Call me strange but when I was a student I loved looking and learning from maps. Perhaps in my young mind it was the potential of the world experiences that the maps offered me. I grew up in a small town and most of the travel I experienced as a young child was in the province that I grew up in. Looking at maps during geography lessons was fascinating as I would plan out the adventures that I would have when I was older. Maps that were used for teaching purpose when I was a student in school were print materials. I remember the topographical maps that teachers would share were a series of overheads. They were very advanced at that time!
In my current school I teach at we don't have a class set of atlases. I have seen a few copies of atlases lying around the school, but sadly they are the same atlases I used as a student 20 years ago. Hasn't our world changed significantly in 20 years?
As I am realizing through out this course many of the resources used today in school are found online. The resources online are generally up to date and offer students experiences with maps that print maps can not provide.
However as many of my classmates brought up technology can fail, which makes it impossible to rely solely on online teaching resources. I liked the idea that several of my classmates mentioned. Instead of buying a class set, buy a half set. Students can share the atlases and the cost is cut in half. The exorbitant cost is one of the main reasons why atlases are not replaced, Several people also mentioned using a document camera when using atlases. Currently the school I work in a fortunate enough to have one. Personally I have not used the document camera (I know if I did I would not want to share it) but I can see how you could in fact use the document camera with only one atlas for the entire class.
Some of my favorite mapping sites are:
http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/kids/maps/default.asp.
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ (Thanks Ann for pointing this site out)
http://www.reachtheworld.org/games/geogames/GeoGames-Teachers-Tools.html
(Thanks Lisa)
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
Bibliographies, and Biographies and Directories
When I started this module this week I had one question in my mind. How can I use or how would I use bibliographies, and biographies and directories with my elementary aged students. What has become increasingly clear to me is the text Reference Skills has been written for Middle or Secondary Librarians. Don't get me wrong there is some great information on selecting reference materials for any library. However when it comes to the links they mainly are for Middle or Secondary students. While disappointing I have been searching out appropriate materials and websites that I can use with elementary school students.
So hence the reason why I started out reading with the questions in my mind. At first I was not sure what place bibliographs would have in a school library. How ever then began to think of a research project I had seen done with a grade 4 class when I was a practicum student. The classroom teacher had assigned the class a research project on famous Canadians, which is a perfect example of how biographies could be used. While I did not find the listings in the course module in particular useful I did find these sites that I would use with a class:
http://www.wsd1.org/robert_h/Cdnbiog.htm
Great gateway site to finding famous Canadians. This site lists links to sites to find what any student is looking for.
http://www.swlauriersb.qc.ca/english/edservices/pedresources/webquest/famous_canadians/index.html
A webquest where students have to act as a newspaper reporter find and research a famous Canadian.
http://schools.cbe.ab.ca/b261/famous_canadians/
A site developed by the Calgary Board of Education. Very user friendly and all the links are useable by elementary aged students.
As for Directories I have used them in the past with a grade 3 class. While studying mapping I showed my students that the front of the phonebook contains maps. Then I proceeded to show my students how they could find their houses and other places of interest in the community. I did a quick search online of kids directories and what I found was listings for search engines like Yahooligians.
There are resources out there to use with the youngest of learners it just takes time to search them out and find the appropriate learning situations to use them in.
So hence the reason why I started out reading with the questions in my mind. At first I was not sure what place bibliographs would have in a school library. How ever then began to think of a research project I had seen done with a grade 4 class when I was a practicum student. The classroom teacher had assigned the class a research project on famous Canadians, which is a perfect example of how biographies could be used. While I did not find the listings in the course module in particular useful I did find these sites that I would use with a class:
http://www.wsd1.org/robert_h/Cdnbiog.htm
Great gateway site to finding famous Canadians. This site lists links to sites to find what any student is looking for.
http://www.swlauriersb.qc.ca/english/edservices/pedresources/webquest/famous_canadians/index.html
A webquest where students have to act as a newspaper reporter find and research a famous Canadian.
http://schools.cbe.ab.ca/b261/famous_canadians/
A site developed by the Calgary Board of Education. Very user friendly and all the links are useable by elementary aged students.
As for Directories I have used them in the past with a grade 3 class. While studying mapping I showed my students that the front of the phonebook contains maps. Then I proceeded to show my students how they could find their houses and other places of interest in the community. I did a quick search online of kids directories and what I found was listings for search engines like Yahooligians.
There are resources out there to use with the youngest of learners it just takes time to search them out and find the appropriate learning situations to use them in.
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