Semester Reflection

Throughout this semester I have been blogging about my experiences in my social studies methods class. In the beginning of the semester I was finding it difficult to remember to blog.  When I did blog it did not feel natural for me.  I felt awkward writing out how I felt about activities and classes.  However, as I started doing it more often, it became more natural for me.  I got in the habit of blogging out class, fieldwork, assignments, and even adding pictures and quotes that I came across.  I found myself actually liking blogging.  I can definitely see myself blogging more as I gain new experiences and learn more about teaching.  The class itself was a learning experience for me as well.  I started this semester not confident of my technology skills at all.  Therefore I was intimidated hearing that the whole class was online.  However, somehow it seems that I am not intimidated by new technology anymore.  I was able to figure out or find help for every technological problem I ran into this semester.  As for fieldwork in my social studies methods class I had never done group teaching before.  The planning process was very different than what I was used to.  It was difficult at times to agree on parts of the lessons and find time to meet up.  In the end however it was a learning experience and it helped me build a skill that as a teacher I am going to need.  Teachers collaborate with other teachers and educators on a daily basis.  Which means that working with peers is a necessary skill to be an effective teacher.  overall I found this semester to be very beneficial when it comes to expanding my personal knowledge of teaching and my overall knowledge of social studies.  I am now more aware of all the different elements of social studies and how to gear my lessons toward each one.  I am glad that I took this course and am going to use what I learned in the future as a teacher.

Teaching Panel Mock Interviews

Today in class I had another new experience!  My professor set up a panel where four of my peers played the role of administrators and the rest of us were potential teacher candidates looking for jobs.  We broke up into our fieldwork groups and the administrators would come around and ask us each questions.  Prior to breaking up into our groups the administrators sat in front of the classroom and introduced themselves.  They gave a brief introduction of themselves.  This included: their name, schooling, current job and work environment, and the open job position.  When we broke up into groups and the administrators came to our group some of them shook our hands, while others just sat down and got right to the questions.  It was set up as a group interview. One of the questions that I liked the most was one of the more thought provoking questions.  It was, if you could go back to any historic moment in history what would it be and why?  The reason I liked this question is because it was not just about teaching strategies, but at the same time you can tell a lot about a person by their answer.  You can tell what interests them or perhaps an issue that means a lot to them.  I was also somewhat surprised by how challenging some of the questions were.  While I was able to form answers for all of them, it was an eye opener at how much I should prepare before a real interview.  Overall I thought the experience was very beneficial.  I enjoyed being able to see how I would do in an interview without the pressure of actually attempting to get the job.  It was a worthwhile learning experience and I would definitely do it again.

Economics in Elementary Classes

Happy December my fellow bloggers!  I am writing to share with you the experience I had in my social studies methods class learning to teach economics.  My classmates and I were divided up into groups and assigned a specific aspect of teaching and learning about economics in elementary classrooms.  The topic i was assigned was "Identify and illustrate ways in which economic education is integrated into the social studies curriculum through such topics as career education, geography, history, community studies, and consumer education." My partner and I researched and added two slides to the class power point on our topic. Here is the link to this power point.  Our slides are number 33 and 34, although the whole slideshow is helpful when learning to teach economics!  After doing this assignment I realized that I was not as familiar with economics as I thought I was.  There are different types of economics and several ways to integrate it into your social studies lessons.  I am glad I now have this power point as a reference for when I have a classroom of my own.  I was surprised to see how well the class worked together to organize and fill out this power point.  It was confusing for me at first when I saw that we all would be editing the same document, but in the end the slideshow came out great.  I thought it was nice how each group was an expert on their topic, because they were able to effectively teach what they learned to us instead of everyone trying to learn everything about economics.

