What I have gained throughout the semester

What have I learned throughout the semester? Well, I have honestly learned a lot. Before taking this course, I thought social studies was just history but I have learned that it is so much more. I learned that social studies includes geography, economics, English, art, and religion. I have learned how to effectively teach all of these using direct, inquiry, and cooperative lesson plans. I have also gained a great deal about technology. My favorite application to use is just plain Google Docs. This is my favorite application because it allows for multiple people to look at and edit it at the same time. This comes in handy when completing a cooperative lesson or group project. I believe that learning to use different technologies is very beneficial as a teacher. This gives the teacher the opportunity to teach the students in the class about these different technologies because we are now living in an age where the use of technology is predominant. This course has made me a better social studies teacher.

Mock Interview Reflection

Today in class, we were part of a mock interview. This interview was to prepare us for what an interview may be like for student teaching or to get a full time teaching job. Before going to this interview, I was nervous because it felt different being judged in a way by my peers. I was not entirely sure on what to expect during the interview. I thought the interview itself was easy but I found the questions to be difficult. Kelli asked a very difficult question about creating an objective regarding the American Revolution. This question may have been easier if we were given the grade level and a bit more information. Christine and Lindsay both asked very interesting questions. The question that they both asked was in regards to if they came into my classroom, what would they see me teaching. I thought this led to a very thoughtful answer that allowed me to show what I understand about the different types of lessons. Overall, I found this experience to be beneficial because it allowed me to reflect on my learning and experience in the classroom.

Current Events and Newsela

Recently I completed a current events project with Kelli. I found it difficult to find recent articles that were interesting but could also relate to the unit plan I created for the 4th grade students at BDMS. After hearing Lindsay and Nicole speak about women today and how it relates to women from the American Revolution, I got the idea to do my project on children and education. Once I got this idea in my head, I went to the Newsela website and started searching for articles that talked about children or education. I find this website to be very useful to explore and read about current events. One of the Five Principles of Teaching include relating matter to real-life events. By doing the current events project, the students are able to relate what is happening today in the world, either in the United States or other countries.

In my future classroom, I would adapt this project to any grade level. I would look on Newsela and find articles that relate to the topic we are doing whether it is geography, economics, or some other social studies lesson. Newsela has a wide variety of articles to chose from that can be easily related. The best feature about Newsela is how you can change the lexile levels so make it grade appropriate. This is also beneficial because you can change the lexile level if you have a reader who is at a lower level or a reader who is at a higher level. Another great feature of Newsela is there is a built in quiz and short answer response that you can have the students complete as a quick assessment.

My current events project was based on children and education. Each article was about how people are being educated or how they are not being educated. I related this to the American Revolution by posing the question about how the students feel children during the American Revolution were taught or if they weren't taught at all. This sparks an interesting discussion and also brings up the question of whether or not everyone is entitled to an education and if each country requires children to be educated.

Global Education and Humanities

Global Education and Humanities are important aspects of social studies to include in your classroom. Global Education is defined as the significance of the interdependence of human civilization. Humanities is defined as the study of human culture.

Before beginning this project with Nicole, I was very unsure of what either topic really was. I thought that humanities had to do with the study of humans but I did not know what it included. 

Let me begin by stating that global education is about education around the world in different countries. 

Global education has five perspectives. These five perspectives are interdependence and globalization which is the understanding of complex social, economic, and political links between people, identity and cultural diversity which is an understanding of self and one's own culture, and being open to others culture, social justice and human rights which is an understanding of the impact of inequality and discrimination, the importance of standing up for our own rights and our responsibility to respect our rights, peace building and conflict resolution which is an understanding of the importance of building and maintaining positive and trusting relationships and ways conflicts can be prevented, and finally sustainable futures which is an understanding of the ways in which we can meet our current needs without diminishing the quality of the environment. All of these topics help create better citizens who understand personal and universal needs.

When dealing with humanities, there are only specific subjects in which humanities is included in. Humanities can be brought up in art and music, literature, religious studies, history, and philosophy. 

