Historical Blog Experience

For class this past week it was once again my turn to teach, however instead of having a partner, I was on m own,  I had to prepare a lesson revolving around current events, and being that it is, or was, Earth Day, I decided to do something about coal.  The story I choose involved two feuding Native American tribes about how they would work together, or in this case, not work together to prepare the coal, and transport it to Asia. What struck me as interesting in this article was, even in today's America, these Native Americans, despite tribe make-up are still passionate about the Earth and where they come from.  Their traditions are sacred to them, and they will not compromise anything that could endanger them. Both of these tribes share valid points, however in today's world, we need to look beyond coal.  We need to think of a way to capture energy that doesn't harm the environment.  While coal would provide jobs for everyone on the reservation, it would...

Our class this week was taught an interesting group activity that will be great to share in classrooms for today and the future.  The jigsaw activity is nothing new, however it was one of the first times I had ever been apart of a group activity so seamlessly fluid. For those who may not know, the jigsaw activity is when you break the class into different groups.  In a class of 20 lets say, you would divide them into five groups of four.  From there, each person in the group picks a sub-topic of the topic they are going to talk about. After that has been decided, you then break off again and work with the other people from the other groups that are researching the same thing that you are.  In these "expert groups" you work on finding all of the information you can in relation to your sub-topic. Once you are finished, you report back to your original group and teach them everything you can about what you just learned, instead of presenting it to the class. ...

Throughout this class, I have had to teach and go over a number of different social studies topics and concepts.  One of my favorite concepts and lessons to teach in social studies or history, is the American Revolution.  The reason being, is that it is our greatest collective moments in the history of this country. It's a time when people became fed up with how they were being treated, and rebelled against the people who ruled them.  It's when true patriots rallied together and took down a mighty empire in the British.  On top of all that, there are a number of great projects that can be done in the classroom to support the learning concepts found around this topic. One such project I was apart of the other day, when two classrooms joined together to act out the various roles of people in the 1770's.  One student plays the king, others members of his army, while the rest of the class plays colonists who are continually being taxed.  Each time a ne...

The key differences between the three types of lessons; direct, indirect, and cooperative, is the way they are taught.  Another key difference, is how much the teacher allows the students to explore learning on their own.  With a direct lesson, the teacher is distributing information tot he students, constantly checking for understanding, correcting as needed, and introducing concrete concepts for students to learn. With indirect instruction, you are beginning to allow students to explore a concept more in depth on their own.  The concepts are there for the students, and test it using the concepts they they have learned or mastered.  Cooperative learning allows students to be creative.  Using concepts already learned, students create projects, posters, or papers that use an original idea either created by the students or the teacher to further enhance and anchor the original concept explained in the direct lesson. The cooperative lesson was and is my favorit...

Previously I had written about my favorite teachers who taught social studies, and how none of them were elementary school teachers.  The reason behind this, is that from when I was a kid, I don't remember all that much social studies being talked about. Occasionally we would discuss American history, and often time some local history about the state of New York, but having a definitive time where history took center stage each day never occurred. In the years since my graduation from elementary school things have changed quite a bit, while at the same time not at all.  For starters, in 4th and 5th grade there are now, for the most part dedicated times where history is discussed.  This could be due mostly to the new state tests that have surfaced for 4th grade students, a test that wasn't around in my day.  However in grades 3 and lower, history still takes a back seat.  Occasionally things are brought up such as MLK day, President's weekend, etc, but ...

Our final meeting with the students culminated in a few group projects and a party celebrating the end of our group, "Everyday is Earth Day".  Each group of teachers had the students work on mini-projects they would present to the rest of the class.  The first group made a think-link about water pollution, the next group created a debate about what to do with recycling and waste management.  Our group created a slideshow to present the number of ways that fracking is harmful to the environment and what we can do to stop it. Overall the projects were very successful and we even timed it out so that the presentations would take place when the parents arrived to pick up their respective children.  I believe the children had a great time in our after school program, and speaking for myself, I enjoyed my time with these students, and thought the practice of preparing lessons, and executing them with children helps me to become a better teacher in a multitude of ways...