Share a Google MyMap!

If location is important to a lesson or unit you are teaching, I encourage you to use a Google MyMap!

I did this today with California History with my 4th graders. For them to understand the importance of the different regions in California (Coast, Desert, Mountains, and Central Valley), they need to SEE it. We have a few small maps in our Social Studies workbook, but I knew that there had to be a better way...

What better way than to do it:
1. In the context of a shared, interactive map that they can zoom in and out of
2. By seeing actual satellite imagery, showing the different vegetation in each region
3. By placing a marker on the cities that are in each region
4. By coloring the markers to the appropriate, agreed-upon color (blue, red, yellow, and green)
5. By noticing when classmates make errors, and fixing them in real-time

I started with a Google Classroom assignment:

1. Find a city in each of the Regions of CA.(Desert, Mountains, Coast, Valley)2. "Add to Map"3. Change the color of that marker to match this Legend:Desert = redMountains = yellowCoast = blueValley = green4. Edit that marker by clicking on the little pencil icon - Add your name in the little box.
Once you have placed 4 markers, of cities in CA, and colored them appropriately, you may "Mark As Done".

Then I attached the link to the shared "MyMap".



I plan to add a layer to the map where we label the areas where the Native Americans (Native Californians) lived. This will be much more visual, interactive, and "in-context" than previous methods.


I learned what steps were harder for them - what parts of the process I might be slower and more explicit about next time. For example, in the screen shots below, you'll see that they had trouble changing the color of the marker to the appropriate color. This, of course, is a crucial aspect of demonstrating that they've learned about the regions, so I'll work on this more in the coming days. I had a couple students that were ignorant of state borders (that a certain nearby state was not, in fact, in CA). This might not have been corrected without a lesson like this.

Next time, maybe a little video showing each step, and more detail in the assignment itself will make the experience better for all.

Every Kid In A Park - print free passes using Chromebooks and Classroom

I teach 4th grade, and my students are given the opportunity to sign up to get a free one-year pass to all National Parks. We got pretty excited about this when we had a Park Ranger visit our classroom this week.

I had them do this using their Chromebooks, but we don't have a printer set up to receive those print jobs.
I thought "Hmmm...I should be able to do this with the help of Google Classroom."
It worked!

Students navigated through the https://everykidinapark.gov/ website (steps #1-8),
then at step #9-12 below, created a PDF in their Google Drive.
Step #13-16 helps students choose a file from their Google Drive. That can be tricky for students that have only opened a Drive file directly from Classroom.

The following are the directions I used to guide the students through the process. I hope this is useful to you for this particular goal, or whenever you need to get a PDF created by a Chromebook to your teacher computer to be printed.

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Add files to a Google Classroom Assignment to “TURN IN”

“Your Free Pass”

1. Click the link in this Google Assignment.
2. Click “GET YOUR PASS”
3. Click “PLAY” where it says “Fourth graders”
4. You’ll see “Start your adventure now”. Click the little box that says “Yes…”. Click “PLAY”
5. In the “Dear Diary” section of this website, explore what you want to learn about the National Parks.
6. When you see “GET YOUR PASS NOW”, click it.
7. You’ll see “You did it! Claim your pass”. Enter your zip code. It is 93618.
8. Click “GET MY PASS”

9. Click the green button that says “Click this button to PRINT YOUR PASS”
10. Destination...Save as PDF… Click “Change…”
11. At the bottom of the next screen, click “Save to Google Drive”.
12. Click the blue button at the top that says “Save”

13. In Google Classroom, open the “Your Free Pass” assignment
14. On the Assignment, click “Add” (it has a little triangle next to it)
15. Choose Google Drive
16. Click the PDF that says “Your Free Pass”
17. Click the blue button at the bottom that says “Add”
18. You have now attached this file to the assignment, and it’s ready to Turn In.
19. Click “TURN IN”

20. Your teacher will print this for you. Take this paper to a National Park, and you will get in FREE for a year!