WOWZA! If you are an educator, then this conference is for YOU! The sharing of ideas is the number one focus of this group of dedicated folks...sure they love geography, but there's geography in everything, RIGHT!
After last night's reception, where I met some fantastic folks, today brought sessions and exhibits a plenty. My conference journey started with Marilyn Weiser of Minot, ND. She shared her success with David Smith's book If the World Were A Village. Her students explored the concepts of the book and then applied those to their village, North Dakota. The students produced books of their findings...very cool stuff for kids. There were thinking and they never knew it hit them! The implications here for global understanding, math concepts and so much more are easy to see. Check out David's web site at http://www.mapping.com for more information on his books and materials.
Following Marilyn's presentation, Sister Madeleine Gregg from the University of Alabama shared her experiences with the primary classroom and poetry. Sister Madeliene is a dynamic speaker and just plain fun! Her intriguing account of "sneaking" geography into poetry and reading is so fantastic. With the focus on literacy, she utilized poetry to teach phonetic awareness, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension to her 3rd graders. She says, "By choosing poetry with strong geography content, teachers can create more time for geography in their curriculum." Being a former English Language Arts teacher myself, I identify with her "sneaky" use of geography in of all places, ENGLISH CLASS!
After some lunch and perusing the exhibits, I heard Barbara Soto from Arizona. She presented her methods on getting students aware of human impact on ecosystems. Her geostories were beautifully done and highly effective with the K-5 students in her school.
Shannon and I spent the remainder of the afternoon doing some "field work". You can't come to beautiful landscape like this place and not get out into the nature...and take a photo or two. We had a great time taking in the splendor of nature.
It was a great FRIDAY at the NCGE conference !
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