What's Happening

I believe that current events are an integral part in the learning process. Even younger students should be kept up to date on what is happening around them. Knowledge is power, as the saying goes, so the more students know, the better off they will be as individuals taking on this journey called life. 

In my Social Studies classroom, I plan on using current events as much as possible. Students will have the ability to share anytime a current event that they find to be interesting. Based on the content, I may even have the students complete an activity in class on current events. Students will research and look up articles that pertain to the content of the lesson. Students will then share with the class or with a partner what they have learned from their research. By doing this, the students will spread knowledge to the other students. I will then have my students form an opinion of the events and share with the class what their opinion is. This is an important skill for students to learn that can be used for the rest of their lives. 

The Journey Has Come to and End...

I can't believe this semester has just ended! It flew by. This semester in Social Studies was definitely a tough one, but it taught me a lot about myself. We had a lot of work throughout the semester, but in the end I learned so much about myself and who I am as a teacher. Our fieldwork experiences have allowed us to teach to a fourth grade classroom at Sacred Heart in New Windsor. I have always believed that learning is fun, so getting to show that to  the fourth graders was exciting for me. Each activity and lesson that I made made me that much closer to my dream of becoming a teacher. I am looking forward to the future and to see what it has in store for me. 

Who will be Hired?!

Today, we all came to class prepared to take part in an interview. When I walked in, the administrators were lined up in the front of the classroom. They then introduced themselves individually and what style of teacher they are looking for that would be a great fit for their school. After, the administrators spread out and conducted short interviews with each of the five groups. They asked questions such as: "What is your teaching philosophy?" and "How would you incorporate collaboration into the classroom?" 

All of the questions were well thought out and put together. They were real life questions that truly made me think. I pretended to be in an actual interview just to see how I would actually respond. At the end of it all, they hired five new teachers and I was one of them. All in all, I thought it was a great experience and a great way to end the semester!

Did the Students Truly Learn Anything?

Just like a pretest, post tests are just as important in the learning process. Post tests help determine what the students have learned and what they still struggle with. As educators, it is important for us to know what works best for our students. If the results come back saying the whole class got a certain question wrong, then that means I probably did not do a good enough job explaining the content. However, if the whole class got the question right, then that means that the majority of students understood the content making the educator not feel obligated to review or continue to teach that specific content. This helps with the assessments for the students and how to gage the difficulty level of the questions. 

All in all, post test results are crucial both for the educator as well as for the students. 

Judge Archer Needs Your Help!

Today is our last day of teaching and of fieldwork with the fourth graders at Saint Joseph's. On this day, we had a lot to setup so we wanted to get there at least 45 minutes early... but it didn't work out in our favor. The students all week were state testing and because this was the last day of their state testing, there were a few still testing when we got there. The front desk had told us that we weren't allowed to stay in the building, so we had to leave until most of the students were finished. We finally were able to come into the building (10 minutes before the lesson was supposed to start) and ad to quickly set up everything in the gym!! The gym is a tough place to teach because of how much it echoes, but worked with what we had at the moment. Someone ad brought us a computer screen to use and then the lesson began... with four students total. We carried on and eventually more and more students came into the gym, just in time for us to complete our activities that involved groups. The lesson was completed on time and everything really worked out. I was proud of not only myself, buy my whole group too. I couldn't have done it without them. One thing I learned from this day is that as a teacher, you've got to learn to roll with the punches because not everything is going to go as planned. 

Here We Go!

The day has come for our time to teach. We started off the lesson by introducing ourselves and reviewing their prior knowledge of the middle ages. Our lesson was based on the "Law and Order" of the middle ages. It was our direct instruction lesson. We started off by introducing Peasant Peter who stole a loaf of bread from the market. The students then learned about the different ordeals and trials that took place in a medieval court. 

All in all, the flow of this lesson went very well. The teachers and I rotated around the room which made it easier to keep on eye on the class while one teacher was teaching. We taught at a good pace and had just enough time for the students to start and/or complete their independent practice. I had a wonderful time teaching the fourth graders and they seemed to have had a great time learning the material we taught. 

Assessment is an Integral Part of Learning

As a future educator and as someone who grew up always being tested, I now understand the importance of assessment. Assessment determines whether or not the goals of education are being met. Once they aren't met, the goals of instruction change to help meet the needs of the student and/or the educator.

A pre-test measures what the students already know about the subject, however a post-test shows what the students have learned and understand after the lesson is completed. Post-tests are more so for the educator to see what needs modifying for next time or to see where he or she can help the student struggling. The tests help to pinpoint where the students need help the most. Having this information is key for continuing with the learning process.

The Importance of Artifacts

In elementary school, I remember looking at various types of artifacts. Well, what exactly is an artifact? An artifact is an item made by a human being that is typically an item of cultural or historical interest. Having artifacts is like having a piece of history in the palm of your hands. It takes you back in time and makes you see certain pieces of the past. 

For another one of our projects, we had to create our own artifact bags using artifacts from the middle ages. Being that this time period occurred many years ago, it was hard to find "real" artifacts pertaining to the middle ages. I did a little research and discovered the kinds of coins used in the markets, the keys used in the castles and the paintings that were made. Once we found our artifacts, we had to find a book and a website pertaining to the artifacts. 

In class, we all brought in our artifacts and shared what we found and why. I really enjoyed getting to see and touch the artifacts while I listened to the reasoning behind the artifacts. 

