Virtual Field Trips

You know background knowledge is kind of important.  I mean....I think it is.  Especially for the younger kiddos who are just learning about the world outside of the little neighborhood.

So when they start learning about places like Greece and Rome and France and Great Britain...it's all (excuse the expression) Greek to them.  They (most elementary kids in my school) have never been outside the US.  So to study about the history of these countries....there is a slight disconnect.

A teacher friend of mine is teaching the American Revolution right now.  She said it perfect, they love it because they know how it ended...because we live in America...this is how we got to this point.  But with all those other countries, you can't necessarily say that.  The kids don't know how it's different from what they studied because they haven't experienced it.  And in all reality...many won't, for many years.

Here is where vacation planning came in for me.  No, I'm not having them plan a vacation.  (Well I actually had the 6th graders plan a trip to Greece.) But I found some websites that give the kids a tour of famous tourist spots in the country that they are studying.  When going on a vacation, you may want to see where you're going to visit.  What about when you're studying a country, you should see what it looks like now compared to what it was.

Are you studying Ancient Greece?  Try a Greek vacation website: http://www.greecevirtual.gr/
Are you studying Ancient Italy? Try a Roman vacation website: http://www.touritalynow.com/virtual-italy-tours or http://www.youvisit.com/tour/rome
Are you studying England?  Try a London Virtual Tour: http://www.visitlondon.com/discover-london/london-virtual-tour#zwHZOJL4xVSPhEP0.97

And all of this can be done to a degree on Google Earth as well!

Students can compare and contrast, they can talk about where would you rather live; then or now, they can rewrite history....the possibilities are endless!

Side note: this leads to a great conversation about the fact that websites are not just American...each country has their own.  My students' minds were blown when we talked about the .gr at the end of the Greek website!

Now...where will you go?

Not Goodbye...

but rather, I'll see you later.

This week I am wrapping up my last week at Ohio State University.  It has been an incredible journey.  I was living in Las Vegas 2 years ago and I decided to pick up and make the move out to Ohio.  There were some personal reasons behind it, but professionally, to say that I worked at THE Ohio State...just WOW!  So when I was offered my job, I took it...no hesitation.

And WOW was right.  I met some AMAZING teachers that I will never forget.  I was fortunate enough to work with some of the TOP educational technology leaders.  Not to mention the inspirational and HILARIOUS College Ready Ohio team.

This week has been an emotional roller coaster.  I have laughed, cried, felt like nothing was changing and been blown away...literally in the matter of minutes.  IT'S ONLY TUESDAY!!  I'm going to be an emotional zombie by Saturday when I start the drive with my husband and father in law to head back to Las Vegas.

I wouldn't change it for the world.

Now, however, let me take a minute and look at this from a student perspective.  Our kids are not all stationary.  How many of us have kids that have left your class, you, their friends, and sometimes their family?  As an adult, if it's a struggle to make this kind of a change, when it was MY/YOUR/OUR own choice...imagine how hard it must be to have to deal with all of it and feel like you have NO choice.  

During my wrap up meeting with Ben, we talked about how it wasn't the LAST time we'd see each other...it would just be a very LONG time.  In order to keep from tears, I made a flip comment about us being Facebook friends.  Which, while it may seem insincere or vapid...it really does make me feel better.  I makes me feel as if the relationships that I have spent the last 2 years working on and building aren't gone forever.  I can reach out to anyone and see what's going on in their daily life.  As a military brat growing up, I was not able to do that and I lost many friends because we couldn't stay in communication about "nothing".  

Now I'm not necessarily suggesting that you become FB friends with your students.  I, personally, would recommend against that in fact.  However, what I am suggesting is use the social media platforms that are available to you to give your students a chance to stay in communication with you and their friends about the "nothings" that are happening.  Do you have a class FB page?  Do you have a class Instagram page?  What about a class Twitter account?  Even a class Snapchat might be worth looking into.  

The students will move and they will love their new teacher and they will make new friends.  But in this day and age of globally connected technology...goodbye doesn't have to be anything but I'll see you later.