Crossing+Boundaries+Technology

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The story:
Over the summer (and for a few Saturdays later this year), I had the opportunity to attend a really great training seminar called Crossing Boundaries. The goal of the entire training is to give teachers the tools and know-how to use advanced technologies (like ArcGIS) in the classroom to enhance our teaching of you, our lovely students. Ultimately, as I add more and more of the content to my lessons, you will find that you are learning more and more about the world around you, as well as far from your door. Using this technology, we will explore the changes around Fillmore and also such far off ecological hotspots as the Amazon rain forest. There is so much to learn about the world. Hopefully, you will all buy into this process and learn alongside me as we explore the ways to integrate this impressive technology into this class. I think you will find (if you buy into it) that it can really be exciting and fun. Give it your best effort and you WILL learn it, and might even have some fun doing it.

How I Intend to Use This:
As our class is project based, this set of learning tools will be used as parts of your projects for various topics throughout the year. With practice, you will learn how to use Google Earth as more than a flight simulator, and will see that there are some truly impressive features that you can use to learn about the world around you. You will learn to use ArcGIS to learn about how humans impact the world. You will learn how to use the internet to interact with students from other schools, and each other. You will get to interact with some really amazing scientists in different locations around the world, as they take you with them on their field studies, showing you what its really like to be a scientist, out there in the world. Trust me, this technology will take you out of Fillmore, if you let it.