Digging Deeper Using Artifact Bags

Hello fellow Bloggers!
I want to share with you the experience I had in my social studies methods class.  We were each asked to create and artifact bag that correlated with the lesson we taught in fieldwork.  You may be thinking to yourself, what exactly is an artifact bag???  This is a valid question and I found myself in your position prior to being asked to make one.  An artifact bag is based on a historic moment, place, person, event, etc.  In the bag there are clues.  Each clue helps the person receiving the bag to figure out what it is based on. I chose to base mine on a historical person that I discussed in my lesson, John White.  he was a colonist that settled on the Lost Colony of Roanoke and also was the one who  came back and found all the colonists had disappeared.  My clues were and old map of North Carolina, a picture of the Croatoan tree, and a picture of the English ships crossing the ocean with supplies.  I was glad when someone in my group was able to accurately put my clues together and come up with the person.  The process of making the artifact bags was harder than I thought it would be.  it was tough to come up with helpful artifacts that would help the students figure out the problem.  In the future if I use artifact bags in my classroom I would like t make the artifacts more authentic.  One girl in my group also had a map, but she made it look distressed and tied it with a rope.  Another person brought in real coins.  These are the types of artifacts that make the activity fun for students.  With more time and resources I would like to think I would have been able to make my own artifact bag more authentic.  I wish there was more time to got through my peers' artifacts and figure out what they were based on.  With the time limit some were forced to tell us what their bags were about.  Overall I like this project and think that it is a fun and interactive inquiry lesson that when given the time and resources could be very effective in the classroom!  Here is the slideshow for my artifact bag!

Thinking Thankful Thoughts

With Thanksgiving behind us it is important to continue thinking about the good things we have in our lives.  For many this is difficult during the holiday season.  However it can lead to living a more positive life.  After reading the article "Choose To Be Grateful. It Will Make You Happier." by Arthur C. Brooks I was reminded how important it is to stay thankful.  He made the point that being thankful is easy when everything in your life is going well, but that is not when we should be most thankful.  We should be thankful for the little things in our lives when other everything is not as we wish it was.  It may sound obvious to say that thinking happy thoughts will make you happier, but it is one of those things that is easier said than done.  Being thankful year round is a conscious decision that people have to make and it is a worthwhile one in my opinion.  I am going to start appreciating the little things I have to be thankful for everyday and embrace the happy moments I get the honor of experiencing and I hope you all choose to do the same!  Here is the link to Brooks' article.  Wish you all extra happy holidays and keep thinking those thankful thoughts!

NY State Teachers Inquiry Design

I believe that using inquiry lessons in the classroom is an important part of making sure your students are getting a well-rounded understanding of the lesson you are teaching.  In order for them to understand the topic, it is important for them to explore it using their own skills.  There are times when we as teachers are expected to give our students facts and information, but it is also important for them to understand they can explore these ideas themselves and do not need to rely on us to teach them everything!  Teachers do not just teach their student, we are also responsible for showing them how to learn on their own.  This inquiry model is a way for teachers to organize their lessons for their students.  It helps them organize their ideas, follow the given questions, and see what tasks are expected of them.  In the future I would like to try this method with my students when doing inquiry lessons.  I feel that it is a wonderful way to either introduce or refresh students' memory about what is involved in the inquiry process. I would not rely just on this model for my lessons, but would definitely incorporate it my lesson plans!

 

Keeping Up With The Current Events

Another day, another new teaching experience! Today in class myself and a partner presented a lesson on current events.  We used an article from Newsela that discussed women in Pakistan who are not receiving appropriate education and what Michelle Obama is doing to help this issue. We had our peers debate the question "Is education important for everyone, including women?"  One side of the room was arguing for equal education, while the other side played the role of traditional Pakistanis and argued against women having the right to an education.  Prior to moderating this debate we went over the article and the rules and skills that are active when having a debate.  This was the first time I was involved in a debate or created one, so it was a new experience for me as well!  I enjoyed the lesson and feel that it was helpful for people to better understand the article. The reason for this is because in order to support their claims, they had to find evidence and facts in the text to back them up.  I would love to have a debate in my classroom one day.  I think it is an effective way for students to force themselves to see situations from someone else's point of view, like the people who had to pretend to be Pakistani.  It is a wonderful learning experience and am glad that we were able to do it with our peers!  Here is the link to the presentation that we used for our current event lesson!  We also used the chance to show our class about a wonderful sixteen year old girl from Pakistan who has been been bravely standing up for girls and women in her country for years.  Her name is Malala Yousafzia and she was eleven when she first started speaking out about women and girls' rights to education.  Since then she has been shot three times and attacked several others, both physically and verbally.  Her dedication and bravery was noticed when she won several awards for what she has done, including a Peace Prize and Global Citizen Award!  I was glad that we were able to make this connection for our classmates, there are also articles about Malala on Newsela!

