Google Earth

I really enjoyed Brenda and Jhasiim's post about Google Earth. I have used this quite a bit--both with my Spec. Ed. students as well as using it when I taught Social Studies in a co-teach classroom. Students who come from families who don't read or talk or travel much, have such a difficult time with many of the concepts in geography because they just can't visualize them. Google Earth is a wonderful tool to help students understand many aspects of geography and social studies. Map skills, such as the difference between countries and continents can be taught with Google Earth. One year when I was teaching Social Studies, our textbook mentioned various "famous attractions" throughout the state. One of these was the State Fair of Texas in Dallas, with its talking "Big Tex". Being from Dallas, I told the students how we would get a day off from school to go, how delicious the Fletcher's Corn Dogs were on the Midway, and the annual Texas-OU game in the Cotton Bowl. It so happened that this was the time of year when the fair was opened, so we went on Google Earth to see if we could spot any of the landmarks I had mentioned. Finally one of the students spotted Big Tex's hat! The class was so excited! Spotting it from a bird's-eye view was not easy. We even found the Fletcher's Corn Dog stand! One of the students was so fascinated by it that he talked his parents into taking him to the State Fair one weekend! Google Earth can help you take virtual field trips to places that you could never take a class. If you want to hear Big Tex talk, copy and paste this link:

http://www.bigtex.com/entertainment/highlights