Hide & Seek World: Geography & Problem Solving

[00:00:00] Shanna Martin: Thanks for listening to the Tech Tools for Teachers podcast. For each week, we talk about a free. These are 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 from my district,

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

[00:00:33] Fuzz Martin: And if you wanna find me, you can catch me hiding behind this audio board. Nice. Behind this microphone. Behind the curtain behind me.

[00:00:48] Shanna Martin: I used, I like the Wizard of Oz, you know.

[00:00:52] Fuzz Martin: Oh yeah.

[00:00:53] Shanna Martin: He hides behind the curtain. He does

[00:00:54] Fuzz Martin: hide behind the curtain. He is, that's what he's known for. Oh. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

[00:01:00] Shanna Martin: Yes.

[00:01:02] Fuzz Martin: Hello.

[00:01:02] Shanna Martin: Well, we are here, we are at the final episode of season seven. Mm-hmm. Episode two 14. We will have, I'm sure some sort of midsummer lesson because I already started thinking about things I wanna talk about, but um. Yeah. Made it through another school year. We did last, I mean you did last two weeks have been general chaos.

[00:01:25] Shanna Martin: Mm-hmm. And I did

[00:01:25] Fuzz Martin: get the chaperone, one of your field trips. You

[00:01:27] Shanna Martin: did, you experienced an eighth grade field trip. Yep. As like an assistant chaperone. Yep. And presenter. Mm-hmm. And it was fun. We had a whole day of outdoor hiking with our eighth graders. Yeah. They were very tired.

[00:01:40] Fuzz Martin: They were,

[00:01:41] Shanna Martin: it was fun though.

[00:01:42] Fuzz Martin: I was very tired as well.

[00:01:43] Shanna Martin: Yes.

[00:01:44] Fuzz Martin: And when I left, I got, I went home and took a nap.

[00:01:47] Shanna Martin: Good work. I still had children for two hours after that.

[00:01:49] Fuzz Martin: You did?

[00:01:49] Shanna Martin: But it was fine. It was super fun. Mm-hmm. So season seven, episode two 14, I decided there was one last site that I really wanted to share that I hadn't gotten to yet this season.

[00:02:02] Shanna Martin: And it's really fun. And if you're still in school, I know a few. Quite a few school districts are still in school. Um, this one you can definitely do with your students for the ends of the year. You can also share it with them to play over the summer. Um, it's one of those that's free. Partially. So you get to do, you can play each day.

[00:02:20] Shanna Martin: Yep. But, um, you have limits on that. Right. Which is fine. It'll limit screen time with children as well, because they can get outside and maybe try this activity outside. There you go. After they've done it on their computer. Mm-hmm. So the site itself is called. Hide and seek world.

[00:02:40] Fuzz Martin: Hide and seek world.

[00:02:41] Shanna Martin: So if you were a fan or are a fan of geo guesser, it works in the realm, kind of like geo guesser, but it is like interactive hide and seek, which is super fun.

[00:02:53] Shanna Martin: So my highlights of it, like it teaches and practices context clues like pay attention to the world around you or pay attention to the image where it drops you in the world. It's gonna use like Google Maps. Mm-hmm. It's gonna drop you in the world. Um, you learn about the world as you're seeking and like finding things and you have to find the other people like within your group.

[00:03:15] Shanna Martin: And then, it's all in the details. I think before you were playing and you're like, it's Wisconsin and it was not.

[00:03:22] Fuzz Martin: Yeah, even close. It wasn't even in the us it was,

[00:03:24] Shanna Martin: but you were looking like trees and things like you pay attention to like the climate and the wildlife. Yeah. You can kind of like use those clues, but it's crazy 'cause then you can talk to your kids.

[00:03:35] Shanna Martin: It's a great one. Star conversations. Like yeah, there's other places in the world that look like here. Mm-hmm. You know, like making those connections with kids, which is super fun. A lot of details, like pay attention to those details. It's great for map practice, like learning about other parts of the world and like, hey, like where are these located?

[00:03:52] Shanna Martin: And looking at some latitude, longitude stuff along with like, where's the equator? Like it's, you know, warm there, right? So you probably are putting your pin in the totally wrong spot. And it's fun. It's just a fun, it's a fun digital way to play hide and seek, which is very cool. Mm-hmm. So what it does is you can join.

[00:04:11] Shanna Martin: If you join, like if you hit click play now. So hide and seek world, when you get to the, the main, bo the main sign in, I guess you can click play now and you can play two public rounds a day. Yes. And you can, like, if you wanna pay for a subscription eventually you probably could. But I, you get two public rounds a day so you can come back each day.

[00:04:32] Shanna Martin: And like I said, it kinda limits then kids like you play a few rounds. 'cause it takes a while. Like one round doesn't. Like it takes a few minutes mm-hmm. To actually play around. And then it's a great way to practice geography and then go outside and go play real. Hide and seek. Go there, go like once you've done it, it's a little outdoor.

[00:04:47] Shanna Martin: Some are fun. , so you go in, you click play. You can choose your classic hide and seek and there's some other options. Join a public game or you can host, like if you. Have a membership, you can do private games as well. So if that's something you like, once you start playing, you wanna do in your classroom, you could do the paid version.

[00:05:05] Shanna Martin: , everyone hides in somewhere in the world. So what you do is you like drop your, you can zoom in all the way down to like ground, earth side and drop your pin in and then each turn, like one of the players gets sought out. Mm-hmm. So there's six players I believe in each round. And so you actually get to.

