Geographers or Students?

    Both!!! Last week working in class, we touched on the topic geography. We had many activities such as: Our NAT project, our "Hug the Earth" activity, and the beginning of our Artifact Bag project. This week we focused on lab time for our LiveBinders, as well as, learning to be economists. These past two weeks have been extremely eventful.

     To start off, last week we studied different ways to teach geography through our own practice. On Tuesday we focused on working with our expert groups for the Native American Tribe project. My expert group focused on the Mohawk Tribe. This was an awesome experience because I was able to learn many in-depth details about the Native American's own Mohawk tribe. My group worked very well together and we enjoyed doing this project together. On Thursday, we presented to our base groups. I enjoyed learning about the other tribes, as well as, teaching my group about mine. Next, we completed the Scavenger Hunt in class. This game was fun; however, it was a little unfair because our group only learned about three of the tribes versus all five tribes. We were at a bit of a disadvantage, but I think that we still learned a lot from this activity. In my own class I would love to use this activity, I think it would extremely fun for the students. This may have to be done with iPads or using poster paper, especially because younger students may not be computer savvy and/or the resources may be scarce. Otherwise, this is a valuable and interactive experience for all students. Our hug the earth activity was also another activity that I would to use because it is showing the students the importance of taking care of the earth. When we did this activity we talked about how we would promote taking care of the earth, and I thought that all of my peers had valuable activities/projects for the students to do in order to show the students the importance. I really enjoyed our week as a geographer. 

     This week we focused on being economists. This topic was okay to learn about, I found it to be boring. I feel like when the students are that young they do not necessarily grasp the concept of money. I do believe that it is valuable to introduce them to the concept of the economy, but for grades one, two, three, and maybe even four they are not going to understand money well. However, I do believe that it is valuable to start teaching them about money by the end of fourth grade and up. Our Economy project was interesting and I learned a few things about teaching economics. The rest of the week we worked on our LiveBinders, otherwise know as our e-folios. This was not interesting, but it is nice to be getting some class time to finish them because they are very intensive. I feel that a lot of students complained about them being a lot of work; however, I feel like they do not understand how valuable this e-folio will be to employers. In fact, they will love this e-folio!

     Overall, this week was very calm on the school front. Last week was valuable in learning about different ways to teach geography and history. I am enjoying this enriching in-class experiences. I am looking forward to the end of the semester.