To incorporate both these topics into the classroom, you could use Skype. There is a specific Skype designed for students to use in the classroom that enables them to communicate with students in other classrooms around the world. Another way to incorporate these topics into other topics is to use geography and literature.

Teaching Geography

What is geography? Geography is an area of science that studies land forms, features, the inhabitants of a region, and Earth. Geography is very important for students to understand and be taught. It is important because students need to understand what is going on in different countries in the world as well as where these countries are located. By teaching geography, the students will become better citizens who better understand the events occurring in the world and the significant impact it has on the earth.

 Geography can be incorporated into several different subject areas. When teaching literature, it is very easy to have students locate where this book is taking place on a map. Throughout the year, you can also assign a book to each student to complete a research project on. The students will read the book, find the location on a map,and then complete research about the author and the location. The students may present this to the class as a final project.

Artifact Bag 2

  

 As a lesson to add to my unit plan, I created an Artifact Bag that goes along with my lessons on the American Revolution. This is a picture of the outside of my artifact bag. During the American Revolution, the British arrived in harbors around Boston to attack the colonists. This is a representation of those times. Remember, this project and the three artifacts in the bag will lead to an important person during the American Revolution.

The first artifact in the bag is a copy of the Declaration of Independence. This was very important to colonists because it declared their independence from Britain. This document was also signed by a variety of men.

This is a map of Boston during the time of the American Revolution. Boston was a main location for many battles and important meetings during the war. This is also the birth place of a very important founding father.

During the American Revolution, many important figures used pocket watches to keep track of time.

All of these clues take a little bit of thinking and a few more clues and a large amount of research to figure out who they are about. In the end, students do enough research to figure out that the person is Benjamin Franklin.

Teaching Economics

Before learning about economics, I believed that economics was just about how much net worth a region had. However, I have learned that it is so much more.

Based on this definition, as an educator, I need to tell my students about all resources from our region and other regions that are not unlimited. During a lesson on economics, I will teach the students about how the world is broken up into different regions just like New York State is broken up. As an educator, I will also have to teach the students about money, net worth, water supply, food supplies, and natural resources such as oil. It is important for students to understand what each one of these things is and how it is used in different parts of the world. Part of economics also has to do with the population in a region versus the amount of natural resources in that region.

Economics can also be brought into science, history, career education, ELA, and many other subject areas.

Within these subjects, it is easy to include the topic of scarcity. Scarcity is when there is not enough resources for everyone in that area to use. For example, you can use bread. Tell your class that there is only a limited number of loafs of bread being delivered on that given day and ask them to discuss what will happen if there are only a certain number of loafs of bread. Discussing major issues within our society and other societies is very important to the growth and understanding of the students.

When talking about scarcity, it is important to include that scarcity is essentially supply and demand. Supply is how many resources there are and demand is how many resources the people need. To teach this, the teacher could tell the students that there is only one pencil in the class and that whoever bids the highest, gets to have that object. After one student has bought the object, tell the class that there are several more but at a lower price. This will demonstrate what supply and demand is.

Here is the link to my two slide!

Teaching a Cooperative Lesson

For my final lesson, I taught a cooperative lesson plan. For this lesson, I had the students split into groups of 5 and one group of 6 to complete the task. The assigned task was to create playing cards, just like baseball cards, with important facts about figures during the American Revolution. This activity worked very well and from my observations, the students appeared to learn a lot and have fun. The students were able to recall information that was taught during the direct and inquiry lesson with little prompting.

After the lesson was finished, the students were asked to fill out a self and group evaluation form. I went around the room and asked the students to share what they feel they can improve on the next time they work in a group. It was very rewarding to hear that the students understand that working as a group mean that they need to work on listening skills and being thoughtful to everyone.

Teaching an Inquiry Lesson

From teaching an inquiry lesson I have learned that it is not an easy task. An inquiry lesson has a great deal of thought that must go into it. For starters, the students must recall the scientific or inquiry method. Generally, this method is taught in science class but can be applied to all different topics.

