I was meeting with my coach ,who is our superintendent, when he asked about the Social Studies topics for the year. That launched a conversation about why are we teaching students information that could be "googled". One of the areas we teach in second grade is the 50 States. My coach challenged me to make this particular area of instruction more "real world" and problem based. I like a challenge, and I also like to obsess about things. I needed time to really digest the conversation we had. I left the meeting with more questions than answers.
Over the next few weeks, I thought about the conversation we had and how I could make this more real world. Then while driving to work it hit me: A road trip. I would have my students plan a road trip from New Jersey to California. They could take any route they wanted but, they had to pick one landmark for me to visit in each state along the way. In my head it seemed pretty simple. They would act as my Travel Agent to design a road trip for me to take. I even went as far as saying I'd pick my favorite trip and go on it. I created guidelines and a graphic organizer to keep them on task. They were off.
Resources: Feel free to use these or create your own.
Planning Sheet
Cover sheet- Directions
How did it go?
1) It took us a little while to get the hang of it. Next year, I will be more strict about the reasons why they chose each landmark. This year I accepted a Panera Bread because I would need to eat.
2) Google was our friend. I had to be brave, because google was the best way to find places to visit in each state. I also required them to give an address, anr google provided the address easily. The internet isn't as scary of a place as when I first started using it in the classroom. With today's firewalls, rarely do you get pop ups, unless they are searching for something they shouldn't be searching for. Which leads into #3.
3) This could be a blog in and of it self, but I had to set some chromebook research ground rules. NO YOU TUBE, NO IMAGE SEARCHES. We discussed some credible sources. For example, .org .gov. .edu, but for this project just Google seemed to give us all the information we needed.
4)The majority of my students were really excited and into this project. It was fun to see the enthusiasm. Some partners were even discussing how long the trip would take. Another group went beyond and started making a plan for my trip home. Along the way learning about each state.
5) Once the trips were planned, I taught them how to get Google Directions. Each group turned the trip into a google map.
6) This is one of the best projects I've ever done, and who knows maybe I'll have a chance to go on one of these trips.
