Simply this is because I've been buried in work and have hardly looked up from my desk. I'm now in my second year of being a self-employed author and editor and I've been lucky enough, touch wood, to have never been without work since I started in September 2015.
This month I have started to see the fruits of my labour as the first books I wrote have now been published. Last year, my first self-employed contract was for 12 books with Prim Ed publishing. Two series of six books called Primary Geography; one series for the UK (Years 1 - 6) and the other for Ireland (1st Class - 6th Class).
This began purely as an adaptation from an Australian series called Curriculum Geography but had a high percentage of new pages dues to the curriculum (and obvious geographical) differences. I worked my socks off during the six-month contract to get them written and I'm really proud to finally see them on sale.
Geography has always been a love of mine and some of my best teaching memories and experiences came from Geography lessons. I very much enjoyed getting back to my roots through writing these books, I had been entirely Maths focused in my previous role so it was a pleasant change.
The 2014 curriculum changes affected Geography at Key Stages 1 and 2 considerably, with the addition of new topics and concepts not studied before and greater emphasis on geographical skills including map reading, grid references, latitude and longitude as well as experience in the field. I was able to put not only my teaching experience but also my Scouting experience to good use in crafting texts suitable for young readers that explored these concepts and more.
Alongside creating the pupil texts I also wrote for teachers on pedagogy and best practice through the teaching notes that accompany every topic. It was interesting to explore the variety of resources available, online especially, for the enhancement of Geography teaching. I hope that these notes will prove useful to teachers as they embark on each topic, particularly those who are not Geography specialists.
To take a look at the series please visit the link below:
