Going for Gold with Olympic Learning

[00:00:00] Shanna Martin: Thanks for listening to the Tech Tools for Teachers podcast, where each week we talk about a free piece, two of technology that you can use in your classroom. I'm your host, Shanna Martin. I'm a middle school teacher, technology and instructional coach for my district,

[00:00:31] Fuzz Martin: and I'm our producer and husband, Fuzz Martin.

[00:00:33] Fuzz Martin: And if I didn't produce this podcast, it would go downhill quickly.

[00:00:39] Shanna Martin: That's cute.

[00:00:40] Fuzz Martin: Thank you.

[00:00:44] Shanna Martin: Well, we're at episode 2 28, 2

[00:00:47] Fuzz Martin: 28

[00:00:48] Shanna Martin: times, which is crazy, and it's February and. The Olympics are going on.

[00:00:57] Fuzz Martin: Yes.

[00:00:58] Shanna Martin: So I thought we needed to talk about some tools for the Olympics. So our middle school team has all embraced the Olympics in the last week, and we have another week to do this, where the kids are learning about every content, like learning about all their content areas, and we're tying it all to the Olympics.

[00:01:23] Shanna Martin: So. They're doing like math related Olympics things. Mm-hmm. They're doing science, like physics, STEM related things, social studies. They're learning about different countries and the connections that they're making. And ELA, they are comparing athletes and deciding who is the best athlete and doing like argument and debate of like debating.

[00:01:46] Shanna Martin: So I've been collecting different. Resources for teachers that are based on different Olympic connections and there's still another week left of the Olympics and then the Paralympics will be happening right afterwards. So these sources that I have are great connections, not just for when you're working in the Olympics, but anytime you wanna make these connections with your kids.

[00:02:06] Shanna Martin: It's really cool. So I collected a couple of resources just to share with everybody 'cause we've had so much fun kind of using them and they're just interesting. I wasn't sure how the six eight students would. Like if they would embrace it or not. Yeah. 'cause even if they're not into sports, like mm-hmm.

[00:02:22] Shanna Martin: Are they gonna embrace this or, you know, and so far, I can't tell you, our kids are so bought into so many things, like they're talking about curling and they're talking about like, did you see that person's jump? Like, how is that even possible? And, and all these like conversations and I'm having with my kids and then they're learning about other countries around the world and now they all wanna go to Italy and they're just really excited.

[00:02:42] Fuzz Martin: Where's Kazakhstan?

[00:02:43] Shanna Martin: Yes. And in Austria. Mm-hmm. Like just looking at like different places in the world, things that they don't hear about as often.

[00:02:49] Fuzz Martin: Yep.

[00:02:49] Shanna Martin: And so they're very excited about all the things that we're learning about. It's a lot of fun.

[00:02:52] Fuzz Martin: Yeah. By the way, we're, we're very excited also because we

[00:02:55] Shanna Martin: are,

[00:02:55] Fuzz Martin: we have a local gold medal winner, so that's fun.

[00:02:58] Shanna Martin: We do, yes. Here in Wisconsin. Mm-hmm. So, um, it's pretty cool. Everyone's pretty excited and the connections are just being made, to some students that I'm not sure would normally go, like, watch a sporting event. Mm-hmm. Like, so it's just very cool. Anyway, with all of that being said. We have two very cool websites.

[00:03:15] Shanna Martin: The first one that we're gonna talk about today is team usa.com, and while I know I have listeners from all parts of the world

[00:03:24] Fuzz Martin: mm-hmm.

[00:03:25] Shanna Martin: I'm sure your countries have similar websites. But if there's specific people, like your students are looking up or interested in specific athletes or teams or sports, they have all of that available, which is pretty cool.

[00:03:36] Shanna Martin: The team USAA gives like great background. It's easy for student research, so if they're researching different types of sports, so they're researching different people, it's really helpful. There's lots of fun information on the site and it's really great. Like I said, we're able to tie this to all content areas, so if you go to team usa.com.

[00:03:53] Shanna Martin: They have the current Olympics. So Milano Cortina is there 2026. You can click on it, it'll highlight, it says there's always like a little ad that pops up. And then it gives you all of the different site, like the different sports that are like participating. Mm-hmm. So from alpine skiing to the biathlon, to the luge to Nordic, combined to skeleton, which we were watching yesterday.

[00:04:20] Shanna Martin: Oh my gosh. So fun to watch. Also. Terrifying. Can't imagine doing that. Um, so if you click on, like, I'm gonna click on speed skating, 'cause that happens to be a thing. And then once you click on speed skating, it gives you all of the different athletes. It tells you where they're educated from, like their hometown in the US and how many medals they've won.

