Middle East Project using Pinterest and Blogger

This quarter,  students will work on a MIDDLE EAST - Pinterest and Blogger Project.

Using GRASPS, this project will look like:

GOAL:
The goal is for students to learn to use social media apps and sites such as PINTEREST with an educational purpose.

ROLE:
Students are going to act as political journalists researching about the current situation of the Middle East countries and the terrorist group ISIS or ISIL.

AUDIENCE:
Other students and teachers around the world and immediate community.

SITUATION:
The political journalists will research about ISIS in the M.E and the implications of ISLAM  looking to answer: how it is affecting the world.  Students will use Social Media to track down recent events and statistics to write about it and later, discuss the topic in a Socratic Seminar.

PRODUCT:
Each journalist owns a Pinterest account in which they keep track on ideas, articles and news about ISIS in the M.E. They also own a blog in Blogger in which they will create entries about the units researched. They will draw conclusions and express them during a Socratic Seminar.

STANDARDS:
This will look like individual Pinterest Boards with pins directly linked to their blogs. The blogs will contain articles with facts and statistics about ISIS in the Middle East Countries and the implications of ISLAM.

First:  Create a Pinterest Account.

Second: Create a Blogger Account  (I took this video from YouTube, I do not own its rights)

Third: While researching, pin articles, images, videos, websites and more to your Pinterest Board.

Fourth: Write complete articles about the research topics and pin them to your board.




The rubric Here:

RUBRIC Pinterest- Blogger Assessment

Piktochart, Canva and Google Docs for a Social Studies Project.

Hi again!

It's been a while since I published my last post.!

During last week and some days from this one, my students were working on a project. The topic was EUROPEAN COUNTRIES. We have been practicing with PURPOSE GAMES their capitals and physical features.  So, as a "wrap up" activity, My students were divided into 5 big groups, randomly chosen.  Each group was assigned a country and researched about it.

I worked with GOOGLE DOCS again, because it is engaging and easier for me to edit and check documents. Besides it's GREEN teaching and learning.

Every team created a folder in which they had to upload every item requested for the project.  The project was called: "Travel Agency" and each team created INFOGRAPHICS, POSTERS AND FLYERS to promote traveling to a European country.

They learned about CULTURE, GASTRONOMY, LANDFORMS, LANDMARKS and applied the 5 THEMES OF GEOGRAPHY too!

At the end, each team brought a typical food recipe from their team's country and the whole class tasted them.

It was a cool activity combined with technology integration!

For the INFOGRAPHIC, the students used 2 tools: "Piktochart and Canva".
I really liked PIKTOCHART because it is easier to use.  The icons and tools the website has makes it friendly for student's and teacher's use. The only "bad" thing I may say, it has is that the FREE version does not allow you to change the font color.

Canva is another site, pretty much the same as Piktochart, but the BIGGEST DIFFERENCE is that you may change the FONT color.
I have read other reviews and teachers prefer CANVA over PIKTOCHART.
I am definitely going to try Canva some more to prove this.

Ciao!

Gina

GOOGLE Sheets and Purpose Games- Mapping skills

Hello everybody!


I really love GOOGLE APPS and everything about them.

This quarter I have started working with my 7th grade students' mapping skills. So, I use a super cool website called Purpose Games to reinforce mapping skills.

To track students' progress and performance I created a  Google Sheet  to act as a log so students could access and enter their scores and time record every time they "PLAY" a mapping skill game.
The students know that they have to complete a series of attempts each week to prepare for the weekly test, and they can see which country or game they are going to master during a specific week, as well as the TEST date.

I started to use this for the first week just to see if it actually works, and when the test results came, I was SHOCKED!!!!
Students not only practice their mapping skills,but they also become ACCOUNTABLE of their learning in a fun way!

I really encourage teachers to use PURPOSE GAMES and GOOGLE SHEETS to track progress and master specific mapping skills.

Hope this post is useful!
Please comment and share

Working with QR codes-7th grade

I have always wanted to work with QR CODES. I searched through the Internet and finally came up with some ideas to use them.

In 7th grade, students seem very much engaged when they have "Wow" moments, and using QR CODES was not the exception.

Ways teachers may use QR codes in classroom.

1-linking to YouTube videos.

2- adding PDF files.

3-link to a website.

4-as ID card.

This last point I  love!

USING QR CODES TO TEACH CIVICS AND GOVERNANCE.

 

      I used QR CODES for each student, and created a passport. My unit that week was CITIZENSHIP and RESPONSIBILITIES , therefore students were going to learn the importance of carrying identification documents and the consequences of losing them.

Using GOOGLE DOCS I was able to create a unique QR CODE for every single student. So every day before entering to class,they had to show their passport or visa with QR CODE and get it scanned by me!

This is a cool way to teach about CIVICS AND CITIZENSHIP.

In a later post I will upload my HOW TO CREATE QR CODES USING GOOGLE DOCS!

Hello!!!!!!!

My name is Gina Morales, I am a Middle School teacher in Monterrey, Mexico. I have been a teacher for 3 years and a half now. I started out as a permanent substitute teacher and finally I am teaching what I am passionate about: Social Studies.

I work at Euroamerican School of Monterrey. This is my first year here, and I am teaching Social Studies in 6th and 7th grade.

My groups are very different, this is the reason why I have to keep them interested in the topics and lessons.  I decided to create this blog to document my strategies and at the same time share and learn best practices.

Here, you will see some successful lesson plans and why not... some lesson that did not result the way I planned. I hope I can learn from this process and share ideas with the community.

Cheers, 

Gina