Blog on Blogging

Before this class, I had never blogged before. To be honest the thought of blogging really stressed me out. I'm not very creative when it comes to writing so I felt very intimidating. Once I created my blog and got started I felt a lot more comfortable. I realize blogging was not stressful and actually quite relaxing. It allowed me to reflect on m learning, something that is essential as a teacher. I also really enjoyed finding videos, pictures, and tools t suggest to other teachers.I found that the blogging format was very easy to use and never had much problem except making my blog public. Luckily, this ended up being an easy fix.

Blogging is such a helpful resource for teaches. Not only can they reflect on their own work and experiences, but they can learn form other teachers. There are so many great blogs out there, that provide great resources for teachers. I have gotten great lessons and activities off of different blogs.In the world we live in teachers are connected like never before and it is essential that we take advantage of that. Teachers can help each other from around the state, country and even the world. This is such a great tool for teachers to have that benefits not only teachers, but students. I recommend that you check out my peers' blogs. They really did a great job and have a lot great resources and ideas that can used in your classroom.

• Christine's blog 
• Amanda's blog 
• Nicole's blog
• Ainsley's blog 
• Lindsay's blog
• Nicole's blog 

THIS IS WHY ALL TEACHERS SHOULD BE BLOGGING !

I recommend that all teachers start blogging and following other teachers' blogs ! To help you all get started I am providing a video below on how to start your very own blog -enjoy !

Crazy Journey Through Social Studies Methods

I have learned so much this past semester. I knew this class was going to challenge me in many different ways from reading the letters in the beginning of the class. For me the biggest challenge was teaching by myself for the first time. I had worked with small groups, but never taught the whole class let alone by myself. When I found out I was going by myself I was very nervous. I knew that this was going to push me out of my comfort zone. After teaching the first day my confidence grew tremendously. By the second day I was excited and eager to teach. Even though this was one of the most nerve racking experience, I am so grateful that I had it. Teaching alone pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me grow as a teacher. I had no choice but to step up and be the best teacher I could be. The only thing I wish I could have changed was being able to have a partner to collaborate with on lesson plans. Even though Dr .Smirvnova was extremely helpful I think it would have even nice to learn to work collaboratly with my peers. I think that this is an essential skill for all teachers. At times it was a little overwhelming planning all of my lessons by myself, overall teaching alone was a great experience and something that I believe greatly prepared me for fieldwork.

Here is video from my first time teaching.

Another great part of this course was watching my peers teach. I learned so much through observing them. It was great to see different ways and methods to teach the same material. We all teaching the American Revolution, but had very different approaches. One thing I enjoyed was the QR codes taught by two of peers. I had never used these before and once I saw them in action I really liked them.This is a great way to incorporate technology into the classroom. The students really also loved this! I also liked the idea of the trading cards that one group did.  I really feel like this is a great way to bring people and historical figures to life. This experience was just as beneficial as teaching the class. Kathleen Casson says "A GOOD TEACHER IS ALWAYS BECOMING A BETTER TEACHER. One of the most powerful ways to do this is to observe other teachers. You should observe teachers who teach your grade level or subject." and I couldn't agree more with this statement. Teachers should always be willing to learn from one another. 

I learned so much about technology in this class. I always knew how important it was,but never how to use it in the classroom. I can confidently say my skills have increased. I also learned how much the students truly love using technology ! In all of the lessons with technology, the students were engaged and eager to learn. My goal as a teacher is to continue to keep up with technology otherwise I am doing a disservice to my students.

Reference

Observing other teachers. (n.d.). Retrieved May 12, 2015, from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/739?ref=search  

It Is Time To Pay Taxes

For my last-mini lesson plan I wanted to think of a creative idea to teach my students about how the colonists felt. I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do so I began searching on Pinterest and kept coming across a candy taxation activity. Right away I loved it. I though it was such a hands on way for students to learn about the taxation in the colonies. This was also great because the students got to experience it first hand and learn about how the colonist felt. The students could read and hear about how this made the colonist feel, but they would never truly understand why they rebelled unless they got to experience it. Here is my lesson plan - teachers feel free to use and adapt as needed !

Here are some of the materials used in the lesson !