[00:04:40] Shanna Martin: And you can, and they're all just in alphabetical order. So just keep on scrolling. You can view more athletes. And then once you find the athlete you want to find. Let's pick on Jordan Stoltz and we'll click on him and then it'll tell you how many gold, silver, bronze. Obviously he's won two gold so far.

[00:04:59] Shanna Martin: Then it gives the stats. So we're teaching the kids about like ages and stats and heights and different things, quick facts about them, biographical information. You can read their whole biography and then when they're in the news, and then other related news, and then more athletes connected to them. So all of that is just on one person.

[00:05:16] Shanna Martin: So we have students that are debating if they like. If their athlete is better than the other one, and they can pull their stats and then they're writing arguments and creating Google Slides based on like why they think their athlete is better than another one.

[00:05:29] Fuzz Martin: Mm-hmm.

[00:05:29] Shanna Martin: Which is really fun. You can go through and then you can choose, besides Olympics, you can then choose also the Paralympics and you can learn about all those different athletes and the background information on them, the locations, which is pretty cool.

[00:05:43] Shanna Martin: 'cause then it also, like in social studies, we tie it into. Like not everything in the Olympics is in the same area.

[00:05:50] Fuzz Martin: Mm-hmm.

[00:05:50] Shanna Martin: So then you can map it and how do people travel there and why is part of it in the city and is part of it in the mountains. And then they can learn about information that way and do additional research.

[00:06:00] Shanna Martin: And some of them have maps on them where you can see where their qualifications are. So like I'm in the Paralympics right now, and when you scroll down you can see the different parts of the US they're from. The different states they're from, and you can see how many athletes are from those different states.

[00:06:15] Shanna Martin: Mm-hmm. And it gives the background, which is really kind of cool. So it ties in, again, like I said, all the different content areas you can connect with, literally what's going on, and then the rest of the world. Another thing we've talked about too is like students learning about different countries and looking at different maps.

[00:06:31] Shanna Martin: Also on the site, they have, just information about Olympics and then also highlights. So there's like little video clips and stuff too, if you wanna share that with your students. There's a ton of information. It's very easy to support your students and have them engaged in relevant information that's happening.

[00:06:50] Shanna Martin: And if you click on, so if you're scrolling across the top, it has Olympic stuff and then also has athletes. And if you click on athletes, it will also go through. They're differently how they qualified to get there. So it's like qualified athletes and then their background information. So you can pull that as well.

[00:07:07] Shanna Martin: However you wanna search it. They all have their bios and where they're from. So we've also started kind of mapping out different parts of the United States where they're from. Oh sure. Which is fun. 'cause then they can see like, para Paralympian, it's Brody. Robel, I think R-O-Y-B-A-L. He's from Northlake, Illinois.

[00:07:23] Shanna Martin: And then we have somebody else from Colorado and somebody else from Minnesota. Like it's really cool for the kids to see where all these athletes are from. So that's been highly entertaining for our middle schoolers in the last week, and we'll continue. So through the next week. Also, you have the option on the left hand side.

[00:07:39] Shanna Martin: If you just click the little like hamburger, the three lines.

[00:07:43] Fuzz Martin: Yep.

[00:07:43] Shanna Martin: It goes into events and news and videos, and there's a bunch of other resources it will take you to. As well. So that's something just to check out. Even if you are, maybe not that much into the Olympics, but you might have a student or two that is, it would be a great resource to share with them.

[00:07:59] Shanna Martin: But it is team U-S-A-T-E-A-M-U-S-A com.

[00:08:04] Fuzz Martin: I didn't realize that Milan and Corino were like almost five hours apart.

[00:08:10] Shanna Martin: Mm-hmm.

[00:08:10] Fuzz Martin: I always thought they were kind of close to each other, but

[00:08:13] Shanna Martin: Yeah. So like they really have to travel across the country like.

[00:08:16] Fuzz Martin: Yeah,

[00:08:16] Shanna Martin: if you're gonna see one event in one part and then you're gonna see another event, you can't just like, oh, I'm gonna hop on the train.

[00:08:21] Shanna Martin: Like it'll,

[00:08:22] Fuzz Martin: yeah.

[00:08:22] Shanna Martin: You actually have to get there.

[00:08:23] Fuzz Martin: And I also was curious as to, whether or not Jordan OL's, sister Hannah kept competing.

[00:08:30] Shanna Martin: Mm-hmm.

[00:08:31] Fuzz Martin: And turns out she competes in bird taxidermy now, and I learned that from the site. Pretty cool.

[00:08:36] Shanna Martin: That's awesome.

