Show, Not Tell

Every fall, many teachers enlist the tried-and-true exercise of asking students to describe what they did on their summer vacations. Most students have trouble even answering the question, "What did you do at school today?" and are reluctant to recap an entire summer's worth of activities.  Luckily, I have a solution. This year, instead of asking students to write an essay, ask them to show you where they spent their summer using Google Earth. This is an easy way to update a classic classroom activity.

Students can add placemarks for the locations they visited, add content to the balloons to describe what they did there, and include pictures. If kids stayed in town for the summer, they can add placemarks for their friends' houses or for the local beach or swimming pool. This is a more interactive way for students to tell the story of how they filled up their warm summer days.

Basically, to do this, students will create a series of placemarks and balloons, save them in a folder, and then run the tour to share their experiences. The steps are described below:

1. Download the latest version of Google Earth.
2. Watch the Google Earth Marking Places Tutorial.
3. Open Google Earth and navigate to the first location.
   
4. Enter a location you visited in the Fly To field. You can enter city and state, zip code, or general location for popular areas like Grand Canyon, Disneyland, Yosemite.
5. Click the placemark icon at the top of the page. It looks like a yellow push-pin.
6. Enter a description of what you did while visiting this spot on your vacation. This description appears in the balloon when you click the placemark.
7. Repeat this for each place you visited on your summer vacation. 
   
8. Select Add > Folder.
9. Enter a description for your collection of placemarks (for example, My Trip Around California).
10. Drag and drop all of the placemarks you created into this folder. Place them in the order you would like to show them in your tour.
11. Select the folder and click the Play button in the bottom of the Places section. Watch the tour.

Comments (2)

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written by Belle, December 02, 2008

This sounds like a great solution to the hum drum writing prompt most students face in September. Kids today are so tech savvy they should have no problem with this project but more importantly they will love it! Aside from having fun this project will reach a wide array of learners. Thanks for sharing.

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written by Meenu Sukh, October 17, 2008

Good idea desrve the best commendations

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