[00:05:24] Shanna Martin: Seek five other people in the world. So you like find where they've hidden themselves and then a new round starts when there's a winner. And then whoever you get points. So however close your guess is to where other people are, you earn points. Mm-hmm. And then they like win their round. It's really fun and once you kind of get going with it, it's pretty engaging because then I'm like, then you really have to pay attention to like where.

[00:05:51] Shanna Martin: You get kinda like little clues, like where are they? Right. But you have to know your geography or at least know climates and

[00:05:58] Fuzz Martin: mm-hmm.

[00:05:59] Shanna Martin: And like, you gotta pay attention to the details.

[00:06:02] Fuzz Martin: Like are there palm trees? It's probably not in Wisconsin

[00:06:06] Shanna Martin: unless they're fake and plastic. Right? Yes. So, I am scanning on through, I am gonna secretly drop myself in.

[00:06:16] Shanna Martin: Maine. Okay. Seems like a great place to go. So I'm dropping me in Maine, in the middle of a field somewhere, which is super fun. I've got three other people playing with me, and it does count you down. So then you have like 30 some seconds to be able to play, um, to drop your person wherever they may be. And then once everybody is finding their spot.

[00:06:43] Shanna Martin: It'll like reset you. So now I have to go in and seek. So I have to guess like I have to zoom myself out in the world and like pick a country. It does give you a picture. Like, I don't know, the picture they just gave me. Looks like I'm in some sort of, I don't know, vineyard somewhere. Okay. So I have no idea.

[00:07:04] Shanna Martin: I'm going to go with France. France. That sounds great. I just dropped myself. I. Gotta, yeah. So I'm gonna submit my guess and see. I am so far off. You have no idea. So the two other people playing did great. Not bad. Close. I am so far off, so fail for me. Mm-hmm. And then again, they give you a picture. You have to like zoom in, pin yourself in guess.

[00:07:38] Shanna Martin: Submit your guess. And I'm like way far off because I dropped myself in like Ohio and, guess what they were in, just outside Jerusalem. So clearly I was not paying attention to the details, which is what's really important with this, with this game. Yes. so anyhow, you get the general idea. So you're gonna go in, it's like playing hide and seek around the world, similar to kind of geo gasser and or.

[00:08:03] Shanna Martin: Playing like games and they're all trying to guess my location right now. And I dunno how they're gonna do, but it's really kind of fun. So then it's a little, it's live, but you don't really know the people. And it would be fun to play, it's a class or kind of engage with some review in the summer.

[00:08:19] Fuzz Martin: Mm-hmm.

[00:08:20] Shanna Martin: And or see, it might be kind of fun if your students did track their scores, like you keep a little tally sheet or something like that and see how well they do with. Their locations. Mm-hmm. And details and guessing around the world. So they did okay for me. I got some not bads, I got a close. I was the hide on that one.

[00:08:38] Shanna Martin: So anyway, it's a lot of fun. So being able to engage your students over the summer or here at the end of the school year, little hide and seek world where they can practice some geography skills. Yep. But also just again. Paying attention to context clues and details. I feel like that gets lost a lot with our kids now, and this would be a great way to practice that and then go send 'em outside.

[00:09:00] Shanna Martin: Like, okay, go play some hide and seek. I know in our house we also hide and seek with things. Yes. So we hide. And then it's like a treasure hunt. It's

[00:09:08] Fuzz Martin: usually the remote control. Yes. Or the dog's ball.

[00:09:13] Shanna Martin: Yes. Those two things definitely get hidden. So anyway, those are just something, it's like a fun site to try for the summer, send your kids home.

[00:09:20] Shanna Martin: They could do something. Engage in some practice. Yeah. In some detail, in context clues would be very helpful.

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

[00:09:28] Shanna Martin: So there you go.

[00:09:29] Fuzz Martin: There you go.

[00:09:30] Shanna Martin: Season seven. Wow. That's a wrap.

[00:09:33] Fuzz Martin: Be back with. A mini episode and then season eight.

[00:09:37] Shanna Martin: Yes. We'll be talking season eight in the fall.

[00:09:39] Fuzz Martin: So

[00:09:40] Shanna Martin: crazy. Yeah. Season eight and year 22 of teaching.

[00:09:45] Shanna Martin: Yeah.

[00:09:45] Fuzz Martin: Congratulations. You be crazy. Finished your 21st year.

[00:09:48] Shanna Martin: I did, and I survived it.

[00:09:50] Fuzz Martin: Yeah.

[00:09:51] Shanna Martin: And we will all make it through the summer. Yes, we will. So I hope everyone enjoys and has a great summer and gives you some time off if you're still teaching. You got this, I know, the last few weeks, so it can be a little rough.

[00:10:02] Shanna Martin: So. You can do it. It's gonna be great.

[00:10:05] Fuzz Martin: Mm-hmm. Hey, go recreate instead of educate. Nice. Thank you

[00:10:12] Shanna Martin: Uhhuh. Thanks for tuning in. This has been the Tech Tools Teachers podcast. If you ever have any questions, you can find me on Blue Sky Threads, Facebook, Instagram, and smartinwi. And if you wanna get more information on the links to the technology discuss on this episode, you can visit smartinwi.com.

[00:10:31] Shanna Martin: If you'd like to support the show, please consider buying me a coffee or two. 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 coming in the fall. Thanks for listening. Go educate and.

[00:10:52] Fuzz Martin: The ideas and opinions expressed on this podcast and the smartinwi.com website are those of the author Shanna Martin and not a fair employer.

[00:11:00] 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 what we hope they do, and we'll talk to you. A little bit later right here on the Tech Tools for Teachers Podcast.