[00:08:37] Fuzz Martin: Yeah,

[00:08:37] Shanna Martin: because yeah, they used to skate together.

[00:08:39] Fuzz Martin: Mm-hmm.

[00:08:39] Shanna Martin: Which is fun.

[00:08:40] Fuzz Martin: And she used to be faster than him.

[00:08:42] Shanna Martin: Yes, she did. When they were really little.

[00:08:43] Fuzz Martin: Yeah.

[00:08:45] Shanna Martin: Very cool. So just something to note. Very relevant to what's going on, and especially for the next week and even throughout the year. So like we will, we continue to talk about athletes, and do just different famous people often.

[00:08:58] Shanna Martin: Mm-hmm. So it's a great way for students to have access to a resource that has all of their information in one spot, which makes it really easy. Also the. The training center in Colorado Springs.

[00:09:09] Fuzz Martin: Yes,

[00:09:09] Shanna Martin: we have visited. They have a museum.

[00:09:11] Fuzz Martin: It's very cool.

[00:09:12] Shanna Martin: And that museum also has a website that has a lot of to offer.

[00:09:15] Fuzz Martin: Mm-hmm.

[00:09:15] Shanna Martin: For background on athletes, which is pretty

[00:09:17] Fuzz Martin: cool. If you ever get a chance to go. It is

[00:09:20] Shanna Martin: go to Colorado Springs.

[00:09:21] Fuzz Martin: Yeah.

[00:09:22] Shanna Martin: And there's a training center like US Olympic Training Center, but it's not that. It's the Olympic

[00:09:27] Fuzz Martin: Museum

[00:09:27] Shanna Martin: Museum.

[00:09:27] Fuzz Martin: Yep.

[00:09:28] Shanna Martin: And it is probably one of the coolest experiences we've ever had as a family.

[00:09:32] Fuzz Martin: It's, it's fully immersive. Like immersive, like, you know, like, uh, we competed in the sprinting race against each other.

[00:09:39] Shanna Martin: Yeah. And you get to do like archery. Mm-hmm. And you get to actually throw the stones for

[00:09:43] Fuzz Martin: curling.

[00:09:44] Shanna Martin: Curling.

[00:09:45] Fuzz Martin: Mm-hmm.

[00:09:45] Shanna Martin: And. You get to see an example of every torch that's ever been used in every Olympics.

[00:09:51] Shanna Martin: They have medals. They have costume. It's just, it's very, very cool.

[00:09:55] Fuzz Martin: Yeah.

[00:09:55] Shanna Martin: So worth, worth learning about. It's very cool. And their website has a lot of stuff too.

[00:10:00] Fuzz Martin: Yeah.

[00:10:00] Shanna Martin: We'll put that link in the

[00:10:03] Fuzz Martin: show notes.

[00:10:03] Shanna Martin: In the show notes and on the

[00:10:05] Fuzz Martin: website

[00:10:05] Shanna Martin: because it's worth checking out too. The other side I have that we have been using is called Kids.

[00:10:14] Shanna Martin: World travel guide.com, so it's KIDS dash W-O-R-L-D dash G-R-A-V-E-L dash GUID e.com. Kids world travel guide.com as all kinds of cool things. For kids, for all countries. I mean, we encourage our kids to travel, but when you can't physically go someplace, it's really cool to learn about it. So they have, if you click on country mm-hmm.

[00:10:42] Shanna Martin: It's like it will give you countries of the world, continents. It'll break it down. Cool Facts about every country around the world. It's got great visuals and great like images that are easy to digest for kids. So I just clicked on Botswana. Here's top 20 facts about Botswana. Talks about where's located, shows you in the maps, gives you different pictures.

[00:11:06] Shanna Martin: There are a few ads that pop up, but they're all kid friendly 'cause the site is meant for kids and for kid research they also have a section. So on the top you have like their homepage, you can search specific countries continents. Fun facts and fun facts. Gives you like geography and oceans and countries and people in deserts and landmarks.

[00:11:28] Shanna Martin: So my students are researching right now. The host that every kid has a different host country of the Olympics and they're researching the Olympics and they're in the different host countries. And then they're teaching each other in my class about the different host countries of the Olympics. So they pulled a ton of information from their events, which is cool.

[00:11:45] Shanna Martin: So they have like Chinese New Year, Christmas. But if you scroll down, they do have the 2026 Olympics. So when you click on that, they have a collection of resources about Milana Cortina, about the Olympics. And then they have on the right hand side a. Olympic Games firsts. They have an Olympics games quiz.

