09.14.07

This week in geography class we took a field trip to Europe! I know – amazing, right? Using the great technology of Google Earth, the class and I can go and explore anywhere in the world, and this week we looked at Europe. We visited the ice fields of Iceland, Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii, Mt. Olympus in Greece, and saw some beautiful beaches in the Mediterranean. Google Earth is a free program from Google that you can download on your computer at home. Kids – ask your parents if you can do this before you do it!

In addition to our “field trip”, the students worked on Chapters 13 and 14 from the textbook, and worked on a physical map of Europe. These are to prep the students for next week, when we start our first geography project, the European Country Report. Stay tuned for more information…..

 Have a great weekend! 

09.07.07

What a great week we’ve had in geography class! Our introductory unit has ended, and we are now starting to learn about our first continent of the year, Europe. In order for the students to get familiar with the area, we usually start out each new continent with maps designed to help kids become familiar with the place names and locations. This week we have worked on the European countries and their capitals. We also had an open note vocab test on Thursday, over the first five chapters of the textbook. On the news this week, there was a beauty pageant contestant that has made headlines due to her poor answer during a contest. While most of the world has been wrapped up in how the poor girl delivered her answer, I found the question itself to be really interesting. “Many Americans cannot locate the United States on a map.” This is shocking to me, both as an educated adult, and of course as a geography teacher! Last year a student brought me a very interesting article from The Gazette. A reporter had polled people in our own community about where places like Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan are on a map.  Most people couldn’t locate those countries – there were even people that couldn’t point out Colorado! So, here is my question this week, and I am asking this of everyone who reads this blog – my students, their parents, and the other teachers in the building – why do you think that is?