What’s on My Desk?

Developing an effective and thorough geography lesson takes a lot of effort. It can be daunting through all the hours of research, creation, and planning—oftentimes, we don’t necessarily have the time to spend on it — especially, if we have children and other responsibilities such as taking care of our aging parents, paying bills, keeping the yard mowed and house clean, in addition to other responsibilities outside of work, etc. To save time, it is okay to borrow lessons from others, here and there, if offered. I am sure they have spent a great amount of time and effort in developing them. In saying this, however, we all need to be willing to share our lessons, and divide the time equally. One person shouldn’t always be doing all the work and putting in all the time. They share theirs; you share yours.

I have strived for excellence in my lessons, and my personal life has often paid the price. But whatever I sacrificed, I did it for my students because I wanted them to have the best education possible. There is a reason I decided to go into education—to give others a better education than I felt I received. Do it differently. Make it fun and exciting! There had to be a better way to educate than the redundant question & answer concept. Some teachers who influenced my decision to become a classroom teacher were (1) my 5th grade English teacher, Mrs. Roberts, who always made her students feel loved and cared for and created an environment in which I could thrive and not feel anxious about our performances. I remember seeing her at my weekend softball games and thought to myself, “She really cares!” (2) Then, there was my senior language arts teacher, Ms. Valerie Thomas; she was young, spry, and enthusiastic. I was a heavy daydreamer, and I remember wondering what her life was like outside the classroom. But most of the time, she kept my attention. She taught me that education was more than worksheets and end-of-the-chapter questions. The most memorable lessons were Simon’s and Garfunkle’s Bridge over Troubled Water poetry lesson (One reason I love incorporating music in the classroom) and The Scarlet Letter book study. When she had us write essays, she walked from student to student giving us pointers and feedback—rather than sitting behind her desk, as most teachers did at the time, waiting for us to complete our work quietly and turn it in. She wanted to make sure we were able to master our writing skills, and I did!

I have always tried to reach for excellence in my planning and teaching, and as I continue to develop and create lessons for the geography classroom, I hope for easy-to-use, fun, high-level, challenging, multi-level lessons. I am happy to share them with you!

WHAT AM I CURRENTLY WORKING ON?

Let’s face it! Trying to get student familiar with geography of the entire world in one year — it’s impossible! Trust me, I have tried over many, many years. If you are struggling with how you are going to be able to do it, here is your confirmation that it is just not workable. There is too much to cover. So, the question is, “What do I cover?” First and foremost, cover the major concepts of geography. Students should understand how to read maps, graphs, charts; know where places are located; understand economic industries and the push and pull factors of migration; how to present a information using the 5 Geographical Themes; exploring government systems and how their legislation makes and passes laws; how to define culture and identify cultural aspects of a nation or region, etc. – Think: big idea concepts!

In saying this, students do need to exposure to the cultures and geographical characteristics of countries, but there is no way to cover every single country, so you choose or let the students choose what countries they want to study. To provide students with an overview of countries within Africa, I am working on a lesson Africa Travel Story: Exploring Africa. This can be completed at the beginning or end of unit. Of course, this is later in the year after they have studied and been introduced to the major concepts such as government, 5 geographical themes, economies, etc. Students will need a basic understanding of cultural and geographical big-idea concepts that are often covered during the geographic basics and skills units at the beginnig of the year. Learning the concepts allows student to apply their understanding of the concepts to studies throughout the year. Africa Travel Story: Exploring Africa allows students to travel and explore a country each day for 10 days. If there is a time limitation, teachers are alway encouraged to modify lesson plans to meet their students needs and time frames in which they have to work. This lesson could easily be cut down to a 5-day lesson by choosing 5 of the 10 countries for students to explore.

Students will travel from station to station, visiting a country each day. It is encouraged that students keep a portfolio, so they have something to refer back to at the end of the study as well as something for the teacher to grade and assess.

Through this lesson, student will get a glimpse of the different government legislative structures throughout Africa and how they differ. They will gain an awareness of the locations, landforms and culture of each, and will become familiar with their major renawable and non-renewable resources and more!

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