The students have been very engaged in learning about the regions of North Carolina. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, we have been immersed in the NC Region Projects where each of the three groups was hired by the NC Tourism Agency to advertise a specific region of our state. In each group, a manager was elected to oversee the efforts of the group members. Students took the list of the expectations for the project and divided them among the seven members of their group. Along with the NC textbooks we have in our classroom, we shared 3 websites with the students that they were to use for their research,. Mr. Merritt and I loved helping the students as they learned to navigate online and explore these sites looking for specific information.
The sites were:
www.visitnc.com
http://www.secretary.state.nc.us/kidspg/
http://www.governor.state.nc.us/NCkids/default.aspx
In each group the students were to create a map of their region, design a postage stamp representing their region, write a persuasive letter detailing why people should visit, and to include information about the climate and topography, famous people, tourist attractions, historical sites, and agricultural products. We used the laptops in our classroom each day for the past two weeks and students practiced their research skills, word processing skills, and imported pictures from websites into Word documents. I am so proud of their work and loved seeing them begin to post all of their hard work on their presentation boards on Friday.
This project was a tremendous learning opportunity for the students. We talked about how they probably learned even more about responsibility and working with a group to accomplish a goal than they did about their region of NC. The majority of the students worked hard every day and completed tasks in a timely manner. A few did not use their time wisely and ended up in a bind at the end. All students learned a lot about what it means to be a good member of a team. Students will have time to reflect about how they personally contributed to their group and if they used their class time wisely.
I know you will be excited to see the finished projects when you come in for your Fall Conference in the next weeks!
