The End Of A Great Chapter

If I'm being honest, I was horrified of taking this class with Dr. Smirnova.  I had heard from many other students that it was a crazy amount of work and time.  That she expected so much from her students and could keep piling the work on.  Going into this class I did not know if I would make it out alive.  I spent the first class doubting if I had made the right choice in careers and if I had the skills to complete this class.  In the beginning of the semester I constructed some goals for myself regarding this course. 

These are my goals: In this course I had many goals regarding social studies and my personal learning.  The goals in general knowledge of learning theories/planning/teaching are I would like to achieve is to learn more about the different lesson structures.  Another goal for this session is teaching in front of a whole class.  The goals in  basic knowledge/skills for the social studies unit/lesson plans design and edTPA are to know social studies standards.  I would also like to achieve the knowledge to select and design different types of assessment methods.  In the personal learning/study and technology skills I would like to achieve the understanding of how to use google docs and drives.  I would also like to achieve the knowledge to select technology tools that enhance student’s learning.  

Now that the semester is over, I am so glad I took this course.  Not only is Dr. Smirnova a book of great resources,  she also will give you all the support you need.  No matter the time of day or the amount of question, she always has an answer for you.  At the end of this class, I feel like I am a stronger teacher.  I know that teachers are not perfect but, they strive to be.  I have learned how to incorporate all three lesson styles into a unit plan, how to use great internet tools into lessons, and how google docs can be a great asset to your classroom.  I will use all the tools and strategies that Dr. Smirnova has taught throughout this semesters . 

Here is the reflection on the beginning of the semester goals:  Throughout the journey through this course I have grown as a teacher and a person.  I feel that I have reached the majority of the goals I have set for myself for this semester.  In the learning theories/planning.teaching section I believe I know have stronger knowledge of the different lesson structures. I am comfortable with writing lessons in any of the styles and know the components of each style.  I also feel comfortable teaching in front of a whole class. This is a skill that I have not had to do in my course work until this course.  I feel like I have more tools to think on my feet and engage students in their learning.  In the section of basic knowledge/skills for the social studies unit/lesson plans design and edTPA I have a better understanding of the social studies standards and how to incorporate these standards into my lessons.  I have also learned the art of selecting and designing different types of assessment methods.  Not all assessment must be by way of a test, you can use class discussions, focus questions, and cumulating projects.  In the section personal learning/study and technology skills I have accomplished the understanding of how to use google docs and drives.  I find this technique of keeping documents a great way to work.  I have also achieved greater knowledge of technology tools that enhance student’s learning.  The web holds such great tools to help teachers enhance their students learning.  In all, I feel that I have learned a large amount of knowledge this semester and plan on using it in my future classroom.

As the semester comes to a close I am sad to leave this class and will always be grateful to Dr. Smirnova's amazing teaching.





Thank you for everything Dr. Smirnova!


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To Have My Ph.D. For One Night

Sometimes its great to pretend.  I got to be a doctor for a couple of hours and it was a lot of fun.  I was giving the task of designing a person who runs a school and is looking to hire new teachers.  My school was based on social/cooperative and inquiry based learning.  I then had to create questions to ask the teacher-candidates in a mock job interview.  At the end of the interviews we got to hire who we thought was the best fit for our school.

Good Evening everyone.  My name is Dr. Corrigan and I am the principle of Imagination Elementary School.  I have been in the world of education for almost 35 years.  In the years leading up to becoming a teacher and principal I obtained a bachelor degree in Psychology and then received a masters in Elementary education from Mount St. Mary College in Newburgh.   I then went on to teach in a 1st grade classroom for 15 years, I then returned to school.  I received my Ph.D. in special education leadership from Capella University. Upon receiving my Ph.D. I opened up the very school I work in now.

Imagination Elementary School is base on three principal ideals.  These ideals are exploration, imagination, and teamwork.  Teachers at my school must be able to use methods of exploration learning and group work.


