The lesson that I looked at for this week from the In Time website was a history lesson that was used as a year end review. What was created at the end of the year was a video that featured three segments, one that showed the time period using a film, a second that connected the time period to local history, and a third that showed what the students did across all areas of instruction to reflect what they as middle school students had learned about the time period. I was really excited to see the product that these students were able to create and I immediately began to think of ways that this could be connected to my geography course.
What came to mind was a world map, the students could use GoogleEarth as their organizer. As a person would move around the map at each location they would find a student resource that could serve as an example of what we did at the middle school and how we could connect ourselves with all the corners of the globe. I imagined students playing pieces from the orchestra classes that would be shown by geographical locations of the composer and allowing the visitor to compare regional styles of compositions. Literature would also be an excellent way for the English classes to get involved to do character studies on their books from around the globe. There are so many options, I only wish I had been given this spark at the beginning of the year so I could organize all my teamates and have the video collections grow up over the course of the year.
Finally at my school the students do a student led conference during the 3rd/4th quarter, I really think this would make a great piece for the students to demonstrate their knowledge as well as the collective knowledge of the group. That is exciting to me.
I think it will be a great project next year. And just think, even though it would have been nice to have it rolling this year - you'll have all of this extra time to plan! I also really like the cross-curricular integration of your plan. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI really like how you take a topic, Jason, and try to extend it to all facets of the curriculum - not just your area. I really think the more topics covered in a unit, the more the students will grasp the concepts and understand how they all connect. I think too much separation in school is deadly for kids and as a consequence they see subjects as completely unrelated. This is the point I'm trying to get across to my teachers, especially in the area of technology. I'm very fortunate to see my young students once or twice a week, but then some teachers assume that all technology should come from my class and not theirs. Yikes!
ReplyDeleteLike you, I also wish that much of what we're learning came earlier so that I would have more time to incorporate the lessons this year. Oh well... there's always tomorrow, I guess. What I would really like also is a way for us to connect to other classrooms as a resource. Still not sure how to do that or how other schools were able to do that.
What a great idea! If you do go through with it, please share some of the end results with us.
ReplyDeleteI hope you find a way to integrate this - it sounds wonderful. Keep us posted
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