USAID Primary Education Project

Pupils using "Google Earth"
on a geography class

Pupils using "Encarta Encyclopedia"
on a geography class

Photo from an outreach event in Macedonia

Through a Web Page – Closer to Geography Enthusiasts

In the satellite school of Todor Angelevski in Gorno Orizari – Bitola, the students, along with the geography teacher, Mite Ristev worked out a web page ( www.geo-orizari.tk ) on which the student’s activities from geography are being written down. The creation of the web page has created a great interest with the students and they visit it daily, according to the daily visit tab.
‘I wanted to make something interesting for the students, something attractive and useful at the same time. The idea for designing a web page came out spontaneously. The children had an active role in the creation and many different ideas for its creation. They were practically competing for a more attractive solution.’-said Ristov, the geography teacher.
The whole web page is consisting of issues representing the daily activities and important events on the geography classes: projects, competitions, presentations, video clips, forum for idea exchange, commentaries, photo galleries and links to other web pages. There is a fun part of the page too, where you can get instant access to the video search engine’ YouTube’ where one can find different videos in the geography area (tsunami, tornado, whiteouts, volcanic eruptions etc.)
This kind of communication through a web page also motivates the teachers to implement ideas and information exchange through an e-forum, which is practically a communication tool among the geography teachers and an affirmation device for their office and field activities. Furthermore, this was a motive for creating another web page of the regional geographic association ‘Geosfera’ www.rgdgeosfera.tripod.com, on which information and annunciations about seminars, workshops, presentations of research projects, video materials from geography classes, instructions for Google Earth usage and web page designing tutorials are being published.
The young geography teacher, Mite Ristov, has united his two biggest passions-geography and internet. The modest, 33 years old teacher does not think that he has done much. ‘I just do my job, like any other conscientious teacher. It’s just that I am trying to keep pace with the new trends and what the new generations prefer. Of course, the knowledge I gain from the workshops that promote these ideas is of great help.’ says Mitev.
For sure, many workshops are trying to implement innovative and creative ideas in the teaching practice, but eventually, the teachers are the ones who should accept this and practice it in the schooling in a way that would be more interesting and useful for the students. We hope that similar initiations and practices won’t be a lone occurrence and that many of his colleagues will follow Mitev’s paradigm, and we, from PEP will assure to publish and share these initiations with all of you.

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USAID • AED

Pupils using "Encarta Encyclopedia"
on a geography class

Photo from an outreach event in Macedonia

Pupils discussing a geographical topic with the teacher