Monday, November 17, 2008

Geography Awareness Week

"Next to the knowledge of ourselves, the knowledge of the world is essentially necessary, which can only be acquired by the pleasing study of Geography."
-George Alexander Cooke



This is Geography Awareness Week – an opportunity for all of our teachers (especially our Social Studies teachers) to teach some aspect of geography to their students. The general lack of knowledge of geography is widely published. Take the opportunity to look at some aspect of the geography of North America during this week and relate it to your course of instruction.

Teaching Math? Asking students how long would it take to walk across America… or any one of a dozen questions that could be asked on that topic alone that would involve mathematical computations. Teaching English? Teach the vocabulary of the geography of Alaska through reading stories about that bush pilots . Teaching science? Physical geography is a natural!

There are many different online tools to help teach during this week, incluidng National Geographic. A number of others are listed on our Social Studies website under the ‘recognition events’ icon.

If nothing else, how about an online game to identify the states… a challenge for students and – perhaps – teachers.

Our responsibility as educators is not limited to a single field or discipline. In today’s world, understanding others is an important aspect of education and in our global economy, understanding others is an important part of economic survival. Let’s all work together to emphasize some aspect of geography during this week.

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