Reflection of Social Studies Methods

I can't believe how fast this semester flew by, its so bittersweet to be done with all of my methods courses and such an awarding feeling! Throughout the course of this semester I have reflected on my experiences in our Social Studies Methods course. I wrote a blog post just about every week expressing my feelings towards something we learned or writing about overwhelming, incredible experiences; like fieldwork. I also reflected on projects I created like the artifact bag, current events, and PIGS! I highly enjoyed writing my blog posts as it really forced me to dig deep into important social studies concepts that I can implement into my future teaching. I can now look back at the posts I wrote in the beginning of the semester to see how much I have improved and learned since then. I can even look back in a year or two from now and see a much greater improvement, which is very exciting! 

I chose the title "Shannon's Exploration Through Social Studies" because social studies is truly an exploration and I knew I was going to be exploring a lot about the subject. I was right because I learned so much about not only social studies, but TEACHING it good, which is so important to me right now as I am studying to be a teacher. Through exploring social studies, I have learned how to create different types of effective lesson plans, taught a class for the second time, implement these lesson plans into that class, learned a lot about EDTPA that will help me tremendously as I student teach next year, learned about numerous ways to integrate technology into a classroom and was introduced to a variety of different digital tools to use in a classroom one day. The list goes on and on, but I have learned so much from this course that I will take with me into my future teaching career that will help me create success among all of my students. I enjoyed exploring through science so much this semester and I cannot wait to explore science in my own classroom on day!

Mock Interview

Today in class I had an awesome experience by participating in a mock interview put on by our very own principals of Dr. Smirnovas class! One person from each field work group was nominated to be the principal and create questions to ask our class, as if it was a real interview. We were required to dress up for class and take this seriously and come prepared. This was a great way to promote authentic learning, as we did not just take a final exam, we did something that we will be doing in the real world and will benefit us tremendously. This is why Dr. Smirnova is the best, because she actually prepares us for the real world and what is coming for us! After the principals were done going around to each group, they used a rubric and graded who they thought brought the best to the table. The principals went in the hall to talk about who they thought should get the job out of each groups, and the winner were announced at the end. 

This was a great experience as a whole and was great practice for future job interviews, especially in the field of education. Administrators will expect the applicants to be knowledgable in all different areas of lessons and educational practices, and be familiar with professional terms and use them fluently. This was perfect practice for that and some of these questions could one day be asked to us during a real interview. I am so grateful for this experience because it truly showed my strengths and weaknesses in the interview process of becoming a teacher! 

Current Events

Teaching current events in a classroom is very important in today's society. We are so focused on technology, social media, our phones, etc. that we forget to open a newspaper or article and see what is going on in the world. Reminding students that knowing what's going on in the world around them, and implementing that into the classroom is extremely beneficial to their lives. Using current events give social studies teachers countless opportunities to make the curriculum relevant to students everyday lives!

Incorporating current events into the curriculum helps students in various ways including building language, vocabulary, reading comprehension, problem solving etc. It is so important for students to understand the importance of people, events, and issues in the news today. There are also numerous types of lessons you can implement into the curriculum using current events including students creating their own newspaper involving an issue in the world today, or something that intrigues them. This involves using pictures, write ups, research, interviews, etc. Furthermore, this could lead students to building communication skills among their peers, parents, teachers, etc.

Teaching current events provides countless opportunities for cooperative learning, classroom debates and discussions, and writing prompts that could follow. Using current events in the classroom can have a great impact on our students and help them improve tremendously.

Hug the Earth!

Today we got to pass around the Earth! We started off the class by thinking about ways we can teach students to save the Earth and inform them about all of the problems today involving the Earth. We were instructed to throw around a little Earth and hug the Earth when it come to us. When it was our turn and we were holding the Earth, we had to elaborate on how we could teach about geography, weather/climate, and ways to help the Earth. I went first and said what first came to my mind, which was taking my students on a mini field trip the local beach, or local park and have them clean up the area and help them realize how important it is to recycle, and how trashing our environment is slowly destroying it. Making the experience as interactive and visual as possible is essential when teaching students about the Earth, and social studies in general. A great way to teach geography is having students choose a place they are interested in, and research about it and eventually present their findings. A great tool for this is thing link, especially the 3D resource where students could choose their own country and teach the class about it through a virtual field fieldtrip!

