What did you learn this week? Let us know in the comments or at education@ngs.org. This week we learned … … an American won the Man Booker prize. Congratulations, Paul Beatty! What novels are you reading now? … what wind, currents, and geography tell us about how people first settled Oceania. How do you think the remote islands of Australia and Oceania were populated? … Continue reading 11 Things We Learned This Week
UNITED STATES The Common Core State Standards have vaulted into the national consciousness lately thanks to some high-profile dissenters, like Louis C.K. (“Kids teachers parents are vocally suffering.”) and Stephen Colbert (“Common Core testing is preparing students for what they’ll face as adults—pointless stress and confusion.”) NPR wades through the confusion by answering questions about the standards. (NPR) Love them or loathe them, we can … Continue reading Common Core FAQ
By Homa S. Tavanger, educator and author of Growing Up Global and The Global Education Toolkit An ongoing communication with an enthusiastic social studies teacher in a large Midwestern school district ended abruptly when she emailed me: “due to NCLB [No Child Left Behind] corrective action our district will need to channel our professional development time and funds toward this goal. I’m so sorry that … Continue reading How ANY Classroom Can Become a Global Classroom—In Five Easy Steps
What do you think of when you hear the word literacy? Depending on what you teach, chances are geography is not the first thought that comes to mind. But believe it or not, geography and literacy naturally share many similarities. And you can deepen students’ learning in both geography and literacy when they are integrated in the curriculum. The Common Core State Standards in English … Continue reading The Geography and Literacy Connection
Have you ever thought about using interactive mapping to teach English Language Arts? By creating GeoTours you can do just that! A new feature on the MapMaker Interactive lets you create your own set of links, or GeoTour, that you can save and share with the world. Creating, sharing, and collaborating on GeoTours can be a great project for students. Using a class reading assignment, students can … Continue reading Mapping Tools to Teach English Language Arts?