This was a learning experience for me because it made me realize how important artifacts really are and how helpful they are to the lessons. 

Planning Forever

We are the last group to go, but we wanted to get a super head start on the lessons. In total, we planned for six long weeks for these lessons. We met in the library late in the evening and planned. In the beginning, it was a lot of brainstorming, but as it got closer, we became focused and determined to finish the lessons. We made edits after edits until everything slowly started to come together. Once it came to the end, we rehearsed until we felt confident enough to teach it to the students. We used lots of technology and made lots of activities for the students to do. Even though we spent too much time planning, we were all happy in the end with our lessons. 

Batter Up!

Today, the first group stepped up to the plate (teach) and taught their direct lesson in a fifty minute time frame. The first group taught all about merchants and markets during the medieval times. Being that this lesson was taught to a fourth grade class at Saint Joseph's, my colleagues had to accommodate their lesson to the fourth grade standards.

I found that the whole group taught well together as a whole. Each teacher candidate walked around making sure all the students were on track and paying attention. This lesson was definitely interactive and engaging for the students. Being that this was the  first lesson, the students were a little hard to control because this was the first time the rules had to be established. 

While my colleagues were teaching. the rest of the class sat in the back of the room and observed everything that they were doing. We took notes on how they engaged the students and how they opened and closed the lesson, for example. I learned a lot from observing in the back of the classroom.

All in all, the first group did a phenomenal job! It's not easy going first!

Are pre-tests really that important?

The purpose of a pre-test is to test students knowledge on a particular topic in schools. Pre-tests are designed to pinpoint where the teacher should focus more on the lesson based on the results of the tests. If all the students get question 1 right, then the teacher knows not to review any of the concepts related to question 1. However, if half the class does not get question 6 right, then the teacher knows to review the concepts from that particular question. 

The process of creating a pre-test involves making a variety of questions that test what the students do and do not know. These questions may include: multiple choice, true/false, short answer and fill in the blank. The questions should be general and specific and geared towards what the students have learned previously. It also should be a fair variety of questions so the teacher can collect accurate data. 

For the social studies pre-test, each of the groups came up with 3-4 questions about their lesson topic. For example, my group is teaching law and order, so we came up with 4 questions pertaining to law and order in the middle ages. Then, we added the questions to Google Forms so one of my colleagues can put it together for the students. Once we received the results, we were able to figure out what we should focus on for our lesson. 

Digital Who??

During class on this day, we learned about the digital me projects. Digital me projects are basically ways to digitally explain who we are using different technology tools. A few examples of the tools are: Telegami, Word Cloud, Near Pod, and Animoto. 

For these projects, we took important information about ourselves and displayed it using the digital tools. For example, because this is a science based class, we discussed our experiences with science class growing up. We said what we liked and disliked about how the courses were taught and what we most remember. We also drew our own versions of scientists showing what we think a scientist looks like. 

My colleagues and I mostly talked about our friends and family and the things that we like to do. For example, there were a few of us that showed us pictures of their family while others just talked about their family to the class. For my digital me project, I did Fliptext as my digital me which takes any word that you type and flips it upside down. Flip Text could be used to test children's knowledge of a particular topic or through the use of a game to see what the students can figure out. It can also be used as a quick review for the students before beginning a new lesson. 

I think representing yourself digitally is easy and exciting. You can get as creative as you want about the projects while learning about so many different types of tools to use in the classroom. 

The Beginning of a Wonderful Journey

On Tuesday, February 7th, the Social Studies Methods class went into a fourth grade class at St. Joseph's to start fieldwork. As a class of twenty-five, we were split up into five groups and had to come up with a getting to know you activity. Each group came up with fun activities to get to know all about the students. For the group I was in, we created a coat of arms with questions such as "What us your heritage?" to learn more about the students. They seemed to enjoy the activity and were willing to talk about themselves. They shared things like how many people were in their family of what their favorite color was. After we all shared our coat of arms, we did a quick pre-test and asked them a few questions about the middle ages. Each student seemed to have a good understanding so far which was great to find out. After about fifteen minutes, we switched to the next group of students and did the same thing until we got through the whole class. It was nice to finally put a face to all the students. I am looking forward to a wonderful semester with them! 

The Importance of About Me's

About Me's are very important at the start of any class. As a future teacher, I would want to know as much about my students as I can. I think having students express themselves almost immediately builds a connection between you and the student as well as with their peers. Both you and the student will find common interests which will allow you to learn more about their personality and the things they love to do. It's important to not treat the students as if they are only a student; they need to feel like you are genuinely interested in who they are because that will only help them to grow. About Me questions are fun questions that allow students to express themselves and it allows them to get comfortable with you and the class. At the end of the day, it's important for the student to feel comfortable in your classroom and that will make them more willing to learn. 

History of Social Studies

Throughout school, I've really enjoyed my social studies classes. I especially enjoyed learning about American history, however I never found my teachers to be interested in the subject which made it harder to be interested in the subject as well. In my Social Studies classes, we mostly read the chapters and then answered whatever questions were at the end so I found the classes to be very predictable after awhile.  Due to this, I am really looking forward to learning how to teach social studies in a fun and exciting way. Fortunately, there are thousands of ways to incorporate technology into the learning process. I think it's important for children to have variety when learning because not every student learns the same way. What I am most looking forward to out of this class is learning how to incorporate technology into the lesson and see how the students respond to it.