Reflection

Another six weeks gone. I can't believe that student teaching is right around the corner! When this class first began, I was pretty excited because I loved Social Studies in school and I still do. Now I think that I am even more excited to get into the classroom and teach Social Studies! I loved learning more about the integrated curriculum and all of the things that you can accomplish by teaching this way. Now that I know what grade level I will be teaching in the Fall, I want to look at the standards and come up with some unit ideas!

I feel like this class prepared me to create lessons and units in a much more effective way. I really enjoyed working with Anna on our unit plan and I think that I could definitely put it into action when I get in the classroom, which is a great resource to have as a beginning teacher. The thing that I struggled with the most though in creating the unit was knowing when to stop. Social Studies is so broad and contains so many content areas that it is hard to narrow things down enough to create a cohesive unit. For example, I had a really hard time not doing more history and biography when creating lessons for our unit. Our unit would be combined with the other two 5th grade units to create a government super-unit, and the students STILL wouldn't learn all there is about the history and creation of the US democracy! I suppose this is just something that will get easier and more clear over time...I hope.

All in all, I think that I made a lot of progress over the course of this class. I enjoyed the material, worked effectively with a peer, and was able to interact more deeply with the content that I will be teaching soon. I feel like I am finishing my summer at Meredith feeling prepared to go into the classroom and maybe even start teaching Social Studies first!

Reward Systems

I'm not sure how I feel about reward systems. Coming from a Montessori background, I tend to believe that students should want to do well in school for the sole reward of feeling good about a job well done. However, I am practical enough to know that Dr. Maria Montessori was teaching this philosophy in the early part of the century, when teachers did not have to contend with Nintendo DS for students' attention. I want to believe that students will work for intrinsic rewards, and I think that for many students that is true, but I realize that sometimes that's just not enough. Some students do need a little external motivation to be able to succeed academically and socially.

In my field experience, I haven't really seen much in the way of rewards. I know that Salem Elementary has a schoolwide behavior system and they give out rewards, but I haven't noticed much in the classrooms. It is possible that this is because I have observed a fifth grade class and a class on the first day of school. Perhaps the older students didn't need it anymore and the other class just hadn't started yet, I don't know.

I think my use of a reward system will depend on the grade that I will be teaching, but if I do use one it will probably not be used for material rewards. I don't think I like the idea of kids working for candy or prizes, but maybe extra computer time or a class party would be ok. I like the idea of setting a class goal and working together to reach it for a larger reward, rather than just doing smaller rewards, but I suppose those have their place as well. I think that ultimately, I would like to observe more and see a good reward plan in action.  

Self-efficacy?

In what areas do you have a high degree of self-efficacy? I'm asking because I need some ideas. This is like when you go into a job interview and the person asks you "So, what do you think are your best and worst attributes as a worker?" Hmm...

I suppose if I had to choose areas in which I am effective, I would say attitude toward work and planning. Now, please do not think that I love work or that I am a good planner. Let me explain: what I really mean by attitude toward work is that I know the work will get done. I am an effective non-worrier. I can see the work piling up, which I often allow, but then I make a plan to finish everything and it magically gets done. I'm not one to worry too much about, oh I don't know, a gigantic unit plan that's due in 6 days. Everything always gets done in it's own time. This is a philosophy that I apply to work and life, much to the annoyance of many around me. But guess what? It works.

As for planning, I always plan without thinking that something can and will go wrong. However, when it inevitably happens, I am not deterred! The lesson will go on! I think I'm pretty good at thinking on my feet and changing plans as necessary, which I consider a great skill to have in teaching.

If we are talking about self-efficacy using Maxim's definition, that being a sense that you know you will succeed at something, and are applying it to certain subject areas, I would say that my sense of self-efficacy is probably high in most areas. This is not a statement of conceit. I know that I will crash and burn, and it won't be the first time. But, being a non-worrier and an adapter, I know that I will succeed in leading and teaching my students to the best of my ability.

Hook *Updated*

     Once I finally took the time to actually think about an engaging hook lesson, I think I came up with something good! The rationale is still the same; I want the students to think about and express what they already know about the government and the Constitution, but I want to include the visual arts in the lesson as well.  

     I want to begin by showing the students the painting Scene at the Signing of the Constitution by Howard Chandler Christy. I would have the students create a T-chart, with "What I see" on the left and "What it might mean" on the right. I would give the students a little time to look at the work, writing down what they see and then turn to their neighbor and talk about what they think is happening and what that might mean. After they have some time to discuss it, then bring the class back together to have a group discussion. This chart can serve as a pre-assessment  that can be refered back to later in the unit. 

