Historic Walks
Thomas Jones
After the success of last year’s Hadrian’s Wall walk, for 2023 Edyoufest has two trips planned.
We want to bring the Edyoufest community to places they would not normally have access to, seeing things through a perspective that is new to all of us. It’s about being outdoors, it’s about seeing the very early steps of what we now call (wrongly?) civilisation. It’s about our place in that system. As always with Edyoufest, it will be about finding balance and seeing people in the place, learning from people living at the very edge of our societies, physically and mentally. Also, as it’s Edyoufest, we’ll also have a really fun time doing all of this.
It’s about travel, it’s about people. It’s about you…..
February 24th 15h00 GMT: we’ll have an online group session with Thom on the trip and the context and how you can and your students can get involved.
March 21st-24th
Where it All Began: The oldest constructed homes in northern Europe, The Orkney Islands. Thom Jones will be walking around Orkney, looking at some key sites and structures from the over 6,000 years of its human settlement. Over three days we’ll do live Q&A with students, teachers, and friends. We’ll be following the Erasmus themes of identity and frontiers and looking at historical and modern perceptions of both. And camping in this UNESCO world heritage site. There will be musings about how and why people choose to live in such a remote area and what day-to-day life there is actually like.
March 30th 15h00 GMT: what happened?! We’ll look at all the best bits! The highs, the lows, and what comes next.
April 24th-28th
The Spine of Greece. We’ll be trekking through the very same Pindus mountains trodden by the heroes of Ancient Greek myth and looking at some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. A region now often ignored and far too frequently bypassed by Greeks and international visitors, we’ll be looking at the people that live here now and speaking to local students, teachers, and….. goats…a lot of goats! We’re looking forward to tracing the migration of people that makes up the current population and looking into who might be the next…..we’ll also look at why anyone would choose to live in this remote area, and what possible benefits there might be.
We’ll also be joined by round-the-world cyclist and adventurer, Julian Sayarer! www.JulianSayarer.com our generation’s Kerouac!
As above we’ll have a before and after the session:
March 30th 15h00 GMT: what happened?! We’ll look at all the best bits! The highs, the lows, and what comes next.
April 24th 15h00 GMT
Why? Where? When? What will we do? What for and when?
April 28th 15h00 GMT
What did we do? How was it? What did we learn? Unpicking where we’ve been, what we’ve learned and how you can do the same in your own country.
March 2023 - The Orkney Islands.
Meeting the Students
30th March 2023 - 10.00 UTC
We would like to invite you and your students to join us for a unique online experience, "Historical Walks". Where It All Began: The oldest constructed homes in northern Europe, The Orkney Islands. The edge. The end. The beginning".
Over three days, we were exploring some of the key sites and structures from the over 6,000 years of human settlement on the Orkney Islands, with Thom Jones as our guide.
During the live Q&A session, your students will have the opportunity to ask Thom Jones questions related to Orkney Islands's Geography, History, and Environment. This interactive experience will not only enhance their knowledge but also inspire them to think critically about history, identity, and frontiers.
We encourage you to participate in this one-of-a-kind educational opportunity, which will be a valuable addition to your students' learning experience. The meeting will take place on Zoom, so all you need is an internet connection to participate.
Please let us know if you are interested in joining us, and we will provide you with more information about the schedule and how to join the meeting and some sample questions.
We look forward to hearing from you soon.
March 2023 - The Orkney Islands, Photos
March 2023 - The Orkney Islands, Videos
2022 Adrian's Wall
To download
the brochure:
Video
Presentation:
Hadrian's Wall: journeys, frontiers, humanity.
The objective:
In a time when borders, divisions and access to, and the very nature of, education seem more relevant than at any time in our recent past, now seemed like a good time to walk along Hadrian’s Wall. Built over 1900 years ago, by Romans occupying Britain, the parallels with our own times are distressingly obvious. Humankind is still mired in working hard to build divisions amongst ourselves, as a species, rather than working to create, communicate and cooperate. This is not about politics, it’s about people. And so a walk along Hadrian’s Wall seemed very fitting.
This once huge boundary marker that was erected……well, we’re not 100% sure why. Was it to mark the end of the Roman Empire? Was it simply to control the flow of traffic? Was it to keep troops busy so they didn’t get bored and elect a new emperor? Was it a place for Jon Snow and the rest of the Night’s Watch to fritter away their lives waiting for an enemy that never came..?! Apart from the latter choice, the rest are all possible. But, like much of history, we don’t actually know. What we do know is that EdYouFest is where people meet, exchange ideas, communicate and share. And walking along a wall, built by other people, in a place filled with other people, to keep out other people, where their ancestors are all now one people, is a good part of that EdYouFest feeling.
Thom Jones has walked the wall a number of times, with his father, with friends and
alone. He has also worked with groups and schools taking visitors over its history.
And remains fascinated by it:
“It’s mad. Mad that it exists, mad that people actually built it, mad that it didn’t work,
mad that it’s still there. It’s majestic, beautiful and shocking to find it in such a remote,
bucolic nothingness. It’s hard not to stand on it and look at a view that would have been, not dissimilar nearly two thousand years ago and not ask what we’ve learned since. I love it up there”.
So, Thom will set off on April the 26th and finish on the 29th. He’ll walk and sleep along the way. Carrying everything he needs in the oldest rucksack he can find. He will broadcast how he gets on and what’s happening along the route. He will also be talking directly to some groups of students in Italy.
If anybody would like to sponsor him on this endeavour, he is doing it in support of IATEFL projects, helping to fund access to all manner of resources and people within the world of education. As you probably know already, IATEFL projects is an excellent way for our community to help provide funding for ideas and people who need them worldwide:
http://www.iatefl.org/scholarships/iatefl-projects
Hadrian’s Wall walk
If anybody wishes to do the walk, simply select a section or sections they wish to do using the link below, select a date and then try to fundraise for it before setting off:
http://www.hikeview.co.uk/HW/HadriansWallPage.html
DISCLAIMER:
Any person wishing to do the above walk does so entirely at their own risk and the event is in no way arranged, endorsed or organized by any specific body or organization.
School Projects
Thomas Jones will interact online with students from the following schools:
Teacher: Marisa Amenta
My class 3I Scientifico Anglo-Cinese, is carrying on a PON project about old myths, legends and ballads in Italy , England and China. So the support, ideas and information given by THOM JONES “walking on Adrian’s Wall” , were highly appreciated by the students . A great, fantastic opportunity to widen their horizons.
Teacher: Fernanda Amodeo
In my class, I’ve decided to join the project because we have been studying Global Perspectives subject. It provides opportunities to enquire into, and reflect on, global topics from different perspectives. Having a perspective also of the past, in diverse cultures, sharing ideas, and comparing facts with the present and future, make them develop critical thinking skills. Additionally, the opportunity to speak with Thomas, a mother tongue teacher and enthusiastic one, able to catch the students ‘ interest, is a chance not to be lost.
