Crowdsourcing your favorite geography lessons.

[Rachelle Lamoureux]

First, I thought I'd quickly introduce myself. I currently teach 7th grade World Geography at a middle school in Minot, North Dakota. There are 18 of us in the world geography ning -- so far! Whoo Hoo! I thought it might be interesting and fun to begin a "sharing" discussion. What is the most successful and inspiring geography lesson you have implemented that you would be willing to share with others?

[Kay Conners]

Rachelle love this idea! I teach 8th grade World Geography in Virginia. So many ideas to think about as a favorite. Travelling the next week but will definitely add to this! Will share voicethread project, Google Earth vocab lesson and others. Again, thanks for starting this!

[Rachelle Lamoureux]

Hi Kay! Just sending you a reminder to share your VT and GE projects. I can't wait!!!!!!!!

[Jeff Kohls]

I struggled for an end of the year assessment, while keeping with a PBL theme, and I didn't want to just give a cumulative final test (boring).  With the help of some educators from the twitter PLN, I developed a final project that, I feel, was a pretty good assessment of what they've learned all year.  The project was a "design your own country" from the bottom up.  Each student was given a starting latitude and longitude, and could expand their boundaries as they saw fit.  They assumed their position on the globe as if all other human life had been "beamed elsewhere," but things like flora and fauna, standing infrastructure (dams, power grids, major highways, etc), agricultural products and natural resources (had to use what could grow there, or be mined), were all left behind.  They also found libraries of histories and cultural aspects of things such as religion, that they could adopt, modify, or use as a premise for their own beliefs.  They had to establish trade relationships, make war and peace, write histories, develop national sports, etc, using the model of other projects we've done all year.  In the end, they were faced with some critical questions using the 5 Themes of Geography and how each Theme may relate to their specific situation.  It was part creativity, part theoretical application, part research, and part map skills.  

I only offer this because to me, it was inspirational, and now, knowing how it worked the first time, I can change and modify the "bugs" for next year.  I truly appreciate Kay Conners, Rachel Labossiere, Josh Ehn, and Nia Hoover for their contributions.  

[Melissa Baumbach]

I'd love to see the critical questions you use.  I've thought about doing this, but want to have enough time.  How much time does this take for you?

[Rachelle Lamoureux]

Animoto/Wordle Project

[Kristi Barber]

This looks like an awesome project, so many possibilities with this. I took a look at some of the students' videos they turned out really well. Just out of curiosity what was the Voki project.

[Rachelle Lamoureux]

Hi Kristi! We were just beginning our study on India. I had each student chose ONE city in India. I had them research different geographic features about the city. Then the students created their own VOKI's. Each had to share their info they researched and present it in 1st person. ei: Hello from Mumbai India. We are located....our culture includes....My house..... etc. etc. My students really liked this project but some had difficulty grasping the 1st person aspect.

[Paola Pawlak]

I was talking to my boss yesterday about doing something exactly like this! She loved the idea!