     I would also want to give the students a chance to reinterpret the painting themselves. I could do this in one of two ways: I could let each student draw their own version, or I could have them work together to create one large image. If I chose to have the students work together, I would divide the painting using a grid, give each student a piece, and have them just work on that little part. In the end, all of the square could be put together to create a class masterpiece. This may be a good idea because then each student would get a chance to study a section of the painting in depth and see how they go together.   

Hook

The goal of my hook lesson is for students to start thinking about what they know about the US government and how it is designed. I think it would be useful for me to know how students perceive the government and its jobs before I even start teaching the unit. I honestly haven't thought much about the hook lesson until now, but I think that I will start with a clip or two from Schoolhouse Rock, just to get them interested. I haven't decided if I want to do a short overview of US history or just focus on government structure, but I probably use the Preamble song and one about the three branches of government. I would show the clips to the students and then ask then to think about what they know about the government, pair up and share their list with a partner, adding to it if necessary, and then share with the class. Again, this is a very rough idea, but I do know that I want to get a little insight into the students' knowledge with this lesson, to better help plan the lessons in the unit.

A little perspective

     Before this week, I had never given much thought to the different points of view and biases that exist in history materials and textbooks. Of course I know that they exist, but I had never made the connections that I will have to teach children using these materials. Luckily, today there is a multitude of resources out there for students and teachers and creating a multicultural classroom is probably not as difficult today as it was when I was in school. However, it does make me stop to think how I am going to choose appropriate sources and how to know it is appropriate. After watching the documentary on the textbook wars, I am plagued by the worry that I will end up offending a parent with something that I think is appropriate to teach. I suppose the best way to combat that is to teach students that there are biases in history texts and encourage the students to analyze them critically. How could the story be told from a different point of view? As with any subject, I think that teaching history in the classroom has to be very well thought out and planned to avoid teaching the students that there is only one right account of past events. Maybe every student should be required to read A People's History of the United States!
     Teaching ELLs and students with disabilities in the classroom will require modification, but I think they should have the same experiences as the other students. ELLs especially can contribute a different perspective to the class's understanding of history, especially in upper grades. They can possibly talk about their country's history and how the US had affected that, if at all. This would be a good opportunity to get parents involved as well, as long as they are willing and it is not hurtful to them in any way. Some families may be reluctant to talk about their country, and students should understand the reasons for that as well. Students with disabilities can be helped through various visual, oral, and behavioral modifications, but they too should benefit from learning how to see the world from a perspective other than their own. 

Integrated Curriculum

     This week we have been focusing on the benefits of having an integrated curriculum, that is, bringing different subjects together in a meaningful way throughout the year. Integrated planning, to me, is basically teaching in such a way that you don't necessarily need a specific math, language, or social studies time. Having an integrated curriculum also leads to project-based learning, which I think is really exciting and a great way to learn. My concerns about teaching an integrated curriculum are few. I think that it would take a lot more time up front, but would ultimately be easier throughout the year. My main concern is whether or not I would be able to come up with a meaningful way to fit it all in. I feel like you would really need an annual plan to be able to do this well so that you can avoid simply doing a bunch of disjointed units.
     I think that the reason we don't see more interdisciplinary learning in schools today is the heavy focus on testing and the standards that both teachers and students have to meet. I think that many teachers feel as though they have too many things to do to sit down and come up with a plan that will fit everything in. It basically comes down to pressure. When teachers are feeling like they have a ton of things to do and less time and resources to do it, they go into survival mode and do not necessarily think about ways to make it all easier. I think that we are suffering from the tendency to check the box simply because we don't know what else to do.
     I think that the Common Core will make it easier to advocate for creating time for non-tested subjects. It seems to give the wiggle room needed to be able to teach these standards in a variety of ways. Furthermore, I feel like proponents of the Common Core think that it will teach students to apply knowledge to other areas and think creatively, effectively making them more well-rounded. Don't well-rounded students need to know more than just math and language? What's the point of learning those things if you can't apply them? And I think that social studies, the arts, and science are the prefect venues for applying concepts learned in math and language, don't you?

Lesson Planning

     11 months. For 11 months now we've been lesson planning the same way- clarify objectives and find a lesson to go along with it. Differentiate the lesson and provide an assessment. But then this week in my Social Studies and Arts class, my professor drops something completely new on us: Understanding by Design. As I flipped through my UbD book, I was a bit overwhelmed by all of the charts that I saw and thought, "I'm going to hate this. This is going to be awful."  

