My classroom is on fire!

I've been teaching Geography for about ten years now. Each year I look for ways to make it exciting and engaging for my students. The various activities and projects I've put together have been labored over with lots of love. I tweak what I do each year, so that I'm keeping up-to-date with the world and also with student learning.

This year, however, I've discovered the world of Edmodo which has turned my Geography class upside down! Having been asked to be on our district's technology steering committee, I was given the opportunity to attend our state technology conference (PETE&C) in February. I was introduced to many different types of technologies, but the one that offered my students the most potential (I thought) was Edmodo. 

Within the last week I've made a connection with a teacher from Singapore through one of the Edmodo communities. She was looking for a classroom to do a collaborative project with. I was ecstatic! I had been looking for opportunities like this one but hadn't found any that were following through. We quickly set up a group (Global Classroom), got students to start introductions, and in just under a week our students have begun conversations that appear as if they've known each other forever. It is electrifying.

I can't help but think about the potential this opportunity has in teaching my students about the Geography of the world that is impossible for me to teach. The mere few paragraphs our Geography text book provides on Singapore is a pitiful look at what they could be learning. Instead, they are running head-long into the digital social networking world that just brought the edges of the earth so close together they can just hop into Singapore and start experiencing life as a teenager there. 

I can't even begin to fathom what we all will learn from this experience, but I'm thankful for the opportunity for us to learn about a region of the world we would otherwise only hear and read about. Instead, we are experiencing it first-hand. My classroom is on fire, and I'm not willing to put out the flames!