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!