  

Native American Tribe Lesson

Creating a lesson around one specific Native American Tribe was fun!  I have never learned so many specifics about one tribe.  Then each of the other groups shared what they learned about their own tribe.  My group was assigned the Muscogee Creek Nation.  I really enjoyed researching this nation and figuring out what their lives were like.  I was happy to hear that they are still around and were able to form a government of their own with their own leaders.  The process of putting this project together was easy for my group.  I feel that we are starting to understand what each off our strong suits are when it comes to working in groups.  It was also helpful to be able to divide the information into different sections.  I was in charge of finding the history of the Muscogee Creek Nation.  When the information is divided up between group members it also allows for the quality of the information and understanding of the material to be stronger.  I felt very comfortable and confident in my own understanding of the material.  Which made me more confident when teaching the lesson. I feel that this was also true for the other groups, based on my observations of their presentations.  Which made me excited to hear what they had to say and what they found out about their projects.  I also liked how my group was able to make the lesson interactive by wearing moccasins and doing the traditional dance with the class.  Here is a copy of our presentation on the Muscogee Creek Nation!

                                    

Creating Pre and Post Tests

For the my fieldwork my group had to create both a pre-test and a post test for the fifth grade class. This was new to me  In other methods classes we assessed students, but did not create a document for the class as a whole.  The creation of the pre-test differed from creating the post test.  The first one was mostly about finding out what the students already knew about the topics you were going to teach.  The questions we came up with were vague for the most part.  For example, we knew we were going to talk about colonists and Native American, therefore one of our questions was about where they thought the colonists were from, another was about who lived on the land.  As for the post test, we were more concerned with assessing how well the students understand the material we taught them.  With this being said, the questions we put on the post test were more specific.  They dealt with names of places or people that we talked about in our lessons.  During the process of making both of these documents I tried to find the most important pieces of information from my portion of our lessons and make a question for it.  Our group wanted to make sure that we were assessing students on the information that was most important instead of picking random pieces of information and putting it on the tests.
                

Fieldwork Feedback for the Future

The month of October was used for fieldwork in my social studies methods class.  The class was divided into four groups.  Within our groups we created three different types of lessons.  The first lesson  was a direct instruction lesson.  The second was an inquiry lesson, and the last lesson that we taught was a cooperative lesson.
The lesson planning process was different for this experience than past lesson planning because I was not creating the lessons alone.  I was working with three other classmates to create the lessons that we performed for the fifth grade class.  This was my first time creating a group lesson plan.  One of the biggest surprises to me was how hard it was to find time to meet with my group members.  Two of us lived on campus and two commuted.   Between work, class, and extracurricular activities we all were very busy.  Another difficulty during the lesson planning process was making sure that everyone was included in the process.  Since there were four of us, it was important to make sure that each of us contributed ideas to the lessons.  When there are several people working on one document simultaneously, it can be hard for everyone to get their ideas across and have the rest of the group understand.  However, we managed to come up with creative and engaging lessons for the fifth grade class!
Performing the lessons was also a very different experience compared to what I was used to.  I had never taught a lesson with my peers.  this was difficult for me because normally when I teach I am only trying to remember what I have to say.  In this case I still have to be familiar with the material I am teaching, but also with what my peers are teaching as well and how to transition from a topic I was teaching to what they were going to talk about next or before me.  This was an area in fieldwork that could be improved.  The transitions were somewhat unorganized.  I now see that we should have paid more attention to this during the planning and practicing sessions we had.  This was mainly a concern with the direct instruction, when the lessons were teacher based.  However, my group did a good job with supporting each other during the inquiry and cooperative lessons.  As one would speak, the others would stand around the room or scan the room to see if there were questions or students who did not understand.  Also, during the cooperative lesson, there was one teacher candidate at each table working with and overseeing how each group was doing.  There were a few groups that had trouble working together, but i feel that we managed to diffuse these situations in a quick and appropriate manner,

Lessons Learned From Fieldwork!

