The Blue Willow Journal

Table-top Maps are Great!

Recently I did a workshop for pre-service and classroom teachers. Our main activity that day was trying out the new table-top map kits from National Geographic. These are the smaller version of the huge tile maps NGS intoduced a few years ago, some of which needed a gymnasium wall to display their full glory. All of these tile maps are now called Nat Geo Mapmaker Kits, and are available in the large wall version or the new table-top version. What is great about the small maps is that they require photocopying only eight pages (tiles) while the big maps could be 120 to 180 tiles in size.

Here are some teachers working with the Water Planet and World Political map kits:

The detail on these maps is superb and the possibilities are endless for grades 3 to 12. Check them out on the National Geographic website. You'll find them under "Geography Awareness Week" in the LEARN ABOUT FRESHWATER section.

The Americas

In the geography education world the week of November 16-22 was a big one - it was Geography Awareness Week (GAW) which this year celebrated the Americas from Greenland south through South America.

This year the National Geographic Society produced a terrific toolkit for teachers - a theme map of "extremes" found in the Americas, a booklet of lesson ideas for K-12 and a CD with (among many other resources) a file which produces a 20 ft.x 10 ft. map of the Americas.

I went out to a middle school to see one of these completed huge maps - wow, was it something! The whole social studies department of this 600-student school , teachers and kids, had worked on it for three weeks. See a photograph of this great effort below.

Another aspect of this year's Americas theme has been the chance for students to become involved in some cultural expressions of countries new to them. I spent a morning working with a fifth grade on crafts from the Americas - fun and educational for both the students and me! (photos below)

Also, our state alliance, the Rhode Island Geography Education Alliance (RIGEA), came up with some inventive ways to spread the word about the GAW theme and recruit new members at the same time. Early in November we held an Americas Dinner for teachers new to our organization. The dinner featured an outstanding menu from North, Central and South America and was preceded by a social hour during which RIGEA members were on hand to share information about our organization. Today, we have scheduled the first in a series of lectures by Brown University professors on topics relating to the Americas - registration for both events has exceeded our expectations!

 

 

 

Excellent Journey

By happenstance a few years ago I discovered the most wonderful online educational resource called Journey North. It is designed for teachers and their K-12 students but anyone would enjoy participating in its many interesting projects.

Here is their own description of what they offer:

"Journey North engages students in a global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change. K-12 students share their own field observations with classmates across North America. They track the coming of spring through the migration patterns of monarch butterflies, robins, hummingbirds, whooping cranes, gray whales, bald eagles - and other birds and mammals; the budding of plants; changing sunlight; and other natural events. Find migration maps, pictures, standards-based lesson plans, activities and information to help students make local observations and fit them into a global context. Widely considered a best practices model for education, Journey North is the nation's premiere "citizen science" project for children. The general public is welcome to participate."

For the last few weeks I have been working with a local second grade class on the Journey North project called "Symbolic Monarch Butterfly Migration". The kids designed and colored paper butterflies and we put labels on the back of each one with the child's name, school information and the following greeting: "gracias por cuidar a las mariposas monarcas este invierno, de parte de sus vecinos del norte", which means "thank you for taking care of the monarchs this winter, from your northern neighbors". These were packaged up and sent off, eventually to reside in a Mexican classroom located close to one of the  winter monarch butterfly sanctuaries. In the spring this Rhode Island second grade will receive paper butterflies back from Mexican children. In the meantime they can read weekly updates on monarch migration and see the butterflies' progress on an online map and on another map look at all the classrooms in the U.S. and Canada (including themselves) that have sent symbolic butterflies to Mexico.

I can't recommend Journey North highly enough -it's one of the best educational initiatives I have ever seen.

Here are the Rhode Island butterflies and a booklet in Spanish which we printed out on the Journey North website as a gift to the Mexican class receiving our butterflies. 

 

Bring Back the Nature Table

Yesterday the No Child Left Inside Act was approved by the US House of Representatives. Our great Rhode Island senator, Jack Reed, was instrumental in introducing this legislation. This vote brings the hope that effective environmental education for US children can be a reality. Nice news in the midst of all the other depressing goings on of late.

Worries about kids not connecting with nature are not unique to our country.This past summer I was reading the July issue of Country Living:British Edition magazine and found an article about the importance of not only seeing that children spend time in the natural world but also letting them get their hands dirty by doing things like building forts, making daisy chains and following animal tracks. The magazine was encouraging readers to join in its campaign to "Bring Back the Nature Table", a reference to a British standard feature in classrooms of times past.

Fall is the perfect time to encourage some nature exploration - so find yourself a young person and get out there!

 

 

 

Raising Global Citizens

Recently, I opened my mail to find an issue of my college (Washington College in lovely and historic Chestertown, Maryland) alumni magazine. As a matter of fact both my husband, Steve, and I graduated from there. The issue was titled "Spanning the Globe" and was filled with accounts of the experiences of present and former students abroad, the college's initiatives to improve and increase opportunities for students to live and study in another country and even an article about two '95 grads who, since marrying in 1997, and now the parents of three little boys, have lived and worked abroad for most of that time.

Good show, Washington College! I have been working on the other end of the education continuum - elementary school - for most of my career and I believe instilling in kids the idea that there is a whole world out there besides the United States is a fundamentally important concept that cannot be underscored too many times.

Below are some global-citizens-in-training from the school that I taught at for 21 years. We are in the midst of Geography Awareness Week (also known as Geography Action!) activities here in the photo.  By happenstance, later this month I will be at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C. for four days being trained to work with Rhode Island teachers on this year's Geography Action! theme: Mapping the Americas. Can't wait!