Ayers Rock/Uluru in the Australian outback. Photo taken in January 2014.
Dear class,
I loved getting to really talk more about geography in depth today, and explore a little bit about countries around the world! I am a huge fan of geography and knowing about different countries, so hopefully that excitement translated well.
Learning Targets Addressed:
Knowledge LT 7: I can demonstrate an understanding of the characteristics of locations and regions.
Knowledge LT 10: I can demonstrate an understanding of the connection between the physical and human systems.
Soundtrack: "Such Great Heights" by the Postal Service. Selected for today because we started looking at the world from above, in terms of maps (and also the space station video that I played in class). Lyrics here.Knowledge LT 10: I can demonstrate an understanding of the connection between the physical and human systems.
AGENDA 9/18/15:
News Brief - Madi
Photos/Over The Summer
Geography
Maps
Homework: Read the blog and post a comment (if you have not already). Bring a photo if you have not already! The next news brief is assigned to: Maryan.
Maryan volunteered to do the next news brief.
We also watched VICE News for the day:
Photos: After the news, I gave the class another chance to showcase a photo from around the world or their family, if they had not done their homework last class. I was glad to see a lot more photos this time! Thank you!
Geography: Next up, I showed this clip of Miss Teen South Carolina 2007, trying to answer a question about why many Americans cannot locate the United States on a world map:
I didn't mean to further embarrass Miss Teen South Carolina. I just wanted to show why it is important that we know our geography! So, I passed out a blank piece of paper that asked everyone to try and draw a world map from memory, labeling as much as possible. Some of these were pretty good! Others, not so much. That's okay! We definitely can improve on our geography skills, and I am excited to teach you about it.
Maps: After the fun of trying to draw the world we played the Sporcle online map game. You guys were amazing for the first time! A score of 137 out of 197 in 15:00 minutes is fantastic for a first time playing. My thanks to Madi for helping me call on students. Again, we will get better about learning about the world! Here's the game to play if you are a huge nerd like me (yes, I have named all of them in 15 minutes before):
Thanks for your focus and participation here!
I showed this video that is a time lapse of some shots from the International Space Station, orbiting around the Earth at night. Incredible! See if you can identify the countries and places by their lights at night.
The last link was: TwistedSifter.com - 40 Maps That Will Help You Make Sense of the World. I didn't show all of the maps in class, but I did particularly enjoy a few, like the map of every country in the world that the United Kingdom has invaded at one point or another.
Finally, I showed this video of many different time lapses on the ground, in various different countries. This one makes me smile, because I have been to a few of these places! :-)
The last link was: TwistedSifter.com - 40 Maps That Will Help You Make Sense of the World. I didn't show all of the maps in class, but I did particularly enjoy a few, like the map of every country in the world that the United Kingdom has invaded at one point or another.
I showed these in class to hopefully help inspire you to learn about where these places are and maybe one day to travel there! We are going to keep looking at geography throughout the year.
To finish class, I passed out a huge map packet (not regular sized paper) for students to fill out. Specifically, work on identifying the countries in South America on the first page, to begin. You need to have the country name written in and the country colored (so not two touching countries are the same color) in order to be able to use them on the map quiz (it is virtually impossible to pass the map quiz without your completed map). Just in case you want to see the files again (printing them on smaller paper is not advised), here it is:
Map Packet Expectations:
1 = Maps lack detail, color, and/or labels. Maps are sloppy or messy.
2 = Maps are labeled and colored but there may be inaccuracies. Maps could be neater.
3 = Maps are labeled and colored completely, accurately, and neatly.
4 = Maps are labeled and colored completely, accurately, and neatly, and include other information, such as capitals, land forms, water features, or resources.
To finish class, I passed out a huge map packet (not regular sized paper) for students to fill out. Specifically, work on identifying the countries in South America on the first page, to begin. You need to have the country name written in and the country colored (so not two touching countries are the same color) in order to be able to use them on the map quiz (it is virtually impossible to pass the map quiz without your completed map). Just in case you want to see the files again (printing them on smaller paper is not advised), here it is:
Map Packet Expectations:
1 = Maps lack detail, color, and/or labels. Maps are sloppy or messy.
2 = Maps are labeled and colored but there may be inaccuracies. Maps could be neater.
3 = Maps are labeled and colored completely, accurately, and neatly.
4 = Maps are labeled and colored completely, accurately, and neatly, and include other information, such as capitals, land forms, water features, or resources.
That was it for today! Bring your maps for next class, because we will continue working on them. They are not homework for now! We will use them during the news brief, too. See you next week!
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