The Questions I created to test the possible teachers knowledge on inquiry and cooperative learning were:

1. (Ice-Breaker) What is your favorite book to read to your class? Why?
2. During a cooperative lesson Mrs. May notices that in one group only one student is doing the work.  How can Mrs. May restore the group to a positive and productive working group?
3. During a cooperative lesson Mrs. May notices that in one group all three students are working individually and not as one whole unit.  How can Mrs. May encourage the group to work in a positive and productive manner? 
4. Within our school we feel the need to allow students to explore their world and come to their own conclusion.  What are some methods a teacher can use the allow this within the classroom?
5. Students have many questions about the information that is given to them in class. How can a teacher encourage a student to expand their knowledge through exploration.
6. Mr. Smith's classroom is set up in 4 rows of 5.  He is realizing that this set up is not working for the cooperative work the class is doing.  How can Mr. Smith make his classroom more cooperative work friendly?
7. Mrs. Sunshine wants to allow students more areas in the classroom to do their own exploration.  What can Mrs. Sunshine do in her classroom to allow the students to work independently (on their own)?

What's In That Bag?

What's in that bag? is a great way to get students to think outside the box.  In this project we were to create a artifact bag to present to our class.  I did my artifact bag on Ancient China and then used this activity in my unit plan.  I remember my sixth grade teacher using artifact bags every time she would introduce a new book that we were going to read in class.  By using the bag everyone got very excited to guess what we were going to read next. 

For my bag I placed three photos rolled up as scrolls in the bag along with three photos rolled up as scrolls taped to the front of the bag.  The three pictures were some common topics from Ancient China. 

Here are the three pictures from inside the bag:

The Great Wall of China
Terra-Cotta Warriors
Huang He/Yellow River
Students are to work together and come up with the names of the pictures and a fact or two about each one.  They then will create a slide with their information and then present it to the class.

At the end of all the presentations, the students will be instructed to take one of the scrolls of the front of the bag.  This will be their homework assignment.  When they opened the scroll there is a picture and website.  The student will need to research the picture at home and find 3-5 facts about the pictures.  The following day we as a class will review the homework pictures. 

Here are the three pictures from the outside of the bag:
Ancient Chinese Dragon 
Confucius
Shang Dynasty

What is Economics?

 Economics was not my favorite part of social studies when I was in school. I found in confessing and hard to understand.  Now, as an adult student I find it a little easier to understand.  Doing this project I focused on the importance of teaching economics in the younger grades.

Economic is the study of production, consumption, and transfer of wealth.  It is the way our money is made, saved, and spent.  How companies produce and sell their products and what effects the raise and fall of products.

Setting up a economic system in your classroom is a interesting and engaging way to teach young students how the system works.  When introduce the topic, you need to spend time teaching the students how the economic system works, what jobs they will have and how money will be given out and saved.  You will create jobs, salaries, paychecks, banks, stores, pay rent and tickets.  When they students do their jobs they will receive a paycheck every week.  The students will then pay the bank for any tickets they have received throughout the week.  Tickets are given when a student breaks the classroom rules.  After, the student pay back any tickets, they can either save their money in the bank or they can spend it in the classroom store. 

This technique of teaching economic helps students develop:

• how to budget their spending
• balance a checking account
• make scheduled payments
• hold a job
• discover the importance of money
  

The History of the Tribal People

Erika and I worked on a group project featuring the Muscogee tribe.  At the beginning of this process I had no idea who the Muscogge people were, their culture, where, they lived, and how to say their name.  The first thing I did was find out how to pronounce Muscogee.  It is pronounced muss-KOH-gee.  They were also know as the Creek People.  Moving on from their I loved learning about the Muscogee's lifestyles and history.
The Muscogee tribe was based in the southeastern areas of North America.  They were mostly settled in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina.  When the U.S. government started their relocation process of the Native Americans the Muscogee were moved to Oklahoma.
The Muscogee have a dance ritual called the Stomp Dance.  This dance was preformed at social and religious gatherings.  The Stomp Dance was a  demonstrative prayer.  The dance is done counter clockwise to stay in balance with the natural world.

