With the signature catchphrase “geography is everything,” David Joiner's passion for his subject is indisputable.
David Joiner, SAC’s Head of Geography, took his passion and deep subject knowledge to Queen’s University January 19, when he spoke with geography teacher candidates about innovative classroom practices and independent school teaching.
Dr. Joiner’s two-hour workshop with 30 future educators began with the SAC promotional video and a conversation about the responsibilities and expectations for teachers at independent schools.
He introduced students to activities that generate interest in a geography classroom. This included the Radio Garden website that identifies streaming-radio stations on a maneuverable globe; five-dimensional graphing tools for country statistics and photographic charts of global families ranked by income at Gapminder; and interactive visualizations of global weather conditions forecast by supercomputers at Earth.
At the students’ request, Dr. Joiner finished his presentation by demonstrating SAC’s implementation of synchronized electronic notebooks using MicroSoft OneNote and classroom/gradebook management with Edsby. He says they appreciated increasing their knowledge about independent schools and look forward to using many of the highlighted geographic education tools in their own classrooms.
“I love sharing these attention-grabbing activities with these young teachers-to-be," says Dr. Joiner, who has taught geography at the College for 18 years and is an in-house expert on global education. SAC’s Expert in Us program, launched in 2012, supports teachers who chose to study and research a topic then share findings with colleagues. It also makes them sought-after experts outside our gates.
Dr. Joiner is a recognized leader in his field and is connected to the larger geography teacher network not only through Queen's University, but also through Ontario Association for Geographic and Environmental Education (OAGEE), Advanced Placement (AP), and Esri Canada, a geographic information system (GIS) company.
“He is a tremendous asset to the College,” says Michael Paluch, Assistant Headmaster and Director of Academics. “Dr. Joiner is in tune with current technologies as they pertain to teaching geography to a technologically savvy student population.”
