Tuesday, June 12, 2012

"How can I connect the processes and/or content from today in my classroom?"

Another day in "The Castle" (Wesleyan Hall)!  Today I learned a lot of ideas that can be used in the classroom. My future students don't have a clue what's in store for them, but I can guarantee that it will include a great deal of geography infused with technology. Because it doesn't take long for maps to become out of date, and it's difficult to create a map for every use that we want in our classroom, technology is awesome because it's up to date. GIS makes it's relevant for a myriad of uses, whether it be physical or human.

On human geography, we looked at how humans impact their environment. I feel this would be GREAT for my classroom and ties in well with my history courses.  Humans have to use their surroundings to survive and meet their basic needs. This ties in well with ancient history as humans first developed civilizations and learned to irrigate to grow larger amounts of crops to sustain a city.

Likewise, I thought that water usage would be excellent in my Global Perspectives course in the Environment unit. It's such a precious commodity, and evidence using satellite imagery in ESRI's GIS Mapviewer shows many examples of rivers or lakes that are being depleted. It bridges the gap that sometimes exists between human and physical geography, and would allow students to manipulate the satellite imagery (and learn the skill simultaneously).

What was helpful to me was collaborating with educators that also teach in high schools here in the Heart of Dixie. Though we all face budget cuts, inadequacies within the availability of technology, and full plates of requirements in our schools, we can also work together to share ideas and experiences in the classroom.  As we develop our final projects (which will use technology to teach students as well as utilize technology for students to learn independently) it is great to share ideas that can be helpful to others. Starting the IB: History of the Americas program next year is a daunting task and I feel overwhelmed already of the magnitude of requirements and restrictions, but the time to develop an extensive lesson that incorporates technology, history, geography, primary sources (of differing perspectives) is my goal. Am I crazy? Aren't all teachers who take a creative approach at least a little crazy?

My husband would agree.



Highlights of the day:

1. Really digging in deep with other high school teachers. I am not alone.
2. Playing around with the giant traveling map of Asia. Who knew I would have to travel to Alabama to go to Asia! (Likewise, I enjoyed the lunchtime presentation on China and learned a bit of new information about a country I feel I know moderately well.) PLUS, the red team (mine!) won the latitude and longitude challenge. GEO-HEROS!

       3.   Exploring the earth in satellite images and determining the interaction of humans on their environment. It was cool to identify things from above, and hypothesize what in the world we were looking at (blue fields, smoke, salt sinks?)

       4.  Walking around campus and seeing all of the beautiful buildings and fountains. Pictures of the lions to come!