Google Earth tours allow people to create virtual tours from anywhere. Users can create custom guided tours for everyone to use. Users are able to mark specific spots that they’ve been too. Users can narrate their tour and talk about all of the important spots they’ve been. They can share information about the history of the spot and the importance behind it. Users can add images, texts, and videos. They can share their tour with anyone they want.

The video above shows an example of a google Earth tour. This tour takes you on a trip to the west coast national parks.

Google Tours and Global Collaboration

Google tours can be used in global collaboration. Global collaboration in the classroom allows students to engage with other students from all around the world. It can be a beneficial tool to use in global collaboration because it can bring students to different places. For example, let’s say a student is collaborating ideas with a student that lives in Paris, France. The other student can look up Paris, France and find interesting features about the place. This allows the students to get a different understanding of each others cultures. It also allows the student to learn more about the history of a certain place. The students can collaborate the different and similar features about where they live.

Use this link to create your own Google Earth Tour.

Out of Eden walk is an experiment in slow journalism. Paul Salopek is partaking in this experiment. He is walking 24,000 miles by foot. Paul is walking pathways that the first humans that migrated from Africa took. He is doing this to write major stories on climate change, cultural survival, mass migration, and so much more. He is recording everything as he takes this journey to rediscover our world.

Out Of Africa

Out of Africa was the first stop I explored. I explored this one first because it is where the journey starts. Paul begins his journey with his tour guide Ahmed Alema Hessan. They begin their journey with camel walking. An interesting topic that stood out for me was the walk through the graveyard. Paul walks through a colossal graveyard. The people of Ethiopia live comfortably among their uncounted dead. I found this interesting because their bones are never buried and people are able to walk comfortably with them. Another thing I found interesting was the hand-dug wells. These wells were fairly deep and it’s quite impressive that someone hand-dug them.

Autumn Wars

The next stop of Pauls journey I read about was chapter 3, Autumn wars. In this part of his journey, Paul writes about how lonely Europe is. He says that crossing the boarder there was not another soul on foot. In chapter 3, Paul has been walking for 532 days and has walked a total of 1,900 miles. Something that stood out for me in this chapter was the ghost city. This is where a green line separates northern and southern Cyprus. It represents the unsolved war in Europe. Paul says that it is a barbed-wire scar.

Silk Road

Chapter 4 marks milestone 33 on Pauls journey. He has been walking 1,079 days and has walked a total of 3,200 miles. Paul visits Aktau, Kazakhstan. This is a place where the streets have no name. In this chapter Paul explores places where mystic healing is used. He learns about tales of miracles and hope while he’s in central Asia. He walks through the wilderness with his horse. The horse is used to carry his stuff from destination to destination. He states that in Kazakhstan, horses are apart of the culture. They are used for many things. Chapter 4 was my favorite chapter I read. Paul explores many interesting things in this chapter. He also learns a lot about the different cultures.

Overall, I found this website very interesting. It would be a helpful tool to use in a geography classroom. The stories that Paul writes about the places he explores, are informational and interesting. His journey towards rediscovering our world is one that everyone should read about. You learn a lot about the different cultures. Check out the website to learn more about Pauls journey!

This week I explored the website weschools. I found this website very interesting and informational. When I was exploring the teachers area of the website, I absolutely loved all of the tabs and modules about mental health. This website provided multiple lessons about students well-being and mental health. Often times mental health is overlooked in classrooms so it’s always refreshing when a website provides lots of information on it.

I continued to explore the resource in the picture shown above. I explored the K-3 group lessons 1-3 on mental health. This lesson was about mindfulness. The purpose of this lesson was to engage students in learning about the importance of well-being. The lesson provided activities and examples for students. The part of the lesson I really enjoyed was the word web. It provided students with examples on how to improve their well-being. I provided an image of the word web below. Overall, I think this lesson was very informational for students. I would definitely use this lesson in my classroom. Mental health and students well-being is so important in and out of the classroom. Often times students well-being is overlooked. This lesson shows students that teachers do care about their mental health.

Heres the link if you want to explore these lessons further!!

Hyperdocs can be a fun and useful technology tool to use in the classroom. They can be very helpful when engaging students. While researching, I found lots of useful hyperdocs that could be used in the classroom. The hyperdoc that stood out for me was a science hyperdoc. This could be a very helpful tool to use in a middle school science classroom. A table of contents is given as soon as you open the website. You can click on any of the science links provided. When you click on a link, it takes you to a page that provides the user with a number of activities to complete. Some links provided quizzes for the user to take. Overall, I found this hyperdoc very useful. Its definitley a fun and easy way to engage students in science learning. Heres the link to the hyperdoc, if you would like to explore it.

As you can see, hyperdocs can be used in many different ways of learning. They are a great tool to use in the classroom and it’s easy to create your own. Below I added a quick video on how to begin making your own hyperdoc.

I hope you enjoyed this weeks post on hyperdocs!!

This week I explored a virtual field trip to Ellis Island. Ellis Island is where immigrants went to escape poverty and religious intolerance. Ellis Island was the first stop for millions of immigrants when they first arrived in America. The interactive tour takes you to ten of the most important stops at Ellis Island.

