I teach geography
I have always loved maps
not sure why...
I guess it's the promise of leading you somewhere wonderful,
new, and exciting.
I think it's great fun to teach geography...
Some areas are more challenging than others...
A few weeks ago we did Eastern Europe...
They all learned where Macedonia and Belarus are on a map...
Then I decided to spring a U.S. map on them...
No warning just here's a map of your country, fill it out...
I often tell the story of my first year teaching in Georgia...
We were planning to take our New England trip. That trip involved loading 40 teenagers on a diesel
bus and driving north. Hitting as many historical sites as possible in 10 days...
It was awesome! It was exhausting!
One of my students who knew I was from Washington/Oregon asked if we would be
driving through Oregon on our way....
Huh?
She honestly thought the States where in alphabetical order...
I quickly arranged for a map quiz...
Confident that my kids here were better informed of their own country I handed out
the US maps and waited as they filled them in...
Out of 32 kiddos only 4 had 40 or more...
And more than I care to think of had 10 or less...
So I switched gears and instead of heading to the Middle East we are
studying our own country...
They were dismayed when I told them they also had to know how to spell them correctly
"Why?" one whined...
"Because you are an American and you need to know your own country!" I said...
I certainly never want to see any of my students on Jay Leno when he goes out and asks people
general history and geography questions that everyone should know the answer to but no one seems to!
It's embarrassing people!
Frychik
Good for you Shelly! I think that's a great idea to have them learn local information too. Thanks for being such a great teacher to our kids!
ReplyDeleteMy parents loved maps too, and got creative when it came to wallpapering our bathroom (wallpaper was in back in the '80s) it was all National Geographic maps. Let's just say Geography was my BEST subject. I commend you for having high standards. Maybe you should make them relearn the "Fifty Nifty United States" song!
ReplyDeleteI promise I would get them all right. Don't know about spelling them all exactly right since spelling isn't my strongest thing.
ReplyDeleteI'd do OK on a pop quiz on math, physics or astronomy, but I'm "geo-tarded". Never could remember where Nebraska is, let alone the capital of Mississippi. I think Florida is south of Maine (right?). That's why I have Google Earth and a droid-GPS.
ReplyDeleteSteven,
ReplyDeleteI'm shocked! This I would have never guessed about you! I'm giving you a map quiz as well!
Nebraska is North of Kansas and South of South Dakota, West of Missouri and East of Wyoming! Why know about a bunch of stars??? That's not helpful! ;)