Historical Blog Experience

Throughout the semester I have had the privilege to be apart of a great class known as the Methods of Teaching Social Studies to Elementary Students.  During this class I learned a variety of new teaching methods, met some interesting people, and expanded my knowledge of teaching techniques to include some new general education tips, but focused mostly on the teachings of social studies. At the start of class we were thrown right into fieldwork at Bishop Dunn Memorial School in Newburgh New York where we were all treated to teaching eight wonderful 5th-7th graders about different environmental problems facing the world today.  During the experience children had a great time doing the many activities we had planned for them, and helped us all become better teachers because of it.  While the process was stressful at times, it was also rewarding to look back on, as I was able to plan out an entire unit of lessons for these students do, which will surely come i...

For class this week, each person was assigned a partner and had to complete a report on a Native American tribe in the United States.  My partner and I were assigned the Iroquois tribe found mostly in the North East and lower parts of Canada.  Of all the tribes that were given out to each group, the Iroquois tribe was the one I knew the most about.  As a teacher who has taught in the fourth grade and as a former student, I can say that there are large chunks of study devoted to the  Iroquois tribe. Living in upstate New York, it's hard to know about the rich history and impact that they left in this section of the country.  However I was also surprised to realize how much I didn't know about the Iroquois as well. One of the more interesting facts about the Iroquois nation is that the women of the tribe are the ones who select the chief.  While the women have no role in the politics of the tribe, it is their decision alone that impacts who the chief will...

One of the more interesting projects that I had to accomplish during this semester, was the artifact bag project.  For this project, teachers first need to decide on a topic, for my artifact bag, we were doing a unit on fracking, so i decided to stick with this topic.  Next, teachers need to then figure out what items to use in the artifact bag.  These items need to not directly speak about what the topic is, but provide a hint to the students so as it does not give the topic away right out of the gate.  This is the hardest part of the project, as you have to not only come up with one item, but at the very least three to five items so as to make students explore the topic more.  For my artifact bag on fracking, I used four items: a bottle of water with dirt in it, another bottle of water that was labeled flammable, a small lego drill bit (as opposed to a real drill, safety first), and an inhaler.  These items all symbolized the health risks that occur w...

For class this week, I was privy to the experience of going to a "job fair" which was very exhausting, and stressful.  This was only a faux job fair, however the experience felt very real at least for me.  During this job fair, I was able to meet with three different principles, from three very different schools with different teaching methods.  I had to display my vast knowledge of all three lesson types, direct, indirect, and cooperative learning methods, as each school seemed to specialize in one of those fields.   The questions asked during the interview were varied, and ranged from outside the box thinking questions to teaching methods, which would depend on the school.  The outside the box thinking questions were very creative, asking me how I would arrange desks in the classroom to what color of the rainbow I would be, I would of course be the color blue, as it is a calming color.   The questions about teaching methods was intense, and helped ...