Geography and Culture

Speaker: David Smith
Doane Stuart School
199 Washington Avenue
Rensselaer, NY 12144
All Grades

Getting beyond places and names, and integrating cultural geography more effectively into your social studies, world studies, or geography program.

In particular, this workshop will present ideas and practical strategies for merging history, geography, and broad multi-cultural concerns into a balanced, three-dimensional package. A variety of materials and cooperative learning activities will be used, in which students, working in small groups, teach and learn from each other.  There will also be demonstrations and descriptions of web and network-related tools for classroom use, such as the use of distributed (cloud) storage and access, acceptable classroom uses of social networking, and connections to other parts of the world using VoIP applications.

Part of our day will be spent looking closely at David Smith's "If The World Were A Village", and his new book about the rights of children, "This Child Every Child", and the variety of ways his books have been used (and can be used) to enrich and enhance teaching across the curriculum.

We will also examine David's geography curriculum, "Mapping The World By Heart", in which students learn physical and political geography, and as a final activity create a complete world map from memory.  The program will be described, and a selection of material from the curriculum will be provided, and there will be a sampling of exercises, and a thorough description of methodology.  Videos, classroom exercises, and handouts will be included in this thorough, hands-on workshop.
  

David J. Smith has 26 years of experience in the classroom, teaching Geography, History, and English, and 15 years experience as a consultant and presenter to schools and associations around the world.  The US Department of Education honored him in 1992 with their "Breaking the Mold" Award for his geography curriculum, "Mapping the World By Heart', now published by Scholastic, and in its 8th edition.  He is author of "If The World Were A Village", which was published in 2002, and has now sold close to a million copies worldwide, in 16 languages including Braille.  His new book, "If America Were A Village" was published in Summer, 2009. He lives in Vancouver, BC.

 

• NYSAIS members - $160.00 - Register Here
  
• Non-members - $185.00 - Register Here

• NYSAIS members - $175.00 - Register Here
• Non-members - $210.00 - Register Here