     Once I figured out the concept of UbD, I decided it wasn't all so bad after all. In fact, it's a pretty great idea! Rather than clarifying objectives and planning one lesson at a time, UbD, also known as "backward design", is about planning entire units with clear end goals in mind. In the first stage, teachers determine their desired results. These can be based on content standards, strategies, big ideas, or even weaknesses that your students have. From there, you decide what evidence the students will provide to show that they have mastered the content. Finally, you plan the individual lessons that will help lead the students to achieving those goals. So yes, it seems backward, but it makes a lot of sense and I'm really excited to try it out. 

     The overarching idea of my class so far has been about creating meaningful, well-planned lessons that integrate social studies and the arts with other curriculum areas. So what does it mean for a lesson to be meaningful and well-planned? To me, a meaningful lesson is one that engages students, allows them to explore and create knowledge about a concept, and can be connected to past and future experiences. A well-planned lesson ensures that the objective of the lesson in truly being met, that surprises or changes to the plan can be accounted for, and that students actually come away with something useful. 

Round Two

Welcome back! After an all too brief break, I'm back to the keyboard, but with a new purpose. For the second half of my summer adventure I'll be learning and blogging about Social Studies and the Arts in the classroom. Although I was surprised to learn that I enjoyed blogging about technology, I can't wait to see what's in store for this class. I loved Social Studies as a student, and still do, so I'm really excited to learn about how that looks in today's classroom and how I'll want it to look in mine!

Final Post...For Now

     After reading over my posts from the past six weeks, I agree with my classmates that we have made a ton of progress and have learned so much. My first couple of posts strike me as kind of silly now- I can't believe that I was so worried about incorporating technology into the classroom. I suppose the philosophical basis still exists, but I now feel like I have the tools to be discerning about how I choose to use technology. I can't realistically view it as just a standard to check off anymore; I have learned that technology definitely does have a myriad of benefits in today's classroom.
     I can definitely tell from my posts just when my attitude began to change. In week 3, I finally had my page looking the way I wanted it to and I was getting really excited about all of the things that I was learning. Then came infographics, the flipped classroom, and my RSS feed, which I swear has changed my life. My blog doesn't even begin to cover all of the things that I have learned over a few short weeks! I remember looking at our course schedule and thinking "there's no way I can get all of this done". I remember even more vividly thinking the same thing just last week. But even though the assignments were tough and I struggled and cursed (ok, a lot of that one), I don't think there is a single thing that I would change. I learned how to use an interactive white board and how to use it to differentiate lessons for the whole class; I learned how to edit a video and upload it onto YouTube, which lots of people do, but it turns out is really difficult; I learned about tons of amazing apps, websites, and programs to use in my future classroom for both my kids and my sanity. But I think the greatest thing that I have learned is to keep learning! I am still worried about how to keep up with changing technology, and I sometimes think that that in itself is a full time job, but I know that there are tons of people out there who can help me. I now at least know where to start looking, and that gives me a huge advantage. I'm happy to say that I am really looking forward to bringing some of these ideas and technologies with me when I meet my class this Fall.

To Feedly, with love

Oh man. I think I might be seeing some light peeking under my technology-void rock. So earlier in the session, we were assigned to create an RSS feed and follow some blogs, which I wrote about a few weeks ago. Well, it took me a little while to ward up to the whole blog thing, and now I'm in love. I now have about 10 different blogs on my feed, not counting classmates' that I'm following. I check it daily, hourly, pretty much constantly. Writing my own blog is ok, it's kind of fun, but reading other people's blogs is downright mesmerizing. I have a daily infographic, a friend's homebrewing adventures, and tons of funny and insightful teacher blogs at my fingertips. I followed one blog simply because it has about 50 links to OTHER BLOGS! This does not bode well...
On the plus side, I am learning more and more about technology and getting excited about using some things in my classroom. I've found myself wondering what I'm going to do if my internship cooperating teacher doesn't use a interactive whiteboard. The only question I have now is, how am I going to learn about new technology after this class is over??

