Geography: What is it and how do you teach it?

Oh geography, either you are the type of person that loves it or you despise it. I am the type of person who happens to love geography and has always been very good at it. After reviewing the presentation on 103 Creatively Simple Ways of Teaching Geography I found a few that I would love to incorporate into my classroom! 

The first one that I found incredibly interesting was Google Earth Trip. This is an amazing way to get students engaged with geography and to make a lesson fun! Just imagine how much your students will enjoy traveling to different countries around the world while learning about their histories and cultures! 

Another fun way to get students interested in geography is to have them create a 60 Second Film! This really always students to show their creative side, while making the lesson engaging and entertaining! Students will have 60 seconds to inform viewers of a certain location and its elements. By having groups edit their own films it truly becomes their own and something that they can be very proud of!

A third idea that I love is having students bring in a geographical article and positing it on a classroom map. You can then take a piece of string and attempt to link all of the articles together. This can easily be turned into a year long project by having students follow the article they chose throughout the year. 

Finally, another extremely fun website would be Stop Disasters! This is a great way to show students what Nature Disasters look like and how they can help prevent them. It also makes learning insanely fun. Students are given a variety of natural disasters to pick from and throughout each scenario, they must help the community that will be effected. While going through the games, students are able to build shelters and defenses that help keep the community safe.


Of course these are just a few ideas of how to make your geography lessons more engaging for your students. I can say that I will personally be included some of these ideas into my future lessons