These are the different roles passed out around the class. Some students will be the king or parliament while others are colonists or tax collectors! The different roles will help students to learn about the different perspectives of the people involved in the tax acts. It is important that the students get to experience how the taxes made people feel.

Here is rule card that tells the colonists to pay taxes! The students learn the hard
way about not paying taxes!

A card that teaches students about the hardships of taxes and how they effect so many !

Once again the students learn about the difficulties of  paying taxes!

Getting Students To Work Together Cooperatively

If you ask any student if they are familiar with group work, I'm sure all will say yes. I was no different. What I had never heard of was cooperative learning. I had never heard of it, seen it implemented, or had any idea of what it was like. This semester has opened my eyes to cooperative learning and I'm so glad that it did. Cooperative learning is not just a group project, but so much more than that. It teaches students how to work together and be responsible. Students also learn that they need to be accountable for themselves otherwise their group will fail. This is an essential skill that students must learn because it really relates to the real world. I think that this is a skill that all students need to have and be able to use. Cooperative learning is so great because it can be used in all subjects and also enhances their knowledge while building essential life social skills.

Click on the picture to watch a very informative video on cooperative leaning !

Teachers, why use cooperative learning ?! Here is why !!!!

My first experience with cooperative learning was when we did a jigsaw activity as a class. I thought that this was such a unique idea because everyone was responsible for certain things and required everyones participation. This was much different than my past experience of group work where one or two people end up doing all of the work. My next experience was during fieldwork when I needed to create a Cooperative learning lesson plan. I ended up having my students create a timeline. Every student was responsible. Throughout this lesson I tired to instill in my students not only the information regarding the American Revolution, but also how important team work and individual accountability is. However, I do wish that I would have better know the students so that I could have created better groups with diverse students. I think this is a very important aspect of Cooperative learning.  Robert Stahl (1994)  says "Teachers should organize the three-, four-, or five-member groups so that students are mixed as heterogeneously as possible, first according to academic abilities, and then on the basis of ethnic back- grounds, race, and gender." I completely agree with this and believe this makes Cooperative learning more effective. 


Here is my link to my Cooperative lesson- teachers feel free to use it in your own classroom and adjust as needed !

Reference 

Stahl, R. (1994). Cooperative learning in social studies: A handbook for teachers. Menlo Park, Calif.: Addison-Wesley.  

Learning through Feedback and Refection !

Reflecting on anything is great and teaching is no different. Reflecting on our work allows us to realize not only what we did wrong, but also things that we did well. If we never reflect back on what we did, nothing will ever change. Even though self-reflection is great it is also nice to get and receive refection from our peers. throughout the course I was constantly reflecting on my peers work. I really enjoyed the format that we used for feedback. We would always think of three pluses( stuff that we liked) and also one wish ( a recommendation). I think that this was a great format because it is always important to tell student's or really anyone what they did well. That should always be the main focus. 

I think it was great practice providing our peers with feedback because this is something that we need to do as teachers.

This is picture of feedback that was provided to me by one of my peers on a lesson for my artifact bag

This is a picture of feedback that I provided to one of my peers on her lesson of artifact bags !
We both used the 3 pluses and a wish format for my feedback.  

Teachers -

 I recommend trying this feedback format with your own students ! 

Before this course I always struggled with giving constructive feedback. Throughout the semester, I had a lot of experience with giving constructive feedback and this is essential for being a teacher. I was never quite sure what to say, I would always feel bad saying something negative. But I have learned that it's actually not a native thing, but a positive thing because they it helps them to improve their work. The same goes for providing students with feedback. Below, I posted some tips for providing students with both positive and constructive feedback. 

Another thing I found very helpful was when planning lessons to create reflection questions to look back on after you finish teaching a lesson. This was very useful and something that I will definilty   use  in future when creating lesson plans. Reflecting back on my planning will help me to create better lesson plans and carry out more effective instruction. 

I loved this picture of cycle that depicts the process of planning, teaching, and reflecting and how they all flow into each other !

I have also learned so much from the feedback provided from my peers and Dr. Smirnova. I definitely believe that this has helped me grow as a teacher.  I have learned so much about reflection this semester and I am very grateful for that.