The flipped classroom

This week we had a very inspiring presentation from Dr. Lodge McCammon and Ms. Katie Gimbar about the flipped classroom. According to them, and to research and reading that I have done, this seems like *The Answer* to one size fits all education. Flipping the classroom means that teachers record their lectures, which students watch at home a few times per week, and then use class time to actually interact with the content.
 I love that this model puts the responsibility of learning back on the student and their parents, which is a huge issue that I see with the current model. Allowing students to take the time they need to digest a lecture and come up with questions before class actually makes them THINK (imagine that). Students can then come to class prepared to either apply what they have learned or get help on what they didn't understand. This allows teachers to differentiate instruction by providing extension activities or extra help to those who need it. This eliminates the issue of students not doing their homework because they didn't understand the lecture and being passed over. Dr. McCammon and Ms. Gimbar provide training for pre-service teachers on flipping their classrooms, and I fully intend to take advantage of it!

Here's a fun infographic that I found explaining the flipped classroom in a bit more detail!

Infographics

   So this week we learned how to create infographics. Living under this rock of mine, I never even knew that was a "thing". Of course, I have seen inforgraphics online, but I suppose that it never occurred to me to use them in the classroom or try to create one of my own. For this assignment, I started out with infogr.am and quickly realized that it wasn't user friendly enough for me to do anything with it. So I scrapped my first attempt and moved on to piktochart. This website was much more manageable for me and I was able to choose a design that I thought suited my information well. I did hit some snags when it came to the color template, which was kind of weird, but most everything else was easy to use.  
   I can definitely see a use for infographics in the classroom. It's a fun way to incorporate multimedia, text, and data, which could be used in most areas of the curriculum. I can even see myself using it to present lessons every now and then!
   Just as a fun side note, I started following http://dailyinfographic.com/ and have picked up all kinds of useful(ish) tidbits!

So many things!

For this week's blog assignment we were supposed to write about something that we've learned about technology in the classroom (I think). Well I'd say that this has been a pretty productive week for me. I got through our first Google site assignment without any major hiccups, I started an RSS feed and posted some of the blogs I'm following here, and I redesigned my page. I'm feeling pretty accomplished! On top of that, I presented the third chapter of Dr. Curtis Bonk's book with my group using Prezi. Although I have used Prezi a few times before, I have never used it for group collaboration and I think it worked really well. Prezi Meeting is available with the free subscription and allows multiple people to work in the space at the same time. The only downside is that the free subscription means that all of your Prezis are public, so you have to be careful of what you're putting out there. Otherwise, I think that it's a great tool for us, since we all have such hectic schedules, but it also has potential in the classroom.

On another note, with all of us working on our infographics, I wanted to share a few things I've found. I read about http://www.everystockphoto.com/ on the Free Technology for Teachers blog and I think it would be a great resource. It's a search engine for public domain and Creative Commons pictures and it pulls images from a bunch of web sources when you search. When you click on an image, you are taken to a larger version of it, complete with a link to the source and the requirements for using that picture. I also stumbled upon http://infogr.am/ which is a free infographic creation tool!

Yikes

I knew that I was behind when it came to technology, but until tonight I was blissfully unaware of just how much of an understatement that is. I have read exactly one blog before starting this venture. And while I am wordy enough to write things, I am sorely lacking in creativity and import skills. Luckily, you, my wonderful classmates, are much quicker on the uptake than I am and I have been able to follow some of you and get ideas. So, with any luck, I will soon be able to sit down and really personalize this thing. Thanks for your patience!

Here goes...

     After reading the excerpts from Bonk and reviewing the 21st century skills, TPACK, and NETS for students and teachers, I am beginning to feel uneasy about going into the classroom. I'm seeing that technology is becoming more and more important in schools and to student learning and I know that I am not prepared for that. Hopefully, this class will help me feel more secure in that arena.
     I acknowledge that the world is becoming smaller and that we all have the ability to access information on the spot, which is what Curtis Bonk talks a lot about in his materials. However, as we discussed in class on Monday, one has to wonder if that is really a great idea when it comes to the classroom. We may be training students to become global citizens, but I fear that we are also training them to dismiss critical thinking. I wonder if teachers are still teaching very basic skills, like using a dictionary and finding books in the library. Of course, we have the technology to do those things digitally, but are we losing something by allowing students to take those shortcuts?
     When I reviewed the NETS for students and for teachers, I felt like most of them were quite reasonable. We have been learning, and I quite agree, that teachers need to customize learning experiences, provide appropriate assessments, and model collaborative learning and constructive thinking. I just wonder how much we are supposed to be integrating technology into those lessons. The standards make it seem like we should be using digital resources throughout every school day. I would like to find a way to do that without sacrificing basic skills and critical thinking.