Global Teacher Connect: May 2013

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Summer Homework on Google Maps

View Travel Map - Raki Family in a larger map

I use Google apps for lots of things, but I’ve never really played with Google Maps until recently. I made a map with my 8 year old son, charting out all of the places we have traveled (see above). This summer, we will be traveling around the US and he can’t wait to see where we can add “pins”. This got me thinking that it would be a great summer homework pr Summer Experience Scavenger Hunt - Free oject. Have families create a Google Map with at least one pin a week indicating where they have been. (For students who stay close to home, the pins could be as simple as the supermarket or the library.) It would go great with the summer scavenger hunt that I usually send home. (Download the summer scavenger hunt free from my blog – Raki’s Rad Resources.) If you are a high school student and you don't have free time for such trips with your parents, you can buy cheap coursework here https://exclusive-paper.com/buy-cheap-coursework.php and be free from the upcoming deadlines. Sometimes traveling and other adventures help to get the necessary energy that is lacking in everyday life when performing routine duties. It is important to organize useful and active rest. In addition, when you make such a map with the marks of the visited historical monuments, you will be able to get an excellent grade for an additional task in history.

For a step by step tutorial on how to use Google Maps, feel free to stop by my blog – Raki’s Rad Resources.

Heidi-Raki-of-Rakis-Rad-Resources_th

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Are You Teaching Global Citizens?

At the ECIS Conference, I had the opportunity to see a great variety of speakers. One of the most controversial speakers was Chadran Nair. Chadran Nair is the founder of a think tank called Global Institute for Tomorrow, which helps people understand the impacts – good and bad – of globalization. He spoke for us about some of the issues facing Asia today. He believes our schools are not teaching students to be global citizens. Do you think your school is creating global citizens? Should they be? How do we go about creating global citizens? Let’s start a global discussion about it!

What makes a global citizen?

To see Chadran Nair’s ECIS speech in it’s entirety, stop by my blog – Raki’s Rad Resources. Heidi Raki of Raki's Rad Resources

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Student Learning Games

I recently had my students create board games. I gave them my list of Game Board Instructions (you can also download them on my site). The students worked in groups to create a game about a subject we are currently studying. I gave each group a different subject, and their job was to create a learning game involving concepts we're covering in class.

They were also responsible for coming up with detailed instructions, creating game pieces and game cards, and decorating their game board and box.

I purchased many of my materials from my favorite store, the Dollar store (see my blogs about the dollar store by clicking here and here.). Here's what I bought: small toys that were used as game pieces, pipe cleaner, googly eyes, and stickers for the kids who wanted to make their game pieces, dice, timers, spinners, white gift wrap boxes that the students used to store the game, and small cardboard jewelry boxes to hold the game pieces.

Here's an example of game pieces made with pipe cleaners and stickers.

These are some of the pieces I purchased from the Dollar Store.

One example of a game my students made was called "Fun-Cabulary." They created a game where the players spin a spinner which tells them to either act out, draw, sculpt, or explain a vocab word. Then they pick up a vocab card that has the word and definition on it, and the students have to guess the word.

They had a great time with this activity and the kids love playing each other's games! Here are some photographs of the kids' creations.

Field Trips Rock!

My students, who attend the International School of Morocco, are very lucky. They live in an area (Casablanca, Morocco) that provides us with great field trip opportunities. We are currently studying Ancient Rome, so yesterday we went to see some Roman ruins and artifacts.

We started at Chellah, the site of the ancient Roman city of Sala Colonia. The kids were able to see arches, house walls, a nice Roman road, columns, a bath house and water pipes.

The International School of Morocco took a field trip to see Roman artifacts. Where has your class taken a field trip to?

They were also able to see and talk about the “layering” that happens with many ancient ruin sites, as there are distinctly Arab buildings built “on top” of this site. We were able to look at mosques and mosaics and compare and contrast the Roman architecture and the Arab architecture.

The International School of Morocco took a field trip to see Roman artifacts. Where has your class taken a field trip to?

After Chellah, we went over to the Archaeological Museum and saw specific artifacts, collected from the many Roman sites in Morocco, including Volubilis. We were able to see pottery, jewelry, statues and a great mosaic.

The International School of Morocco took a field trip to see Roman artifacts. Where has your class taken a field trip to?

What awesome places do you get to take your students on field trips to?

Heidi Raki of Raki's Rad Resources

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Collaborative Project: Student Blogging

My school - Souris Consolidated (Prince Edward Island, Canada)

I wrote a post last month about how I was just starting to get my students blogging. Since then, we are well on our way in our blogging adventures and most students are really enjoying it. Of course, there are students who don't enjoy writing, and blogging is no different for them. However, they do enjoy the freedom to play around with fonts and add photos to customize their blogs. They also enjoy the interaction with their classmates and feedback from myself, on improving their posts before publishing.

There were quite a few comments on that original post, from other teachers who were like me and wanted to have another class or two to blog with. It's almost like pen-pals, with a technological twist!

So, I've since decided to make this a collaborative project here on GTC. It's quite simple. If you have your students blogging and would like to set up something with another class, simply fill out your info on this spreadsheet Collaborative Project: Student Blogging. Have a look at the other teachers/classes who are seeking fellow students to blog with. If you find a teacher who matches what you are looking for - go ahead and email them and set something up between the two of you. Ta-da!

Here are two popular sites to choose from if you're new to student blogging. You may want to check the spreadsheet to see what most people are using!

Once your students are ready to team up with another class - the sky's the limit!

-Students can simply read and comment on students' blogs in the other class

-Students could introduce themselves and get to know those in the other class in a "Get to know you" post - this would work best for us blogging newbies, most likely.

-Students in both classes could be given the same prompt (maybe even somewhat controversial ) to respond to and then read what their classmates/the other class had to say about the topic

-Students could all write about something unique to where they live if the blogging countries are quite different

-Students could also simply write about something of interest to them - everyone may have a different topic, and again, students must read and comment on each other's blogs.

-Students could post a picture symbolizing something important to them and have students comment, guessing what the picture represents

-Students could post a riddle and have students comment, making guesses at the answer

More blogging ideas for you and your students.

So, so many options!

Feel free to connect with just one teacher or multiple, on the spreadsheet that we're compiling. We already have classes grades 1-8, in four different countries. Also, make a mental note to come back next school year (as it is getting close to the end for most of us) and see who's available to blog at that time. We're starting this LATE in the year. Imagine if we'd started it at the beginning of the school year! So many possibilities.

Even though we're just starting this now, I'm sure that the kids will still make connections, get to know each other and each other's writing voices and styles. They'll also become more comfortable with blogging as a writing format, and stronger writers in general! Writing is different when you know that there is a REAL audience - it just IS! I think that when students see that people are actually reading what they write and are commenting on it, they will be more engaged and inclined to raise the bar for their writing (that's my hope, anyway).

So, without further adieu, let the blogging begin!

If you've done this before, or are new - like me, please voice your comments, questions, concerns or potential blog post ideas below for us all to benefit from! We're here to help each other and to make the classes we teach as engaging for our students as possible. Let's harness our students' love and ever-growing aptitude for technology for our own gains - creating stronger, more purposeful writers!

Global Teacher Connect

Pages

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Summer Homework on Google Maps

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Are You Teaching Global Citizens?

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Student Learning Games

Field Trips Rock!

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Collaborative Project: Student Blogging

Total Pageviews

Popular Posts