                                                                                        

Practice, Practice, Practice - Mock Interviews

This last week in class, we had back interviews. I think this was a great idea because interviews can be intimidating. Personally, I find them nerve-racking because I you don't know what to expect and having interviews really helps to calm this. I feel like it's really helpful to practice and see what kind of questions that schools will ask. The more you practice at something the better you will be and this is the same with job interviews.

For this mock interview I played an administer. This was very unique for me because I had to step out of my shows of being the teacher candidate and become the principle. I had to think of questions that I would like to ask to possible teachers. I didn't really know what questions to ask at first, but I tried to think of questions that would help me discover what kind of teachers thee interviewees were. Dr. Smirnova provided each of the the administers with  different model/instruction method. I got behavioral model/ direct instruction. I wanted to ask questions that would check and see how the candidates would make direct instruction lessons engaging and incorporate technology. I think that those two elements are essential for a direct instruction. Even though direct instruction is teacher centered it should not be just a lecture where students are zoning out. It is up to the teacher to make these lessons engaging.

During the actual interview, I was able to ask questions and practice proper interview techniques. Event though I was the one asking the questions it was still extremely helpful to hear how my classmates responded to the questions. One thing that I learned is that it is extremely important to give yourself a few seconds to respond to questions so that you "ummm" or "I don't know". This moment of pause gives you time to gather your thoughts so that you don't look unprepared. Another thing I learned was how important it is to give examples of fieldwork when answering questions. I feel that some of the strongest answers that I received during the mock interview were ones that referenced  back to fieldwork.

Here are some potential questions that you may be asked during an interview !
Practice answering these questions so that you are ready for your next interview !

Here are some tips for preparing for a job interview !

Social Studies Is More Than Just History !

For this project, our classmates and I were given the task of researching different elements of Social Studies instruction. These topics were out of the normal realm of what one thinks of when they here Social Studies. We did not have to research things like geography or wars, but instead things like character education and Law Related education. My partner and I were given the task of researching Character Education and Moral Education. When I began the research process I had a basic understanding of what Character Education, but I definitely did not know enough to teach it. At first my partner and I believed that the main components of character education were things like generous, trustworthy, and loyalty. After doing some more research and talking with Dr.Smirnova, we came to the realization that the components of Character education are actually the 6 pillars of character. Charactercounts.org states that the six pillars are trustworthy, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship.  Charactercount.org provided me with many great resources and ideas about the six pillars and how they relate to character education. The website also went into detail about each of the pillars and how they relate to character education. In order to teach Character Education, teachers must understand each of the pillars and how they form a good character.

Here's the link to the website it provides a lot of great ideas for character education !- There is so many great activities on this website for all ages.. I challenge all teachers to try and use these in your classroom, any way you can !

                                                                                                               

The website also provides some great tools to help your students remember the 6 pillars of character!

I  recommend all teaches using this to teach character education! 

 This is a slide from my WEESS Social Studies project. This was our definition of what character education is. Character education is what creates civic competence and that is what makes it so important !

Here is a slide from our original project. As mentioned above these are what we first thought the components of character education was, but soon learned this was wrong. This are really characteristics of a good character. The components of character education are actually the 6 pillars.

You can check out our whole project here !

What did this project teach me ?! 

This project helped to increase my pedagogical knowledge because I learned the best way to implement this to my students. I think the best method for teaching Character Education is through real life experiences and to play off what the students know. The best way to do this is by having the lessons be very student centered. For example, on charactercounts.org, the lessons have students creating examples of times that they were trustworthy or caring instead of the teacher doing it. I think this is extremely important because the teacher. I like this because the students are the ones creating the examples, not the students. This is very important because according to Tomkins (2011), students learn better when they can relate to something. This supports the idea of students creating their own examples because they can actually relate to them. This project taught me that the best method to use when teacher Character Education is play on the students’ personal experiences.

References 

Our Centers for Ethics:. (n.d.). Retrieved May 1, 2015, from https://charactercounts.org/home/index.html

Standards. (n.d.). Retrieved May 1, 2015, from http://www.socialstudies.org/standards

Tompkins, G. (2011). Language arts: Patterns of practice. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Merrill/Prentice Hall.