Native American Tribe: Dine`

For the Native American Tribe project, our class used a jigsaw method to complete this project. We first met in our field work groups and then we each picked a Native American Tribe we wanted to study.  I picked the Dine` tribe. We then got into new groups and I found the Dine` group and got right to work. We each divided up the slides equally. I focused on the food, clothing, and habitats. It was very interesting studying this tribe because I honestly had never heard of it and I learned a lot about them. It’s interesting that clothes we wear today are navajo inspired and I’m pretty sure I own something or have definitely shopped somewhere where these patterns are designed. Its incredible how we can connect these tribes to our society today. After we were done creating a powerpoint, we presented. We each presented the slides we worked on. Then our class was able to give us feedback and see how we can improve. Our group worked very well together and I enjoyed working with them. They were all very helpful and hard working. 

This project was really helpful because prior to it, I had only heard about one of the tribes and did not know much about it. I learned about five different tribes through this project and learned ways to teach my future students about them. I got great ideas how to start off lessons and pre-ass, and use different tools to have a fun, interactive review. Most groups used kahoot for a review and one group used quiziz. These tools are excellent for a review because they are so fun and engaging, and students love it as they are actually learning. You have the opportunity to be in competition with your classmates too which is also really cool. There is always a winner as well which is encouraging for who ever was paying attention and focused during the presentations!

ED4ALL Conference

What is better than spending your saturday morning at the ED4ALL conference?! NOTHING! Today I spent my morning at the mount for the ED4ALL conference put on by KDP. Being honest, I was dreading it. I was not looking forward to sitting for 6 hours at a conference, but I am so glad I did because it had an awesome turn out and I enjoyed it very much. When you first arrived you had the opportunity to get some breakfast and coffee and find your seat. Then we all played a getting to know you BINGO which was really fun and engaging. Then the conference started out with a key note speaker who did an awesome job talking to us about technology. I learned so much through this key note speaker and she was very informative. Then we took a little break and  moved split up into the sessions we signed up for. I got there late, so I was placed in a double session learning about thinglink. At first, I was a little disappointed I was put into a double sessions, as I was dreading how slow the time would go by. But now as I am reflecting, I am so glad I was placed into this group. What an incredible experience it was. Words cannot explain how much I was impressed by what we were introduced to, and ways we can implement thing link into the classroom to make lessons interactive and engaging for the students. We learned about a 3D lesson using thing link. You are able to choose any picture and explore it on a laptop or phone, and make a full lesson out of it including pre-assessments, facts, vocabulary, assessments, etc. This was an incredible experience that I highly recommend to anyone, and I am so glad I went and experienced all of these wonderful, inspiring key note speakers.

Artifact Bag Project

Our class was instructed to create an artifact bag to present in class to our groups. An artifact bag is a mystery bag of items (artifacts) which student examine using their senses, analyze, and come to a conclusion about. It is common for students to be required to fill out a chart about the who, what, where, when , and why of each artifact during their examination to help them analyze the items.

My artifact bag related to the topic of my fieldwork lessons which was "The Battle That Changed History." My artifacts included a picture of where the battle took place (senlac hill), a picture of the normans and anglo-saxons battling each other, a crown, and a bow and arrow. These items all relate to the battle of hastings so the students after examining and analyzing them would come to the conclusion that all of these artifacts help understand how the battle changed history. Our class split into groups and we each presented our artifact bag project. As I was presenting, I had a google slides presentation up on the computer to guide me through the lesson. If I was teaching this in real life to a class, I would have the google slides follow through my teaching of this activity for a fifth grade class.

If I was going to actually teach this lesson, it would be taught through the inquiry process. The lesson would

begin with a review of the vocabulary words and then continue by going over the definition of an artifact if the students do not have background knowledge of the word. The scientific method would be reviewed, as in all Inquiry lessons. Then I would explain the chart that the students would be filling out. After all of the explanation is finished I will distribute the artifact bags and the students would begin their examination process. When the students have analyzed the items in their bags and completed their charts to come to a conclusion, they would be given the opportunity to present their findings. Each group would present their bags and their conclusion to the class.

Artifact bags are a great way to have students working hands on with manipulatives and discovering Social Studies ideas on their own with guidance from the teacher.
I will definitely utilize them in my own classroom when teaching Social Studies!