Arctic Learning

The Adventures of the 109'ers by: Diane Randolph

This article was written by a teacher that was teaching her students about the Arctic, and in an interesting way of teaching, she had corresponded with a documentary photo-journalist that was working in the Arctic at the time. She set up a classroom blog so the students could ask the journalist questions and he could tell the students about what it was like in the Arctic and tell about his different adventures there. The students were able to learn about different people that were from the Arctic and their different culture. I thought this was very interesting and cool because the students didn't just read about some place in a book and then they were tested on the information, but that they were actually able to interact with someone who was living their research first hand. A lot of students get bored inside a classroom just reading out of a book or listening to a lecture, and when their teaching goes outside the box I think it makes it more interesting for them. I know if it were me and I got to see videos and talk with someone who was living in the Arctic it would be very interesting and make me want to know more. We all know that kids are easily amused and it doesn’t take much to please them, so when we just go that little extra for them I know it means a lot to them and it’s really worth it.

This article goes along the lines of the first article that we blogged about and I think the same applies still. I would love to be able to set up a classroom blog or have interactive learning for my students. I think that the more ways you can make a lesson interesting, the more students are going to want to learn about it and pay attention and actually want to know more. Sometimes when you are teaching your students a lesson and they ask a question, you may not always know the answer. But when you have that extra help from someone who knows from experience about different things, I think it makes the students that much more engaged in the topic. I am greatly looking forward to teaching my students different lessons in many different types of fun, new ways.