREE and we welcome all Geography teachers to come along!

Register here

We look forward to seeing you there!

Mallory, Eleanor and the AGTA committee. 

Goose Chase QUIZ

Our annual Auckland based Geography quiz has had a makeover this year. Instead, we would love your Geography students to participate in our online revision challenge using GooseChase!

This is free of charge and open to all Geography students (Years 11-13), who have a device.

What do your ākonga need to do? Complete FIVE different revision ‘missions’ by uploading a mixture or photos, diagrams, or revision tasks to the GooseChase app.

The GooseChase will go live on Friday 5th November @ 9am and close on Friday 19th November @ 3pm. Students can complete the missions from home or in school. What do you need to do? Encourage your Geography students to participate in this fun revision activity! Prize packs will be sent out to students via post/online. To join the online adventure, please register your students’ names here and share the ‘player instruction sheet’ with your Geography classes today (below).

Happy Holidays everyone

It’s been a long term especially those of you in the Auckland region. I hope that you all (wherever in Aotearoa NZ you may be) have an excellent holiday with family.

Some of you might be able to travel a bit and inject some $ into the NZ economy – please do this I am sure our tourist operators will appreciate it.

For those of you in the Auckland region – with luck we will be able to move around a little more next week. But, if we can’t then please:

  1. Put away your laptops for a while.
  2. Close off zoom, MS Teams or whatever system you have been using
  3. Turn off school notifications on your phone

and

And 

Have some time just for you!

Relax, refresh and rejuvenate!

The Origins of Geography Terms

The vocabulary we use to describe landforms and landscapes comes from languages around the world. It’s a prevalent example of how we rely upon the traditional ecological knowledge of peoples who know their lands best.

Here are some of the etymologies:

Alpine: From Latin Alpes “The Alps”
Archipelago: From Greek Arkhi Pélagos “chief sea” referring to the Aegean Sea
Atoll: From Dhivehi atholhu “palm of the hand”
Bayou: From Choctaw bayuk “small stream”
Billabong: From Wiradjuri bilabaŋ “watercourse that runs only after rain”
caldera: From Spanish caldera “cooking pot” referring to Las Cañadas caldera in the Canary Islands.
Cay: From Taíno cairi “island”
Cenote: From Yucatec Maya tsʼonot “accessible groundwater”
Drumlin: From Irish droimnín “littlest ridge”
Fjord: From Norwegian fjord “lake-like”
Geyser: From Icelandic Geysir “one who gushes”
Isthmus: From Greek isthmos “neck” referring to the Isthmus of Corinth
Jungle: From Sanskrit jaṅgala “arid”
Lagoon: From Venetian Laguna “lake” referring to the Venetian Lagoon
Mangrove: From Guaraní mangle “twisted tree”
Monadnock: From Abenaki Menonadenak “smooth mountain” referring to Mount Monadnock
Oasis: From Egyptian ouahe “dwelling place”
Savannah: From Taíno sabana “treeless plain”
Steppe: From Russian stepʹ “flat grassy plain”
Taiga: From Yakut tayga “untraversable forest”
Tundra: From Kildin Sami tūndâr “treeless plain”
Volcano: From Sicilian Vulcano, one of the Aeolian Islands



Map by Jordan Engel. As always, the Decolonial Atlas’ original media can be reused under the Decolonial Media License 0.1.

https://cutt.ly/OWfJfQE

A contemporary Geographic Issue – Level 3

Schooling Sargeant Majors (striped fish, Abudefduf saxatilis) and Spottail Pinfish (Diplodus holbrooki) swarm a discarded shopping cart on the bottom of the Lake Worth Lagoon in Singer Island, FL.

A combination assessment for Level 3 students – this resource activity combines both 3.6 and 3.7. 

Check out the resources here:

Resource booklet

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aHxbDR2rGbKW2qd1FsVOxVLiutKFptpT/view

Assessment tasks

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D1CxTSF8QGlnjjGoHtaAoi2Dg8EYx-1z/view

and 

Assessment Schedule

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12WD-Yt92_mQkOV160y-_m25Qbm3O3qJt/view

These were originally written by Duncan Bond.  Duncan has given us permission today to distribute these to all NZ Geography Teachers.

We would like to thank Sam Fazio-Smith, Curriculum Leader Geography at St Margaret’s College who has provided her updated resources which are attached.

Teaching ideas and resources for the Geography teachers of New Zealand