Google Earth . . . pretty sweet

Today we really got to jump into Google Earth. The only time I've used it before was to find my house, so that's the only thing I really knew how to do. This class period was basically a whole new experience for me. I really appreciated that we just got to explore a bit before we got into the instruction because we were able to get familiar with it. There are so many ways you can apply this to teaching. First of all, just to get familiar with it and to be able to explore on their own, the students could look up their own houses. They'd get a kick out of that. Heather found a really good kmz on the Civil War, so you could guide the students through those events. I remember studying ancient civilizations in elementary school especially Egypt. We learned about irrigation and why the people decided to live there. There was a great kmz about the Nile showing the most fertile parts of it. I think it would also be fun to have the students put together a tour of a book we were reading or a period in history that we were studying and then present it to the class. Basically the options are endless. You could even incorporate it into your relief society lesson and show all the temples throughout the world. Heather found it and it was sweet. Overall I'm pretty excited to use this not only in my classroom, but with my family, planning trips, and preparing lessons and presentations.