Discoveries on planning and teaching lessons: During the fieldwork experience I made several realizations about how it is to plan and teach lessons.  The biggest realization was that even if you spend a lot of time planning and practicing a lesson, it still may not go according to plan.  I felt very comfortable with my lesson and the information when planning, but when I was teaching it was not how I pictured.  Teaching involves being flexible.  Another part of teaching that I discovered was how fast the time goes by.  When I was teaching it did not feel as though I was talking for a long time, but when I factored  in the student responses and comments it added up and I was not able to get as much done as I had hoped.  At one point I called on a girl and she did not answer the question, but started telling a story about a time that she went to North Carolina with her family.  This took up a couple minutes, which I could have used to teach.  Although it is important to stay on schedule I tried to be flexible in order for this girl to feel as though what she had to say was important.  My lesson from this is to try and tell the students to keep and comments or off task questions until the end of the lesson or when I ask if there are questions.

Discoveries about students: When getting to the classroom the first thing I noticed was how decorated the walls were.  There was student work and posters on the wall, which I was glad to see.  I also discovered that the older students, since we were in fifth grade are very willing to share.  This was not the case when I worked with younger students.  These students are also very competitive.  They tend to bicker and argue with each other when they do not agree on something.  During the jeopardy game the students were yelling and crying because of the intensity and competitive nature of their peers.  With this being said it is important to plan ahead and have strategies ready to diffuse these situations as soon as they start to happen.  Another important way to avoid this is to talk about how to properly work in groups prior to the lesson and how important it is to develop these skills.  My expectations were met by this fieldwork, I was glad that the students were so willing to participate and open minded to the lessons. The students were also very smart and remembered and understood the information that was given to them.  It was impressive how well they were able to recall information from past fieldwork sessions as well.

Discoveries about self during lessons:  During the fieldwork sessions I made discoveries about myself.  I discovered that group teaching is more difficult for me than independently teaching students.  Although I feel as thought it was helpful during the lesson planning process to have more ideas and minds working on the activities and writing the lessons, during the actual teaching process it was difficult to work around and transition easily with each other. With this being said, in the future I need to work on teaching lessons with my peers.  Aside from this, I enjoyed the experience and feel as though it was a true learning experience for me.  At first I was nervous about teaching in front of my peers and other teachers, but once I got in front of the class I enjoyed it.  I am excited to get back in the classroom!

Discoveries about team teaching: As I mentioned, I found the team teaching to be harder than individually teaching. There were more than one reason for this.  One was that everyone has very different schedules and it is difficult to meet. This interfered with how comfortable we were working together in the classroom.  I believe if we were able to practice more the lessons would have gone smoother,  Another reason I found this to be difficult was that it makes choosing activities more difficult.  However, being able to discuss ideas with other people during the planning process was very helpful.  The lesson I learned from this discovery is that if there are several people working together it is important to start the process far ahead of time in order to have more time to meet and practice the lessons.  I feel that I would like to do this method of teaching again in order to become better at it!

JIGSAW Method

In the last two classes we have been learning about the JIGSAW method.  The JIGSAW method is when the class is divided into groups and given a topic to research and become familiar with.  Within these groups, each member is given a subtopic of the main topic.  When each member is assigned their topic they are going to become expert in that distinct field so that they can explain it to their other group members and vice versa.  Our professor had us use this method.  At first I was confused by how it works.  However, once I understood why there were so many groups and subgroups it made sense.  When I joined my original group and we all shared our power points I enjoyed this method.  I feel that it is a resourceful method when working on broad topics or big projects.  I would like to use this again and certainly use it in my classroom.  It is also a wonderful way to cover more material in a shorter amount of time.  The JIGSAW method ensures that each person will contribute to the group as well, because they have a specific job and cannot lean on others to do it for them.
                            

Explanation or Demonstration???

In class today my professor asked me what the difference between demonstration and explanation.  I knew that I was supposed to have an answer for why they were different, however I realized I did not know.  I always used them interchangeably.  With that being said I learned the difference! Explanation is when you are giving examples and scenarios to teach your students something.  While demonstration is a more physical way of showing your students how something works.  After hearing this I realized that they are very different after all!

