Geography Education Hearing

The Joint Committee on Education will be considering Senate Bill 182, a measure that promotes geography education in Massachusetts. As written, the bill would reinstate geography licensure, require geography at all grade levels, add geography to MCAS, and add geographers to the committee that oversees social studies education.

A public hearing on a suite of 26 education bills will be held in Room A-2 at the State House on Tuesday, June 14, 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. SB 182 is item #25 on this busy agenda, so although it is important to show up, most of us will not have an opportunity to speak during the hearing. If you are attending the hearing with prepared remarks, please bring 15 copies, which MGA leaders will put into folders for the committee.

Facebook users may wish to use our hearing invitation to encourage friends and colleagues to attend. Since EarthView (our 20-foot, inflatable globe) was instrumental in fostering this legislation, we encourage supporters to bring more modest-sized globes to the hearing.

Whether you can attend the hearing or not, please contact your legislator and/or Joint Committee members to let them know your thoughts on this legislation.

Connecting Our World

Please see my post on Environmental Geography about Connecting Our World, a site dedicated to the promotion of international education. The organization has a lot to offer advocates of geography education.

Google Geo Teachers Institute

This September, Google is offering an institute for geography educators in two locations -- one in Washington, DC and the other in Lewiston, Maine.

The Google Geo Teachers Institute will highlight educational uses of Google's various geographic technologies, such as Google Earth.

Participation is free, but transportation and lodging are not covered. Attendees will be selected by August 15, from among those educators who complete an online application.

Details are provided on Google's LATLONG blog.

Singapore and Indonesia

Singapore - a city state of 5 million people - is an island off the southern tip of the Malay peninsula, it is a fascinating place with futuristic high rise buildings and a bustling economy.

From Singapore it's on to Indonesia, an archipelago of about 17,000 islands. We took a great 3 hour train ride from Jakarta to Bandung with the train going between incredibly terraced padi rice fields.