The Muscogee tribe had typical villages built around a council house and a large field used for sports.  The houses had thatched roofs and were permanent dwellings.  When the Muscogee's moved west the houses changed the style.  The new dwellings were made out of logs and other woods from the surrounding area.
The Muscogee people had many important and influential tribe members.  One of them was Crazy Snake (Chitto Harjo).  He led a movement against Allotment and advocated for the traditional clan Creek Government that was being eliminated by the U.S..  The American people called Crazy Snake and his followers "Snake Indians".  Another influential Muscogee was Samuel Checote.  He was elected Principal Chief in 1867.  He was born in Chattahoochee Valley and was a Methodist minister who preached to the creek people.

What's Important About Current Events

 

Current events are a very interesting way to teach the five W's to your students.  The five W's are: Who, Where, What, When, and Why.  As small groups we created a activity to teach with current events.  Kristine and I used the website Newsela.  Newsela is a website that house current event articles.  Each article can be set to a certain reading level, students can take notes on the site, and teachers can create essays and quizzes.  For our presentation we decided to teach the five W's, how to take notes and how to find a main topic.  After, teaching the five W's we moved on to teach how to write in short hand to take knows. Some of the short hand we taught shorting of words like with-w/, without-w/o, very-v., and because-b/c.  Then, we gave the students the links to the articles and a graphic organizer to help them take their notes.  The graphic organizer was broken up into the five W's.  The students were to read the articles and fill out the five W's graphic organizer.  At the end, when the graphic organizer was filled out the students where asked to find what main idea the three articles shared.  The three articles where: "Platform for Action" provides a road map to gender equality, Boxing's old-school rules, a teen girl says, must catch up with the times, and Study says young women narrowing the wag gap at work.  Using current events is very important to teaching social studies.  The need to know what is going on in the world around us is an essential part of social studies.  I had a great time exploring Newsela and the functions that teachers and students have at the disposal.

Cooperation Is The Key To Learning

Cooperative learning lessons are very important in a classroom.  Teaching students to work together as a group gives them the tools to become better people.  Working cooperatively is a skill most people will need to use in many parts of their lives.  As a class we put together presentations to teach each other the parts of cooperative learning.  Cooperative learning is broken down into 5 parts:  Positive Interdependence, Individual Accountability, Group Processing, Social Skills, and Face-to-Face Promotive Interaction.  All these parts create a working cooperative classroom.

Positive Interdependence
Positive Interdependence is a skill students need to learn.  This is the skill working with others in a positive way.  Using the people in the group to complete a task and for support if there is a problem within the group.

Individual Accountability
Individual Accountability is when students working in a group they are still responsible for all the material that is learned.  If finding information is split up in the group at the end  all students are expected to know and understand the information.

Group Processing
Group Processing is how the group works together and manage the materials and task.  Classroom set up can help students with the group processing.  Setting desks into groups or having areas where students can me as a group can help facilitate the groups ability to function correctly.

Social Skills
Social Skills are a skill that students will use for the rest of their live.  Being able to communicate with others, share responsibilities, learn to agree and disagree and share ideas are skills we all use in our adult life.  By developing these skills early on will give the students a head start.

Face-to-Face Promotive Interaction
Face-to-Face Promotive Interaction is the ability to speak and work with another person face-to-face.  The saying is Face-to-Face and Knee-to-Knee.  Being able to use proper body language and speech while working in a group helps students develop their social skills.  

Celebration of Learning

As a teacher you should try to celebrate when your students accomplish a hard or long task.  By celebrating the students and their learning you teach the students that the work they do is important.  As a group the teacher-candidates put together a post-test assessment.  After the students took the post-assessment we started the fun.  First, we created a Kahoot! for the students to do.  This helped us not only have a fun time, but it always help us assess the information the students could recall. The students love playing Kahoot!  It becomes a friendly competition between the students.  When we were done with the Kahoot! games the students were asked to pick some of their favorite topics we had learned about over the past three week.  As we talked as a group about the past three weeks students stated they liked creating the ThingLinks and the Glogster.  Then, the students created a google slide to thank the teacher-candidates.  At the end of the session, the teaching-candidates presented the amazing students of Bishop Dunn certificates of learning and presented Mrs. Perk with a year subscription to Glogster.  Looking back on this experiences has made me feel like I can handle more situations within a classroom.  Being thrown into a situations, teaching on my feet, and learning from others are three of the things I will take away from my fieldwork this year. 

