The Alabama Geographic Alliance and the Department of Geography at UNA sponsored the Giant Traveling Map at Forest Hills Elementary School. Thanks to Megan Smith, Forest Hills Teacher, who organized the map at their school.
National Geographic Giant Traveling Map for Elementary Students (Article)
“HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) – There’s a giant map moving around schools in north Alabama, teaching geo-literacy to children. The vinyl map is so big, it can’t fit into a classroom. It’s 26 feet by 26 feet. But kids can easily learn from it. That’s because it’s a fun and physical way to learn about geography. Highlands Elementary School teacher Linda Hardee got the National Geographic Giant Traveling Map of Europe Wednesday night and had to use the gym at Highlands Elementary School to lay it out for Thursday.”
Read the full article here
At Your School: Bryan Elementary takes a “tour” of Europe (Video)
Class Maps Out Future (Article)
“RUSSELLVILLE — With paper maps of the city of Russellville spread out on classroom tables, students in the school’s first Geographic Information System class were locating gas lines and valves.”
Check out the full article here on Times Daily.
Social Studies Council of Alabama Conference
Seven Alliance teachers are going to present lessons at the Annual Social Studies Council of Alabama meeting in Birmingham today. Join us! http://alsocialstudiesonline.org/conference.
Teaching Math with Geography Skills
Thanks to ECE 306 – Arithmetic for Early Childhood Education (Ms Megan Smith, Instructor) – for allowing Dr. Keys-Mathews to work with you on teaching math using geography skills! Three in-service teachers joined the class to have fun with maps and skills such as measuring distances, determining direction, and how the language of maps and the the language of math have similar terminology. See the Alliance Resources page for links for resources!
Social Studies Council of Alabama – Annual Meeting (Today)
Seven Alliance teachers are going to present lessons at the Fall at the Annual Social Studies Council of Alabama meeting in Birmingham today. Join us! http://alsocialstudiesonline.org/conference.
Congratulations to participants in the 2014 Geo-Literacy Leadership Institute!
UNA Hosts 2014 Geo-Literacy Leadership Institute
FLORENCE, Ala. – The University of North Alabama Department of Geography and the Alabama Geographic Alliance will host the 2014 Geo-Literacy Leadership Institute from June 22-27, 2014. Dr. Lisa Keys-Mathews and Dr. Bill Strong are coordinators of the Alabama Geographic Alliance and are managing the event at the University of North Alabama.
The institute is organized by a multi-alliance partnership comprised of the states of Alabama, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee. The funding is provided through grants from the National Geographic Education Foundation. Each alliance has selected two to four teachers to attend. An additional three teachers from last year’s institute have been selected as mentors. Presenters for the event will include Roni Jones of the National Geographic Society and Greg Pitts of the University of North Alabama, as well as Alliance Coordinators from each state.
The Institute for Professional Development will focus on three areas: advocacy, communication and leadership in order to promote geographic literacy in the states represented and nationally. By the end of the week each participant will develop a “personal leadership plan” that will outline their interests and skills related to volunteering and leadership in the Alliance. In addition, each Alliance Team will develop a state case for support that will be used by the Alliances for fundraising, advocacy and development work.
Throughout the week, participants will be engaged in activities such as writing opinion editorials, learning to give an “elevator” speech, developing talking points to advocate for geography education policy, working with social media and designing meaningful and effective public relations strategies. For more information: Dr. Lisa Keys-Mathews at 256-765-4640 (lkeysmathews@una.edu); or Dr. Bill Strong at 256-765-4218 (wrstrong@una.edu).
By Bryan Rachal, Public Affairs and Media Relations (June 23, 2014)
Welcome!
Welcome to the updated Alabama Geographic Alliance website! We’re still working hard to make this site easy to use and filled with content, so bear with us!
In the meantime, you can look around and see what we have up so far. We’ll still be updating the site from time to time, so don’t worry if something doesn’t work or look quite right. We hope you will find the website useful and easy to navigate soon!