This post was written by 2020 Young Explorer Zoë Jenkins. In middle school, I was placed into the gifted program. To me, it seemed like administrators put the gifted students into some of the lowest-performing schools in the district. The kids in the gifted program tended to be bussed in from the other side of town, and I felt like we were unfairly placed on … Continue reading Storytelling Is Essential in the Fight for Social Justice
This post was written by educator Jaclyn Foster. Last year, I started an after-school club to work on the National Geographic GeoChallenge and service-learning projects. It was all student-driven; we had a camera spot on Exploring By the Seat of Your Pants that talked about plastic pollution in the oceans and the impact it was having on marine life. This sparked an interest in my … Continue reading Illuminating Instruction: Combining Service-Learning and Storytelling into a National Geographic Elective
Anyone who has spent time around children knows they love to wonder, “Why?” By using history mysteries in our lessons, we can turn the questions of “Why?” and “How?” back onto students to engage them fully. Continue reading Strategy Share: Using History Mysteries to Engage Students
When I traveled to South Georgia as a Grosvenor Teacher Fellow, I felt compelled to read Alfred Lansing’s Endurance, about Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated attempt to transect Antarctica. Shackleton came to South Georgia to get help for the men he left on another Antarctic island. I was intrigued by his perilous journey and wanted to re-enact this epic trek on South Georgia once I got there. Unfortunately, in all the excitement of seeing icebergs, dodging fur seals, and trekking up snowy hills, I forgot to do my re-enactment. Continue reading Strategy Share: Using Photographs to Enhance Storytelling and Geography Skills
You could have heard a pin drop in the room, it was so silent. As the Lindblad Expeditions ship National Geographic Explorer made her way through the midnight blue, choppy waters of the Arctic Ocean near Pond Inlet, Nunavut, we all listened; absorbed, transported. National Geographic Explorer Jennifer Kingsley was sharing a recorded interview with the Elverum family from her project Meet the North, which involved interviewing people who live above the Arctic Circle throughout Nunavut, Svalbard, Iceland, Russia, Alaska, and Greenland. Continue reading Strategy Share: Expanding Our Worldview, One Conversation at a Time
