This week one of my groups began working on a unit focusing on the culture and history of Greece. Previously, all of my objectives around this unit centered on things like “Students will know the names of Greek Gods and Goddesses and their stories.” Ooooh, there it was… me asking the kids to “know stuff.” Greek Mythology has long been a typical unit taught in our elementary gifted education curriculum. But, this year, I dug into the unit and looked to see what real-world ties I could help students make. Why am I teaching this? Sure, they are interested in learning about Zeus and Hercules, the constellations, and the mythological stories that are fascinating. But, this year I set out to focus the unit on one big, essential question, “How does history define culture?” By studying history, both realistic and mythological, could students begin to understand the similarities and differences to a culture on the other side of the world? I would soon find out. That same day, I sent out a tweet about what we were studying and said “Students using Google Earth to tour Greece from our little classroom in Missouri,” and immediately got a response from…where else? Greece!
This simple conversation. It made Greece real. It led to questioning about words and languages. It helped them understand timezones. Turns out, studying Greece is not about Zeus and his lightning bolts. It’s about the real world we live in and connecting with people in different countries and cultures. As students explores to find the most important historical locations in Greece, I walked around. I heard the following discussions taking place…
“Wait, B.C. means you count backwards before you get to zero, then you count forward.”
“It says YoYo’s were present in Greece, but it doesn’t say they created them. We don’t know who the inventor of the YoYo is.”
“This is where the Olympics happened. I’ve seen the opening ceremonies on TV.”
“It’s so late in Greece right now. Everyone is probably asleep and that’s why we only heard from one person on Twitter.”
“Women in Ancient Greece were not treated very well. It’s like in the US how women could not vote for many years.”
As I listened, I realized what they were gaining.
So, thank you Lauren for making Greece real to my students. It’s amazing how one little Twitter conversation sparked discussions, questions, and most of all, great thinking. We are still learning about Zeus and those lightning bolts and all of the other interesting myths. But, we’re also learning about cultures and history. Because, really, isn’t learning about expanding our views of the world?
