[Y]ou can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus. ~Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it.Antoine de Saint-Exupry, Flight to Arras, 1942He who has imagination without learning has wings but no feet. Joseph JoubertImagine you arePresented by Rachel Hawke (@Geog_enquirer)

Hello, I am Rachel Hawke geography teacher at George Abbot School and on Twitter @Geog_enquirer. My ideas today come from a love of imagination. As a child I loved nothing more than a long car journey where I could daydream and imagine fantastic lands. As a teacher the time for imagination seems small and I am lucky if I can read a few pages of my book before falling asleep at night. However, imagination is incredibly important to our students learning. Geography and imagination are well coupled1

Stimuli for written work

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1. Imagine that you are going on a journey to the centre of the Earth. Write a creative story about your journey but remember to include key facts about each layer!

Year 8 students study earthquakes and volcanoes one idea from a colleague asked the students to imagine they were going on a journey to the centre of the Earth and to describe what they saw. Some were filled with geographical descriptions!3

2. Ask the students to close their eyes and forget where they are. Play the sounds and ask them to imagine what they can see/smell/touch/feel

At the start of a tropical rainforests topic ask students to imagine that they have been transported to the rainforest.4

3. Imagine that you are an elephant in the savanna. You are standing alone and hear a crack behind you. You turn to see a man crouching in the grass and holding a gun. Your heart starts to quicken. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Students struggle with empathy in a topic on the savanna ask students to imagine that they are elephants being hunted and how it feels.5

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0160fqt 4. Watch part of Toughest place to be a taxi driver. Imagine that you are the taxi driver who has moved to Mumbai. Explain your push and pull factors.

Applying knowledge of push/pull factors to a real world example6

5. Imagine that you have just visited Masdar City. Write a travel blog describing what you have seen and how it is sustainable.

Different genres different audience and style of writing (cross curricular links with English)7

6. Imagine that you have written a book about Antarctica. Write the blurb it must be engaging and informative!

Can be fictional stories or information books about Antarctica some even make the book sleeves8

7. Write a recipe for a glacier. Include the ingredients and the method.

Used in an observation lesson successful to make students think about processes as a step by step list9

Proof reading

When the story writing is over, proof reading and checking work is important. Literacy at school green pen time and proof reading 10