The Last Step Back In Time: Ancient Rome

Here we are at our last stop on our road back in time.  Erica and Kristine used a great technique for note taking.  On the slides there will be a star by any information that the students need to copy down on their graphic organizer.  The direct lesson covered the government, Julius Caesar, architecture, and gladiator.  After the direct lesson, the students got a short break before moving onto the inquiry lesson.  In the inquiry lesson the teacher-candidates used a bar code scanning program.  The students use Ipads to scan codes and match the correct information.  This was a great task for the students because it allowed the students to get up and move around the room while doing their work.  For the cooperative learning lessons the teacher-candidates used the same tool that my group did.  They used ThingLink for their students group work.  The students worked in groups to create a ThingLink on a topic given to them by the teacher-candidates.  The one thing I realized from their session was to not have to many different graphic organizers for the students to use during the direct lesson.  Having only one graphic organizer helps keep the students focused and organized. 

The Next Step Back In Time: Ancient Greece

Today we took our second step back in time.  We visited Ancient Greece.  Rachel and Rebecca used a great focus statement.  The statement is when the teacher-candidates say "Macaroni and cheese" the students reply with "Everyone freeze".  This was a focus statement that I haven't heard before and the students really liked it.  In the direct lesson for Ancient Greece the teacher-candidates taught a group of vocabulary words.  Some of the words were: continent, polytheism, mono theism, and democracy.  The teacher-candidates then gave the students a short break before they moved into the inquiry lesson.  Their inquiry lesson was to research different mythological gods of Ancient Greece.  The students were given clues and they need to use the inquiry process to match the clues they had, to the god that went with the clues.  This was a fun activity for the students and the students seemed to like it a lot.  For the teacher-candidates cooperative learning lesson they used the gods from the inquiry lesson to create a glogster as a group.  The students were broken into groups by the god they received in the inquiry lesson.  The groups worked together to create a digital posters using the webpage gloster.  This was a new tool for the students.  It was a great project for them and they truly enjoyed it.  The one thing I realized from their session is to always check your technology before you start your lesson. 

Working Together To Reach A Common Goal

Cooperative Instruction Lesson:

Group 1's ThingLink

The cooperative lesson plan focused on the student working in groups to create a ThingLink.  ThingLink is an online site that lets you create interactive posters on anything.  Using the information the students had already learned in the previous two lessons and extra resources, the students were to work in groups to create a ThingLink.  The ThingLink was to have 2 facts on geography, religion, culture, government and 2 places to visit. When the students were done creating their ThingLink they would present it to the rest of the class.

Reflection

 By the time I reached our cooperative learning lesson most students had to leave, so I only had 4 students left.  This helped me learn the importance of thinking on your feet.  The groups we had already put together were not going to work, so I had to change them on the fly.  We were also running out of time.  So of the thing s that I needed to change for this lesson are to teach ThingLink in more depth.  I did not spend enough time on explaining the use and designing aspects of ThingLink. I need to also make more of a point on how to work in groups.  When working in groups students need to understand the importance of working as a whole group.  Being respectful and understanding to each member of their group.  Also, I need to explain to the students that they would be graded not only on the ThingLink, but, on their group mechanics. 

To Inquire Is To Know

Inquiry Instruction Lesson:

The inquiry lesson plan focused on the students exploring the Great Wall of China.  The students were presented with this statement "People are conflicted about the Great Wall of China." There question was "Was the Great Wall of China a good invention?"  The students were then given resource to help them come to their conclusion.  There were articles and videos for the students to go through to collect information.  The resource were: Religion of Ancient China, Ancient China for Kids: The Great Wall of China, When, Why, and Who Built the Great Wall of China, Infographic about the Great Wall of China, What Makes the Great Wall of China so Extraordinary, and Deconstructing History-The Great Wall of China. When the students were done with their research they had to come to a conclusion based on the question they were given.  

