Maps
The first thing we learned this year was the general topic of Maps. I know, it sounded really boring and honestly it is quite standard to learn geography in History but it didn't sound interesting. If you were thinking the same thing, you are wrong. We were introduced to a new perspective on Maps. We were taught to read the maps of our lives. In order to explain this I need to specify the Five Themes of Geography. The Five Themes of Geography are outlines for teaching geography. They include Location, Place, Region, Movement, and Human-Environment Interaction.
for a description of the Five Themes of Geography
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We used the Five Themes of Geography to create one big Life Map. We used Location, Place, Region, Movement and Human-Environment Interaction to define where we are right now and where we want to be in the future. As for the scale, instead of a tool to measure distance, we applied our life goals to the key. And of course, our compass was applied to the unit as well. When you look at a compass, you use North to guide you to where you want to be, so we used North as an individual, or an idea, that has guided us through life. Most of the class' Norths were there parents or teachers for example. We used all of the information we learned in class and applied it into one big project that made us reflect on our lives.
To help us reflect, our teacher taught us about the Poverty Cycle. The Poverty Cycle is the cycle that poor people, or people in poverty, seem to get stuck in. We are all stuck in our own cycle, and we have to choose whether we want to stay in that cycle or if we want to leave. No matter what, you can always change your cycle. You just need to try hard enough.
for a description of the Poverty Cycle
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We all had to answer the following question. How will I make a difference? If you truly contemplate about your current situation as well as where you want to be in the future, you can decide whether your cycle is a good place to be. If you decide that it isn't, then work hard to get out of it! Work hard to get to the cycle you want to be in, your children to be in, and quite possibly a lot of your descendants to be in. If most young Americans did this, then we would have less people in poverty, and we would be more intelligent as a community, book smart as well as street smart. We could all be the people that Mr. Rogers wanted us to be. We could be the country our Founding Father's knew we could be.