Exploring the World - City Guesser, GeoGuessr, and Virtual Field Trips

I am always looking for new and creative ways to open windows to the world for my students. Google Earth and Google Maps are two of my favorite resources to explore our world with my students.

Today I wanted to start by sharing two resources connected to Google Street View, Geoguessr and City Guesser. Both of these resources bring students into a Street View. As the students explore the locations they guess where they think they are. The closer the guess to the actual location the more points they earn.

Puzzle Brain Breaks - Critical Thinking, Collaboration, and Communication

I've struggled a bit this year with getting my students to collaborate and communicate, so I am always experimenting with different ways to encourage these skills. While I've built quite a few collaboration and communication activities in our content, I also occasionally like to provide students opportunities to think critically and collaborate outside of my Environmental Earth Science Curriculum.

Today I wanted to share two "Brain Break" activities that I've used to get my students talking, collaborating, and thinking critically.

Google Drawings Meme Generator and Creative Google Drawing Activities

Creative Communicator - Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals. (ISTE Standards for Students)

Over the years I have become a huge fan of engaging students in visuals. I love to have students create and explore visuals. I believe we learn best when creating is part of the learning process. We need to design activities to get students creating before, during, and after engaging in a learning experience. Today I wanted to share how I engage students in reflecting on our learning using a Meme Generator.

Google Carmen Sandiego Games on Google Earth - Critical Thinking and Curiosity

If you have haven't heard, Google likes engage curious learners with resources for  educators and students. With this in mind, the Google Earth Team has created three fun Carmen Sandiego games that students and educators can play in Google Earth on the Web. These games are a great way to explore our world and inspire curiosity and critical thinking in all classrooms.

Cultural Crosswords - A Google Arts and Culture Interactive

I've been exploring the collection of Google Arts and Culture Experiments and sharing some of these interactive activities I've used with my students this past year and a half. These interactive resources have content connections for some of us, but I also think they can be great brain breaks for students or even teachers. There are also some great connections to creativity and critical thinking.

Today I wanted to share another Google Arts and Culture Game -  Cultural Crosswords. 

Be sure to also explore the additional Arts and Culture Experiments and Games linked at the end of this post.

My Educational Conference Wish List for the 2021 - 2022 School Year

 

If you know me, you know that I love collaborating with all of my teaching friends. While I enjoy connecting and sharing via social media, I've really missed in person conferences. I always walk away from educational conferences with a new sense of purpose and excitement and I've really missed this. Virtual conferences have filled the gap a bit, but I've really missed seeing my teaching friends in person this past year, but I think that is all about to change.

Today I wanted to share how much I am looking forward to the conferences I am hoping to attend in person with all precautions.

Book Recommendation - "Because of a Teacher: Stories of the Past to Inspire the Future of Education" by George Couros

The best educators are not content to do the same old thing year after year. Innovative educators push their thinking by engaging in social media, exploring blogs, attending conferences, and exploring the newest educational books. How will you grow as a learner this year? 

We've created a Recommended Educational Book Site to organize and share some great books connected to teaching and learning.

My school district has been focused on a new program to engage students in becoming teachers in the future and this lead me to George Couros's newest book: Because of a Teacher: Stories of the Past to Inspire the Future of Education. 

Blooket - Game Based Formative Assessment

We discovered a fun game-based formative resource at the end of last year called Blooket and I am just starting to explore this as both a review and a formative tool with my students.