I found it to be very difficult to convey to the students that it is okay for a hypothesis to be wrong and that many times, our first guess is not always right. However, it was easy for students to understand the mystery part of it all and doing research on an individual is very exciting and interesting. For the lesson I taught, I could have been more clear on the directions before beginning the lesson. This would have helped the students to better understand the task at hand. I feel that I could have also made the reading of the clues a little more difficult. This would have promoted higher-order thinking.

Teachers Pay Teachers...a useful website for teachers or not?

Teachers Pay Teachers is a website where anyone, educator or not, can look at lesson plans, activities, worksheets, and quizzes to better assist children in all grades and all subjects. I just recently learned about this website and was very skeptical about the quality of work that would be on it. From further researcher, I learned that it is a website that is free for a standard membership and contains material that has been added by other educators. The work is either free or for sale at a low price. Once you download or purchase the lesson or worksheet you want, you always have access to it.

I currently began tutoring and I have found this website to be useful. I have found multiple worksheets that work well for the needs of my student and that he can greatly benefit from. All in all, I highly recommend this website for teachers, parents, and future teachers.

Teaching a Direct Lesson

As an educator, teaching your very first whole class lesson can be a little intimidating. While preparing to teach a direct lesson on the American Revolution to a 4th grade class, I realized the lesson plans that I had previously written weren't nearly as intimidating as this one was. In the past, I would write lesson plans but not teach them to a whole class.

During the planning and writing process, I learned how difficult it was to find ways to keep the students interested such as pictures, slide animations, and different assessment quizzes to give. When I heard that I must write three different lessons about the battles and events of the American Revolution, I was at a lose for what I was going to do. The direct lesson was pretty simple but tedious.

I feel that my direct lesson went pretty well. The guided notes were very useful for the 4th grade class to use and remember information. The class was also able to use these notes during the inquiry and cooperative lesson.

I really enjoy Kahoot quizzes so it worked out perfectly that I was able to create a Kahoot quiz for my students to review the information I had just taught them during the lesson. The children responded well to the Kahoot quiz and it was a useful tool to measure how the lesson went.

One item I can improve for next time is the amount I read off of the slide and the adding of more information that is not necessarily important but are interesting. I could also improve how much I walk around the classroom. During this lesson I mainly stayed toward the front of the room but I could have moved around more to make sure the students were on track while I was talking.

Fuhler Artifact Bag Article

The article begins by setting the stage to the activity that will be done in a hypothetical classroom. To create a sense that background knowledge and communication are important during the artifact bag activity, Fuhler quotes many other articles that express that each student will bring a unique aspect to this activity. Due to the children having unique backgrounds, the group discussions may be more enriching and allow others to express their feelings on the matter because the teacher has also made a safe environment for the children to learn and discuss.

An artifact bag is usually one you create and decorate to make more visually appealing and fun for the students. The artifact bag above may be one that is used in a professional setting. The teachers role during the artifact bag activity is crucial. When I create an artifact bag and have students look inside, I want to make sure that I am scaffolding their knowledge as stated by Vygotsky and Bruner. Scaffolding is when the teacher or instructor builds upon prior instruction to help a student solve a problem or master a new skill. As a teacher, it us also my job to model how the process of using the artifact bag should be done rather than verbally telling the students the different steps. By modeling for the students, they will most likely have better recollection on how to begin and the process. During my modeling practice, I will read and think aloud, ask questions as I go, predict what might happen or what the next item may be, and create a summary at the end of what I did and found.

For my artifact bag, I will have items that pertain to the American Revolution. To begin this activity, I will model for students how to carefully open the artifact in the bag and what type of questions they need to be thinking about. Following my demonstration, I will demonstrate how the students should be filling out the data collection sheet. This sheet is important because it gets the group talking about what they have found so far and what they expect to find.

This activity is very useful when creating a unit plan. When I teach this lesson, I will most likely conduct the activity during the end of the unit. This way the students have some prior knowledge of the time period and what events were taking place when this artifact could have been found. I will also gather many different articles for the students to read after looking at the artifact and different books. I may also gather some photographs to connect prior knowledge to the artifact even more.