Reflection
As we worked through the direct lesson I could feel myself becoming more relax in front of the class.  This lesson was to allowed students to explore the topic of the Great Wall of China individually.  In the inquiry lesson I need to ask what and how a historian collects their data.  Having the students consider themselves as historian will give them a more personal invitation to learning.  I also need to allow the students to elaborate on the topic.  By elaborating the students will start to make generalizations regarding Ancient China.  Lastly, we ran out of time and did not get to allow the students to report their findings and conclusions.  One of the most important parts of the inquiry process is reporting the findings and conclusions.  When everyone reports their finding, students get to see different strategies on coming to a conclusion.   

The Direct Way To Teach

Direct Instruction Lesson:


The direct lesson plan focused on the four parts of civilization: Geography, Religion, Culture, and Government. In geography we focused on where China is located, China natural barriers (the Pacific Ocean and Himalaya Mountains), and the Huang He/Yellow River.  We also focused on why the Huang He River was important to the Ancient Chinese people.  In religion we focused on Confucius and some of the main points of Confucius teachings.  In culture we focused on the Ancient Chinese family structure.  In government we focused on Shang and Qin Dynasties.   

Reflection
Being the first group to teach was a little intimidating.  Going in blind was confusing and scary.  But, I found that once I started talking the fear went away.  I'm not saying it was perfect, but it was a great learning experience.  In our direct lesson we need to work on pacing.  Our direct lesson went a little longer then we had original planned.  In a direct lesson the lesson should consist of facts and concepts and repetition.  We also needed to ask more direct review questions at the end of each sections. Other things I found I need to work on is the use of academic language and asking more than one student to answer a question.  By asking more than one students to answer a question you get a better understanding of who is processing the information.

The First Step Back in Time: Ancient China

Today is the day, Mike and I got to teach our Ancient China lesson to the students.  It was a whirlwind of activities, but it was a great learning experience.  Within a hour and a half time period we taught three different lessons to a great group of students.  The hour and a half was broken into three parts: direct, inquiry, and cooperative.  Within those parts we explored Ancient China in many different ways. Being the first group to present I had no idea what to expect.  Overall we did a good job of being prepared with our materials, staying on topic, and keeping the students focused on the lesson.  Some of the things that went well in the lesson today were the fact that the three lessons were engaging and they flowed very well.  The topics built on each other which helped the students stay focused.  I think the four square game we made up for our direct lesson was very interesting.  The lesson was not perfect, but that's why we are here.  In the direct lesson we could have kept a faster pace, have students repeat key points, and ask review questions at the end of each grouping.  In the inquiry lesson we needed to ask what and how a historian collects their data, have students elaborate on the topics, and have students report their findings and conclusion to the class.  In the cooperative lesson we were running out of time.  We needed to teach ThingLink in more depth, make a point of how to work in groups, and we did not have time for an exit ticket.  Going first was a great learning experiences for me. Not knowing what to expect had me a little rattled, but it helped me be over prepared and kept me focused.  
 
Direct Instruction Lesson:


The direct lesson plan focused on the four parts of civilization: Geography, Religion, Culture, and Government. In geography we focused on where China is located, China natural barriers (the Pacific Ocean and Himalaya Mountains), and the Huang He/Yellow River.  We also focused on why the Huang He River was important to the Ancient Chinese people.  In religion we focused on Confucius and some of the main points of Confucius teachings.  In culture we focused on the Ancient Chinese family structure.  In government we focused on Shang and Qin Dynasties.   

Inquiry Instruction Lesson:

The inquiry lesson plan focused on the students exploring the Great Wall of China.  The students were presented with this statement "People are conflicted about the Great Wall of China." There question was "Was the Great Wall of China a good invention?"  The students were then given resource to help them come to their conclusion.  There were articles and videos for the students to go through to collect information.  The resource were: Religion of Ancient China, Ancient China for Kids: The Great Wall of China, When, Why, and Who Built the Great Wall of China, Infographic about the Great Wall of China, What Makes the Great Wall of China so Extraordinary, and Deconstructing History-The Great Wall of China. When the students were done with their research they had to come to a conclusion based on the question they were given.  

