Go With The Flow...And You Will Grow!

Okay....so the most common question I am asked by my non-teaching friends/family is "how can you work with kids EVERY DAY?" Well, my answer is simple, variety. I love that every day is different and that I can always expect the unexpected. So, with that said....smoke, fire trucks, a building evacuation and the rest of the day off campus with 485 kids in one room, is NOT my idea of "variety"! It ended up not being a fire, but an air conditioner motor problem that caused some smoke and loss of electricity. It was an exciting day, to say the least, and by the time we were able to head back to the school, I was EXHAUSTED!  Not end of the day tired...but, ears ringing, feet hurting, back aching, crawl in bed without taking off my makeup, EXHAUSTED! I said I liked variety and that's exactly what I got!  In this business of teaching kids, we have to be ready to adapt and go with the flow! And speaking of variety and going with the flow, I learned some awesome new technology this week. And I didn't even cry! Not. One. Tear.

GOOGLE EARTH                                        

Google Earth is like the coolest virtual map I have ever seen. I have watched my husband play around with it before when we were planning our vacation last spring, but I have never gotten my own hands on it, until now. I can totally imagine lots of ways it can be used in the classroom. For one thing, maps seem to be outdated as soon as they are printed these days, so the ones in our social studies books (copyright 2000) are not the best reference tools. Not only is Google Earth current, but there are so many amazing things you can do with it besides mapping. It allows you to navigate and search specific places. It even gives you place marks to click on for more information or even directions on how to get there. There's a really cool feature called historical imagery on the tool bar that takes you back in time to see what the area looked like in the past! The tour guide at the bottom is ready to go with places already navigated for you that are in the area you have searched.  It takes a little playing with, but it's so much fun!  

This is what the page looks like!
Left: search box, places history, layers of what is visible
Bottom: tour guide
Right: pan, tilt, zoom the screen
Top: tools like the historical imagery, adjusting time of day

With Google Earth you can also explore the oceans and outer space. Check out this underwater tour given by marine biologist, Sylvia Earle. AAAAAMAZING!!! Kids will so dig this!

GOOGLE TOUR BUILDER

So with as impressed as I was with Google Earth, Google Tour Builder took it to the next level!  If there was a battle between them, Tour Builder would definitely win. You can create your own virtual tour, people!  I had so much fun with the one I made (which I fully plan on using) with a unit on monuments and memorials.  You can select any theme you want, choose the locations to visit, upload pictures and videos and describe the tour too. The possibilities are endless...another idea would be for kids to create their own tour to tell the story of a historical figure by following their timeline. We always do a presentation for Black History Month in February and this would be the coolest way ever for students to display what they learn! Plus, I wouldn't have to teach for like a week with all the great presentations! HA! Just kidding...maybe!:) But seriously, my students are gonna LOVE this!

I hope you are able to find as many useful ways to incorporate Google Earth and Google Tour Builder as I did. Just jump in and start playing with it, go with the flow and you will grow...your mind!  

Happy Travels!

-Sarah