District Administration - June 2012 - (Page 30)

GeoGraphy eD for a flat worlD alliances in all 50 states to promote geography in schools, the proliferation of statewide geography bees, and the development in 1994 of a set of national geography standards. Along with the District of Columbia, Texas, South Dakota, Utah and Virginia are the only states that require stand-alone geography courses and standardized testing on the subject. (California, Rhode Island and New Mexico require a combined history and geography course.) “I really struggle with why geography isn’t more important,” admits Kevin Gasner, who teaches a seventh-grade geography course at the Oregon Middle School in the Oregon (Wis.) School District. “We’re all connected globally, and if we want to prepare kids for a global economy, we better teach them what culture and life is like around the globe.” Not Your Parents’ Geography That message is beginning to sink in at districts and larger institutions around the country, including the College Board, which since 2001 has offered an AP exam in human geography that covers a curriculum worlds apart from what was taught years ago. The students taking that exam have grown in number from 3,200 the first year to 87,000 in 2011 and an estimated 100,000 this year. “We used to have a T-shirt that read, ‘It’s not your parents’ geography,’” says Liliana Monk, who for eight years has taught the AP course at Thomas S. Wootton High School in the Montgomery County (Md.) Public Schools and also serves as co-chair of the College Board’s AP Human Geography Development Committee. “In the past we used to believe that you needed to know what were the names of the seas, what were the capitals of different countries, and what was the difference between a hill and a mountain,” Monk recalls. She points out that the course she teaches nowadays asks a different set of questions, such as, “Where are people located around the world, how do they alter their environment, and what kind of occupations do they pursue in developed 30 June 2012 Top: A student of the Academy of Global Studies at Winton Woods High School in Cincinnati shows the class a graph of the relative population of European countries. Students tried to determine if the number of refugees who were emigrating was statistically significant. Above: Students at Oregon Middle School in Wisconsin picked facts from their projects on various countries and then wrote those facts on white boards. and undeveloped countries?” The juniors and seniors in Monk’s AP class also study conflicts over borders between countries; the diffusion of religions over entire regions, such as the growing influence of Islam in southwest Asian countries like Indonesia; and even hightech examples, such as how texting led to reviving an indigenous language in Africa. “It recognizes that geography has real value, and that it’s both a physical science and a social science,” says Sarah Bednarz, Monk’s fellow co-chair on the AP committee and a geography professor at Texas A&M’s College of Geosciences. “Location really does matter, and we need to have a geographically competent citizenry.” Learning geography has taken on greater urgency at Lamar High School in the Houston Independent School District, which is in its second year of offering AP human geography. The school also teaches a stand-alone geography course mandated by the state for all ninth graders. “It’s one of their first exposures to geography,” Principal James McSwain says of the freshman course. “If you don’t understand where something is, you really can’t understand the events of the world. You have to understand the planet and what part the natural environment has played in shaping civilization.” He says of the AP course, “This takes geography to a higher, more advanced level.” The Winton Woods School District in suburban Cincinnati also is aiming toward an advanced level during the first year of its Academy of Global Studies. The district’s new high school enrolls ninthgraders and will add a grade each year. As part of the curriculum, the freshmen are taking a global seminar with strong geoDistrict Administration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - June 2012

District Administration - June 2012
Contents
From the Editor
News update
Arts update
District Profile
Administrator Profile
Geography Ed for a Flat World
Her Own Brand of Education Reform
Finding a Cure for Senioritis
Principals as Instructional Leaders
CIO news
One Tablet Per Child?
Changing Lives With Assistive Technology
Going Mobile
Student Counsel
New Directions
Product Focus
New Products
Online Edge

District Administration - June 2012