Cooperative Instruction Lesson:

Group 1's ThingLink

The cooperative lesson plan focused on the student working in groups to create a ThingLink.  ThingLink is an online site that lets you create interactive posters on anything.  Using the information the students had already learned in the previous two lessons and extra resources, the students were to work in groups to create a ThingLink.  The ThingLink was to have 2 facts on geography, religion, culture, government and 2 places to visit. When the students were done creating their ThingLink they would present it to the rest of the class.

The Start of it All

Today we met with our after-school group to introduce ourselves and get to know each other.  First, we had the students design their own name tags.  After we met all the students and the teacher candidates introduced themselves we had the students take a per-assessment on the three topic areas we will be teaching:  Ancient China, Ancient Rome, and Ancient Greece.  When the students were done with the assessment we played a game called Kahoot!  This was a quick game to assess the students basic social studies knowledge.  The students really liked this form of assessment because it was fun and there was no pressure on answering.  When the game was over we moved into each group giving a small overview of their topic. My group which is Ancient China talked about the Chinese New Year and in what year each student was born in.  Then, we moved onto making Chinese lanterns out of paper.  The second group was Ancient Greece.  They spoke about Greek mythology and Medusa.  The students they created a mask of Medusa.  The final group was Ancient Rome.  This group talked about the architecture of Rome and mosaic creations.  This group had the students create their own mosaic pieces.

Learning The Ropes

Today we met with Tiffany Davis the librarian for the Mount's Curriculum Materials Center.  The librarian spoke to us about all the resources that the curriculum library has for us to use.  Within the library they have both fiction and non-fiction books for juvenile(K-5) and young readers (6-12).  The library also has manipulative sets for varies activities and both student and teacher additions of text books.  She also discussed with us two databases to use when researching  articles, Education Research Complete (Ebsco) and ERIC (Ebsco). This was my first time in the curriculum library and having someone to explain the functions and tools of the library was a great feeling.  Know I do not feel as lost when it comes to finding materials.

Link to the Mount Saint Mary College Curriculum Materials Center

We then meet with our cooperating teacher for social studies.  At this point she told us that she only had one student signed up for the program, but was opening it up to younger grades.  She explained to us that we had the use of the computer lab and the iPads in her classroom. She expressed the need to use technology to reach the students in and interactive and engaging way.  With all the technology we have at our fingertips, we need to find ways to work it into our lessons. The cooperating teacher also spoke of her expectations of us as teacher candidates.  She expects us to be professional and prepared, she also asked us to test the technology before presenting to the students.  These are all qualities that all teachers should possess when they are conducting a lesson. 

Where it all starts

    Today was the first day of class.  Dr. Simrnova started class with a video called "A vision of K-12 students today" and she asked us what information struck us.  From this video I took away the amount of time a student spends on technology and how it is an integrated part of their live.  The other piece that intrigued me was the amount of teachers that do not let their students create things with technology.  Students today use technology for everything, but are sometimes limited to create with technology in the classroom. In order for students to grow they need to create.  Using technology to create work within the classroom can open up a new world for a student.
    As an ice-breaker Dr. Simrnova had us create name tags.  She told us to create with colors and designs to make the name tags personal to us.  Then she posed four questions to us 1. Think of a Social Studies teacher from your past 2. What qualities do you need to be a good Social Studies teacher 3. Define Social Studies 4. What do you expect to get out of this course? Dr. Simrnova used the technique of Think-Pair-Share.  First we answered the questions on our own thinking them through.  Then we paired up with the person next to us to discuss our answers. After being paired up we shared with the class what we agreed on and what we had that was different.  This technique is a great way for students to practice there communication skills and presentation skills.  The topic Dr. Simrnova used was to help us as a class get to know each other, but it can be used for almost any topic.  I have seen the Think-Pair-Share technique used in all the classrooms that I have observed over the last three semesters.