Jamie's Educational Technology Blog

Google Earth is a powerful and exciting virtual reality tool that can easily be implemented into a variety of lesson plans. It is a great way for students to locate and learn about places around the globe, but its uses go beyond just history and social studies lessons.

Here you can find a valuable tutorial for teachers who are brand new to Google Earth. I think the authors of the video do a great job at breaking down the features of Google Earth and how they can be used in the classroom in a quick and concise manner. I also happened upon this article that offers a variety of practical ways Google Earth can be incorporated into different subject areas. Here are some of my favorite activities from the article.

1. Virtually tour new and interesting places. Google Earth offers pre-made “Voyages” that students can take. Stops on the voyages include notable landmarks and important information about them.
2. Play Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? This is a new take on a classic computer game. Here is a helpful video that I found on YouTube that walks you through exactly how the game works. I think this is a really fun way to get students excited about geography.
3. Take or create literature tours. Google Lit Trips is an awesome website that was created for teachers to use as a guide for Google Earth tours for literature lessons. These lit trips offer students the opportunity to explore places significant to a story or the author’s life.
4. Global scavenger hunts. Teachers have the ability to make their own scavenger hunts for their classes by creating clues for them to solve by finding the answers hidden around the globe to test their geography knowledge.
5. View a time-lapse of coastline changes. Historical satellite imagery can be viewed on Google Earth, making it easy for students to see how coastlines and other have changed over periods of time. The author of this article also included a tutorial from YouTube on how to use this feature.
6. Measure distances for math lessons. Students can measure distances in different units to understand the concept of distance, scale, and units of measurement. The author found this tutorial on how to use this feature of Google Earth.
7. Use as an alternative to PowerPoint for presentations. Rather than using a traditional PowerPoint presentation to demonstrate their knowledge on a place they’ve recently studied, students can use Google Earth to create their own tour to take their classmates on.

Google Earth provides many helpful resources for teachers and students to help them navigate its different features, as well as a YouTube channel, containing other resources and recorded tours of different places around the world. These are great starting places for those who are new to the tool. The possibilities to turn students into global learners are endless with this valuable ed tech tool!

The WE Schools Program gives teachers and students opportunities to get involved in issues surrounding the Sustainable Development Goals that spark their interests, and guides them to effect positive changes in their own communities, around the country, and around the world.

When I was exploring some of the educational resources on the WE website, I was drawn to the WE Scare Hunger Service Learning Campaign.

Food is something that so many of us take for granted. We often don’t give a second thought about whether or not there will be a warm meal on the table for us at dinnertime, or a bowl of cereal to pour in the morning before walking out the door. We often don’t think about the many others in our country and around the world that aren’t as fortunate as we are; those that have to put survival before anything else, especially school. That is why, as a future educator, I think it is so important to bring awareness to the issue of hunger and food insecurity. Collecting food for local food banks is such a small and simple way that we can help others. I will most definitely have my classes partake in food drives throughout the year. But after looking over the resources offered by WE, it’s clear that the initiative doesn’t stop there. It’s critical that we teach our students about hunger and how it affects us locally and globally. WE provides educators with the resources necessary to transform the way students think about this issue, among many others. They even provide the Common Core Alignment Standards so that you can easily incorporate these types of learning campaigns into classroom lessons.

I think it is so wonderful that we have access to resources like WE and the ability expose our students to learning opportunities that will not only inspire them to do good in the world, but also transform them into informed, well rounded, change-making citizens.

The show I chose to watch with English subtitles was a Russian TV series known as Pandora’s Box. It is a drama that is centered around a Russian family; a mother and father who were both physicians. It starts out as a flashback of when the couple adopted their 3 small children, all of whom were at the orphanage they worked at, and fled to a new part of Russia. It then fasts forward to when the children are grown and the mother has recently passed away. The father holds onto this box, hence the title of the series, that he believes no one else knows about that looks to contain old family pictures. Toward the end of the first episode, Vera, the eldest daughter, and her son, visit her father. After joining her father and other siblings for a family dinner, Vera’s brother asks her son to break into his grandfather’s room to steal the box (he thinks it contains jewelry) so he can pay off a debt. When Vera’s son retrieves the box from his grandfather’s closet, he clumsily drops the box on his way out. The family runs to see what the noise is and discovers the contents of the box spilled across the floor. To everyone’s surprise, the contents of the box end up being the children’s adoption certificates. The first episode ends as the 3 children struggle to come to terms with finding out that they were adopted.

In terms of culture, I was expecting to see major differences in the family structure in comparison to the typical American family. However, I didn’t really notice many differences. The family dynamic seemed very similar to the everyday average family, with two hard working parents who were determined to give their children a better life. I feel as though negative stereotypes often paint Russian men to be very stern and cold, which is the complete opposite of what I observed in the relationship between the father and his two daughters.

I did notice how different the architecture in the homes were compared to homes you see in the United States. The eldest daughter’s home especially, and perhaps this is because she was a wealthy physician, was full of different marble and glass finishes. It had a very modern feel that felt a little cold rather than cozy.

When I noticed what the dinner table looked like when they were having a family meal, it looked very old fashioned, with elegant looking china accompanied by a large tea pot in the center. They also had pastries laid across the table with their dinner. It looked like something I would picture a tea party to look like and not a typical American family dinner.

Above all, what resonated with me most was the value of family that was conveyed throughout the episode. The importance of family is something that resonates across all cultures, which is why I think anyone could potentially enjoy this show. The father, struggling to accept the death of his wife, is doing his best to keep his family together, and his efforts are stifled when they discover the contents of the box. I was surprised that I really enjoyed it and I hope to continue watching the rest of the show in my spare time.