WESTMORELAND, N.Y.- This day and age, teachers have to be more creative than ever. They’re competing with technology and other devices but our Social Studies Department Chairperson, Gianni Notaro, is getting creative when it comes to keeping students engaged.
Mr. Notaro teaches global and U.S. History classes in the Jr./Sr. High School. In 2016, he was very intrigued by virtual reality after playing games with his friends. This interest made him wonder how he could incorporate VR in his lessons. “I need to have my students experience this and thankfully the school was kind enough to allow me to acquire a VR headset for my classroom.”
He has four VR headsets that he uses in his Global and U.S. History classes. He also acquired google cardboard VR headsets that turn a phone into a VR headset. In one of his lessons, he has two students in headsets, he assigns each of them a vocabulary term and a tilt brush, which allows them to paint in 3D VR space. They have to draw what the term is. The other students can see exactly what they’re drawing on a screen, and have to guess what vocabulary term their peers are drawing. Students can also create their own guided tours for their classmates.
Mr. Notaro said his students are really interested in Google Earth VR. “You can travel anywhere on the planet and see incredible 360 degree pictures in your headset and actually feel like you’re there.” When asked where the students like to visit, Mr. Notaro chuckled and said, “the first place they wanted to go was their house.” Aside from their homes, Mr. Notaro has them visit other countries. “We were covering Buddhism and one of the first things we did was we went to see the Bodhi Tree, where Buddhism began and where the Buddhists originally meditated.” He said having an experience like this, is the closest they can get to real life. “My students having the ability to witness that and see it as if they were there up close, it just connected more with them.” Which he says helps when it comes to state testing.
Keeping students engaged is something Mr. Notaro thinks about constantly. “I’m up like all hours of the night sometimes trying to tweak and refine different lessons that I have to make sure that they are up to date and they don’t feel stale.” “There are so many things that are vying for kid’s attention today that you need to be able to kind of mimic that inside of a school, but still have it be very educationally sound.”
These headsets have proven to be so successful that we needed more. The district recently purchased three more to help in classroom instruction. We wouldn’t be able to enhance our students learning without the amazing support of the community, so thank you!