Have you ever tried to show where Russia is on a world map and can't find it? I have to ask my students to imagine where Russia and its neighboring countries are on our current map of the world. They have to have a pretty good imagination to see the borders and capitals. We need new maps!!!
My school is located in CA.
We have 59% reduced and free lunches. Most of my students are bilingual and one emigrated last year from Sudan, Africa. They speak Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog, and Eritrean. We try to bring their cultures into our studies and have them show us where their families are from originally. Last year, we had families from every continent except Australia. We are from a community of diverse cultures.
Because of the way the district runs its division of money, we were not included in the Title I group. We do not get extra funding except the very basics. This year, we even have to ask for paper to make homework packets. In my classroom, I have no technology to help my students learn. I have a computer but it can't be projected onto a screen. I do not have access to a LCD projector or a DVD/CD player. I can't do anything using the computer to show the world map from the Internet. We are limited.
My Project
Every year, we do a project in which students bring something from their culture. They draw it and write about it using the writing process. Last year, my students dressed their paper dolls in their cultural clothing. We then had them connect their dolls to their country(ies) of origin. I had a student who was from Russia, but we had to connect it to USSR. This year, the entire school is having all the students bring a cultural artifact from home. Again we will draw it and write about it using the writing process. Hopefully this year, we will have a map that will show Russia and its neighboring countries correctly.
It's important for students to see the world correctly and be able to identify the countries, their capitals, geography, and their borders.
So when they hear about a country in their everyday life, they can visualize the world map and the country where it actually is and not what they imagine it may be on our current map. With the world getting smaller and smaller, it's important for our students to be familiar with our world and country.
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