Great Ways to Teach Geography!

After viewing "More Than 100 Creative Ways to Teach Geography", I found ten ideas to be particularly interesting.

 103 Creative Simple Ways to Teach Geography

1. Blue Square Thing- this activity requires students to walk around locally and at the end of 5 minutes they take a picture of what they can see at their 'destination'. I like this idea because it gets students involved in the geography of their own town or city.
2. Geography Alphabet- this activity requires students to come up with pertinent terms for each letter of the alphabet. I like this activity because it seems like it could be used for review and it can be used over and over.
3. Mystery Voicethread- this activity requires students to guess what they just heard after listening to a voicethread. I like this activity because I can see students being very engaged while trying to figure out what they just heard.
4. Bingo- this activity requires students to play bingo with useful terms. I like this activity because bingo is a fun way to review the definitions of key terms.
5. Alter Ego Twitter- this idea requires the teacher to create an alter ego on Twitter and have all the students follow that page. The teacher will then periodically post important ideas or facts that may be used on an exam. I like this idea because it integrates learning into social media which is such a huge part of kids today.
6. Odd One Out- this activity requires to find the one person, place or, thing that does not belong in a set. I like this activity because it is a good way to see relationships between ideas, people, places, and things.
7. SurveyMonkey- this survey allows for students to give you feedback on different topics. I like this idea because this is a good way to gage student understanding. You could ask them in the survey how confident they are on certain topics. It seems like a fun way to get feedback.
8. Describing Photos- this activity requires students to work in pairs. The students sit back to back and one student describes a picture with words while the other on tries to draw it from the description. I like this activity because I think students will have fun trying to describe photos and it seems like a good way to learn about different land forms or bodies of water.
9. Landscape in a Box- this activity requires students to take a burger box and create a landscape that fits inside that box. I like this activity because it allows a lot of room for the students to be creative.
10. Map From Memory- this activity requires students to look at a map for 20 seconds and then draw what they can from memory. I like this activity because it seems like a lot of fun and it is a good way to practice drawing maps.

Assessment

        This week we focused mainly on the definition of assessment and the best ways to assess students. My class settled on what I think is a great definition for assessment. We stated that, assessment is the process of gathering and discussing information from a variety of sources, to develop an understanding of what students know, understand, and can do with their knowledge.  I like this definition because it dispels the idea that assessment is simply a test and a grade. While a test could be a part of an assessment, it should not be the only aspect involved.
       
        After establishing a sound definition for assessment, my class discussed the three different types of assessment and when it was appropriate to use them. Diagnostic assessments should be implemented before a lesson or activity to gain an understanding of what students already know about a given topic and what their questions may be. Formative assessments should be conducted throughout the lesson. This type of assessment is ongoing and allows time for the teacher to give quick feedback to the students and keep them on track. Summative assessments should take place after a lesson or a unit have been completed. This assessment shows how much the student has learned from the given lesson or unit.

        Lastly, my class discussed the importance of implementing authentic assessments. This type of assessment involves projects where students can demonstrate what they know, while also feeling a sense of purpose for what they are doing. Students will automatically be more engaged in a task if it has some sort of significance in their lives. Incorporating real life experiences is a great way to spark students' interest and keep them engaged. Authentic assessments are also a great tool because they are measuring more than just the students knowledge on a topic.

Social Studies Methods: Learning the Ropes

Dr. Smirnova shared this video with us about the students of today.