Kahoot and other quizzes on the Smartboard

When I was in high school and at my two year college, we began using clickers as a method of assessing what students knew from a lesson that was just taught. This method was effective but not effective at the same time. Students who knew the answer would immediately click the correct button whereas you can sit for 5 minutes on the same question because one student has not answered. From class, we learned about a multitude of different free online quiz sites that we can use with our class if they have access to a computer or tablet. My favorite quiz site is Kahoot.it. I had never heard of this site before my social studies methods course but I find it very effective and fun. The website allows teacher or other students to create multiple question quizzes that range from easy to difficult and can be designed for any grade level. The website is interactive and easy to use. From using this quiz not only in my college class but in a classroom with 5th grade students, it is fun and the students seem to enjoy the "competitive" side of it. Kahoot is my new go to quiz creation site.

Explore Kahoot.it Here!

What Works In The Classroom- Fieldwork week 1 and 2

Recently we have begun working in a fifth grade classroom. From my observations of three of my classmates, I have found some items that work and do not entirely work in a classroom. One effective method in the classroom to get attention is to clap your hands in a certain pattern and have the students repeat this pattern to make them aware, without speaking, that it is time to be quiet and listen for a moment. Another effective method is to have the students work independently if the class loses focus when they are in groups. From week 1 and 2 of my observation I watched the students lose focus as soon as they were set up to work together. In many aspects of teaching, having students work in groups is usually a very crucial step in learning because it gives students an opportunity to teach one another and share their thoughts more openly. One ineffective method I noticed was asking students to write down too much information. When the students were asked to write while the teacher was speaking, the students got lost and had a hard time following what was happening.

Dan Meyer Video

Although this is a video regarding mathematics, I feel that it is important for other subject types as well. In many cases, students have a hard time grasping concepts they read in a textbook because they are visual learners. I have found over the years that a student may have a deeper understanding for a topic if they are able to see what they are discussing being done or to physically hold the object. Although manipulatives are more commonly used in mathematics, subjects such as social studies can include hands on activities every day. For example, asking students to create a project to go along with the topic such as timeline is useful because the student can visually see the dates and events.

Dan Meyer also discusses how many items in textbooks are not exactly important. It is a valuable for students to understand what is important to remember and what is less important to remember for the future. Being able to teach and model for students how to properly obtain information from a textbook and how to figure out what is important and what could possibly be less important.

In my future classroom, I plan to use manipulatives for as many subject areas as possible. As a visual learner, I find it important to be able to see what is being discussed rather than just read about it. It is important for me to access as many different senses as possible while teaching because not every student is the same.

Deep and Fragile Knowledge

Within a classroom, there is several different types of knowledge. One type of knowledge is inert knowledge which can be defined as knowledge that is used on a test but is not retained for much longer. Naive knowledge requires very simple explanations. Ritual knowledge is a type of routine that will work within your classroom but not outside the classroom. A deeper understanding requires the students to be able to explain what they learned, give new example about what they learned, apply what they learned to new concepts, justify how they came to their answer, and make generalizations. In a classroom, to reach a deeper understanding, the teacher must create an environment that promotes positive learning and interactions. The information must be interesting and not just read off of a slide or out of a textbook. Deeper understanding goes hand-in-hand with Bloom's Taxonomy. In Bloom's Taxonomy, higher order thinking is essential and very hard to reach.

What is Social Studies?

There are many misconceptions about what social studies really is. From reading several articles, I have come across the true meaning of what social studies is and it's main purpose. Social studies is the study of a variety of different subjects such as language arts, science, mathematics, geography, history, and sociology. The goal of all of these subjects is to create civil competence. In order to create civil competence, the educators who teach these subjects need to be able to convey to their students that they need to use their knowledge about the community and the nation to understand our democratic republic. In school systems, there are K-12 programs. In the primary levels, the units are more structured around various themes. In middle and higher levels, the curriculum is more structured.