The first stop of the tour is the passage. This part explains all of the trouble that immigrants had to go through before even arriving in America. Many immigrants came to America by horseback, train, boat, and even by foot. It also talks about the voyage across the ocean to America. Immigrants were divided on the boat by wealth. Most immigrants were put into steerage. Steerage was the section at the bottom of the boat. The tour goes on to explain other important places in Ellis Island. The sixth stop of the tour is the medical exam. This is where many immigrants got denied access to America. This is where doctors made sure all the people entering the country were well. If you were considered a risk to public health you were kept for further examination. This stop of the tour really stood out for me. It stood out to me because I couldn’t imagine the disappointment the sick people felt. Imagine coming all the way to America and being so close to freedom and then having to return home because of illness. I really have sympathy for any immigrant that had to go through that.

Using the interactive tour to explore Ellis Island was fun and interesting. You can explore it through a tour guide. You can also explore it by watching a video that takes you through a virtual field trip. It was definitely a fun and interactive way to learn more about Ellis Island. Use this link to explore the website!

This week we were asked to watch an entire episode of a show with English subtitles on. When I went on YouTube, a Turkish series stood out to me. It looked interesting and easy to follow along with. The series is called Children of Sisters. I uploaded the trailer below.

I watched the first episode on YouTube and was able to follow along well. It’s a show full of drama and thrill. One of the settings is in a small Turkish village. There are 55 houses in the village, an elementary school, and a medical center. This stood out for me because I assumed the village would be a small development with houses in it. Except this village had its own school and medical center. A similarity I saw between cultures was the relationships between people. There was a mother and daughter relationship. One of the scenes shows the mother and daughter bickering about something little. It reminded me of something my mom and I would bicker about. Another similarity would be some of the technology. One of the scenes shows a show playing on a laptop. Overall, I was surprised on how similar the show was to an American show. There was lots of similarities and a few big cultural differences.

Heres the link to episode one if you’d like to watch it. It was a really interesting show and I was really into it. I might even watch episode two!

Microsoft Translator is a great tool to use in and outside of the classroom. Communication is an essential part of the classroom. Sometimes there can be barriers and restrictions when communicating. Language differences often cause a barrier when communicating together. The tool Microsoft Translator makes it possible and easy to communicate with everyone, despite language differences.

Benefits of Microsoft Translator

• Access to subtitles and captioning.
• Captioning can be used for people with a hearing impairment.
• Users can post in their preferred language.
• Users can see the responses in the conversation in their preferred language.
• The mobil app makes it easy and simple to translate.
• Makes it easy for teachers and families to communicate.

Communication is a key tool, not only in the classroom but everywhere you go. Using Microsoft Translator, ensures effective communication between everyone. It can be used to break down the barrier between different languages. It promotes good communication between teachers, students, and families. Check out the website for more details!

This sustainable development goal is very important. Billions of people still lack access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene. Having clean water is so important, especially in times like this. With the pandemic going on, sanitation is something that shouldn’t be taken lightly. The sustainable development goal is to achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all. This goal should be met by 2030. This goal will be met by doing a number of things. We need to improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping, and reducing the use of hazardous chemicals. Another goal that will be met is improving sanitation and hygiene for all, but especially women and those in vulnerable situations. This goal will be met with the help of proportion of population. It will be met by using safely managed sanitation services. This will include a hand washing facility. This will improve sanitation and hygiene.

Clean water is something everyone should have access to. Hopefully by 2030, everyone will have access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and clean hygiene. Check out this website for more information on how we together can meet this goal!

International Children’s Digital Library, provides free books for children that focus on a global community and exhibit tolerance and respect for diverse cultures, languages, and ideas. Diversity is so important in the classroom setting. I believe that all students should learn about different cultures, languages, and ideas. With this global educators tool, students can do that by using free digital books. This tool provides students with a different way to learn about diverse cultures. The site is easy for students to use. The student will click on the book list. That link will take them to a huge list full of culturally diverse books. Then the student can click on a book that is to their desire. The link will take them to a description of the book and they can start reading.

This tool in my classroom.

I would definitely use this tool in my classroom. Like I said before diversity is so important in the classroom setting. Students should learn about diverse cultures, languages, and ideas. Diversity in the classroom should be encouraged because it brings so much into the learning experience. In my classroom, I would have my students pick a book from the book list. They can pick whatever book they want. Then I would have my students write about what they read. They then would share that information with their peers. They could share about all the different cultures they read about. This would promote diversity in my classroom.

Check out the website for more information on this tool!

Collaboration is such an important tool to use in the classroom. Collaboration is used in all careers but especially in education. Educators and students can collaborate to share different ideas and opinions. A great way to enhance collaboration in the classroom is by using different technology tools. Tools like Microsoft teams and Flipgrid can be used to collaborate ideas among peers. Microsoft teams can be used to host meetings between peers. It’s a great technology tool to use especially during the pandemic. It’s a great way to collaborate different ideas without having to meet in person. It’s also a great way to provide feedback between teachers and students.

This video explains what is collaboration and why it is important in the educational setting.

A common way students collaborate in school is by using group activities and projects. In a group project, students share a common goal. They work together and share ideas in order to reach that goal. This article shares great ideas to promote a collaborative learning environment. It provides 5 different ways to collaborate among peers.

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