September 30, 2008
Globetracker's Mission Returns

On October 4, 2008, SFL’s TeachersFirst.com launched the second "season" of  Globetracker’s Mission, an episodic story in blog format that helps students in grades 2-6 learn world geography. The blog follows fictitious brother and sister Geo and Meri as they travel the world on a secret assignment from their uncle Globetracker: to find Dewey, the truth-sniffing dog. In weekly episodes, the techno-savvy teens share new posts about their travels using today’s tools: text messaging, cell phones, and blog-posting.

Globetracker episodes include annotated vocabulary terms and interactive maps for practicing map skills or answering think-aloud questions posed by the teens. Over the course of seven months, classes visit seven continents and experience the world through the thoughts and “snapshots” of Geo and Meri. Classes may also post their own predictions of what will happen in the next episode.

Classrooms equipped with free Google Earth software can tour each step of the Mission using the placemarker files accompanying each episode. Teacher materials include extensive ideas for implementing Globetracker’s Mission as an engaging alternative to “old world” geography textbooks and worksheets.

A new episode appears online each Sunday, with Geo and Meri taking the “advice” of classes that voted the previous week. Classes can retrace the Mission episodes at any time, providing scheduling flexibility.

Families can participate in Globetracker’s Mission through family literacy activities found at TeachersFirst’s sister site TeachersAndFamilies.com. The TeachersAndFamilies feature “TogetheRead” provides book lists for all ages on a monthly theme, along with related family activity ideas. As Geo and Meri travel the continents, parallel monthly TogetheRead themes appear on TeachersAndFamilies, offering books and activities for the same continents. Children whose classes are following the “mission” build a deeper experience of each continent as they read with their families and bring “I read about that!” moments to their classes at school.

TeachersFirst, celebrating its tenth year, is a free teacher resource website that delivers the ideas and tools teachers need in a practical, user-friendly, and ad-free format. TeachersFirst and TeachersAndFamilies are services of The Source for Learning, Inc., a nonprofit corporation providing enhanced learning through technology.