Cooperative Learning

I started adding to my knowledge of what cooperative learning is and how to implement i in the classroom.  As I read and watched videos about it, I came to the conclusion that it is something I want to learn more about and become better at.  Here are some of the resources I have been using to learn about cooperative learning: site 1 site 2 site 3 and site 4   My professor shared these with me and they were very helpful.  I agree that this type of learning would be very beneficial for student. Cooperative leaning has many benefits for students.  One of them being that it teaches them to work with their peers in a work environment.  This is one that I feel is very important, because it is a skill that they are going to need more and more as they get older.  As I learn more about cooperative learning I plan to share more information!

"The Vision Of Students Today"

This is the video "The Vision Of Students Today."   It brings attention to the issues in the educational system.  One of the topics that they brought up that stood out to me was large class sizes.  In the video a girl holds up a sign that says her average class size is 115 people.  Other students went on to say that only 18% of their teachers know their name.  In my opinion that is not appealing to me.  How is a child supposed to learn and succeed when they are just a face in the crowd to their teachers.  One of the reasons I love my school is because all of my teachers know my name and my strengths and weaknesses.  However, when the video brought up the idea that technology could be the answer to this problem I was skeptical, and still am.  Even though technology is very resourceful, i do not think I would benefit as much if all of my classes were based online.  I feel disorganized without being able to see all of my resources in front of me at once.

Class Notes on Assessment 9/10/15

What can be assessed?
- Readiness (Skill, concepts, content knowledge)
- Interest (Interest surveys, Interest Centers, Self- Selection)
- Learning Profile (Areas of strength & weakness, Work preferences, & Self- Awareness)
- Assessment is the process of gathering information about a student's knowledge and progress throughout a unit.
- There are three types of assessment:
       - Diagnostic: a way for teachers to find out what prior knowledge a student has on a topic. This could include a pre-quiz or KWL charts, concept maps, graphic organizers, worksheets, etc
      - Formative: giving feedback to help students improve & guide further learning. This is continuous throughout the lesson.  This could be in the form of observations, journals, check for understanding questions.
      - Summative: a way to “summarize” how strong the students understanding is at the end of a topic/unit.   This can be done in the form of projects, portfolios, presentations, essays, etc. 
- Assessment should have three components, which are Measurement, Evaluations, & Feedback.

Creating Assessment

Today I made my second online test!  The first was my Kahoot & now I made one using Google Forms. I had no idea how many online options their were to make assessments.  Here is the link to my google forms test about testing!

Digital Me Project

In class last week each of us got our own website to explore and present to the class.  Our assignment was to become familiar with the site we chose and use it to tell the class more about ourselves.  At first I was nervous because I am not technologically savvy, but to my own surprise it was not very hard! I actually enjoyed making mine.  I chose the website Kahoot . On this site you can make graphs, tests, and surveys.  I chose to make a test and quiz my peers about how much they know about me.  To my surprise creating the test was extremely user friendly.  I was easily able to add pictures and change the time limit.  I liked this site because it allows testing and quizzes to be interactive and the students can see their results immediately.  The questions are brought up on the main board in the front of the classroom and each student uses the website to give their own answer.  If you are interested in seeing what a Kahoot quiz looks like here is mine!

Intro To Assessment

As I am strengthening my understanding of what assessment  is and different strategies to help implement it into my lessons I have already learned a lot. I was reading different articles that talk about assessment and came across one "What Is Understanding? A Deeper Look" . It made me realize that just because someone can memorize information, does not mean they actually understand the concepts behind it.  In order to ensure someone understands what you are teaching them, you can not rely solely on them reiterating it back to you.  The article had a nice definition about what assessment really is and what we need to look for in our students, "a flexible performance capability."  I like this definition, because it reminds me to not just teach ideas, but also help my students gain a deeper understanding of those ideas.

Here are some quotes that I came across & wanted to share!

Hello All,
I am starting this blog as I enter my third year at Mount Saint Mary College.  I am studying to become an elementary school teacher with special ed certification.  My posts will be a mixture of things.  Some of it will be about my experience in my social studies methods course.  While the rest will be posts about pictures, videos, and articles I come across and want to share with everyone.  I hope you enjoy! :)