Virtual Field Trips

Some days, I wish I taught elementary school.  It seems as though there are so many fun programs available to the elementary level compared to when I was in school.  They're also not as tightly bound to the time constraints that the secondary level is with our bell schedule.  Today, I was reminded of the resource, Learn Around the World that provides amazing interactive virtual field trips and global virtual guest speakers to the classroom. 



 For the month of November, the field trips vary from Indonesian Temples, Komodo Dragon National Park, to the Pilgrims of Plymouth, MA.  

One feature that I truly love, is the fact that the presentations are leveled:
GEOshow Jr. is for Grades K-4
GEOshow is for Grades 5-8.

They reserve a certain number of spots for participating classes to chat with and be on-camera with the hosts of the field trip. Others are viewers and cannot interact directly.

In addition to the field trip itself, the site offers pre-show tasks, lesson plans, coordination with grade level standards and checklists for the day of the trip.

Overall, the trips offer experiences that help to bring our curriculum to life and enrich the lives of our students that may never get to visit the locations selected. Students might also have the chance to interact with experts in the field, which helps with their public speaking skills and introduces them to various career opportunities.

New Google Drive Update

Today, as I uploaded a file to my drive and noticed this new popup window:

Apparently, I had already uploaded this exact file to my drive but forgot about it.  Drive notified me that I already had a version of that file.  It now will add it as a new version instead of duplicating the file.  This is an interesting new feature.  However, we need to be careful when uploading files of the same name. Luckily, in your upload window, you can choose to "Keep as separate file" if you just accidentally named the file the same.  You could then go back and rename one of the files to avoid confusion.

Thanks Google!