[00:12:05] Shanna Martin: They have the Winter Olympics 2026. And so they actually, and then they also, what I appreciate is they have previous Olympics information, so Paris, winter, Paris in 2024, winter in 2022. Tokyo, in 2020. So they have different Olympics information, not just on the present Olympics, but also past Olympics, which were like, my kids, once they're into it, they're like, well, I wanna know more about why this used to happen.

[00:12:31] Shanna Martin: So that is also available and they have all kinds of cool, just information for information gathering along with. All other things, so like they do have a whole Olympic section, which is helpful under, again, events and celebrations. Then they have different things on, like games and trivia quizzes, which I have a few kids that are like really into world trivia.

[00:12:55] Shanna Martin: And so as a teacher, they're fun to throw out just to see what they do know. And so there's different trivia questions for quizzes and quizzes for kids. And then again, on their left hand side is all the countries. So you can just be pulling any different country you want to, and then we'll give background for your students on that.

[00:13:11] Shanna Martin: So it's a really easy, definitely made for kids site. The information's fast to find. The ads are all kid friendly. Well, from what I've seen, like all the ads are kid friendly and it's just got a great way to expose students to different countries around the world and they can learn quickly without having to spend a lot of time searching.

[00:13:31] Shanna Martin: Sure. Which I always appreciate. They also have travel tips, so like travel health and travel tips, which I like exposing kids to just learning about like when you leave your little hometown, what else do you need to know for traveling? Yeah. And then, just different pieces of information about countries around the world.

[00:13:47] Shanna Martin: So kids world travel guide.com has a lot of great resources to expose kids to different countries. It's straightforward. You don't have to do a ton of research. You just click on the country and it gives you a bunch of cool information on it. And again, they also have connections with the Olympics too, which I appreciate 'cause that's what we're talking about.

[00:14:04] Shanna Martin: So it's another very cool resource to use.

[00:14:07] Fuzz Martin: Yes. Excellent. So Kids world. Travel guide.com and put hyphens in between each of the words.

[00:14:15] Shanna Martin: Yes.

[00:14:16] Fuzz Martin: Yeah.

[00:14:17] Shanna Martin: Yeah. So it's fun. And another way again, to talk about, learn about the world.

[00:14:21] Fuzz Martin: Mm-hmm.

[00:14:21] Shanna Martin: And now that they're kind of seeing other athletes like, like when a kid is like, what's Kazakhstan?

[00:14:27] Shanna Martin: So they're like explaining like different like just different countries that they usually aren't so aware of. And they are right now 'cause they're right in front of them.

[00:14:34] Fuzz Martin: Yeah.

[00:14:34] Shanna Martin: So it's very relevant.

[00:14:35] Fuzz Martin: Unfortunately for Kazakhstan, it's not listed on kids world travel. Guide.com.

[00:14:40] Shanna Martin: Yeah.

[00:14:40] Fuzz Martin: But uh. You can find it elsewhere.

[00:14:43] Shanna Martin: So yes. Yeah, it's one of those where, of course, that's one

that's

[00:14:46] Fuzz Martin: like one, the one that we talked about and they've gotten so many, but

[00:14:49] Shanna Martin: we found other resources we're good.

[00:14:51] Fuzz Martin: Somebody, somebody emailed them and ask them that.

[00:14:53] Shanna Martin: Yes. But again, there's lots of information out there, so check it out. So both team USA and world Travel, there's plenty of information out there, so check it out.

[00:15:06] Shanna Martin: You know, we saw the Olympics on for another week and then Paralympics right after that. So you can expose your kids to this, or if you got kids that are just interested, it's a great resource for them to have available.

[00:15:16] Fuzz Martin: Indeed.

[00:15:17] Shanna Martin: Well, thanks for tuning in. This has been the Tech Tools for Teachers Podcast.

[00:15:20] Shanna Martin: If you ever have any questions, you can find me, please. Sky Threads Facebook, Instagram at smartinwi, and if you wanna get more information on the links to the technology discussed in this episode. You can visit Smartinwi.com. If you'd like to support the show, please consider buying me a coffee or two.

[00:15:36] Shanna Martin: Visit. Buy me a coffee.com/ smartinwi or visit Smartinwi.com and click on that cute little purple coffee cup. Your donations help keep the show going. New episodes each week. Thanks for listening. Who'll educate and innovate,

[00:15:49] Fuzz Martin: the ideas and opinions expressed on this podcast and the smart NW website are those of the authors, Shanna Martin, and not of her employer.

[00:15:56] Fuzz Martin: Prior to using any of the technologies discussed on this podcast, please consult with your employer regulations. This podcast offers no guarantee that these tools will work for you as we've described, but we sure hope they do and we'll talk to you next time here on the Tech Tools for Teachers Podcast.