Final Journal/blog final submission

Throughout the semester, I have learned a lot about my learning habits and what I need to improve on in order to be a more successful student. I believe that although this course had a lot of work, if I had been more organized I would not have been as stressed at the end of the semester. I believe that Dr. Smirnova is an extremely talented woman who taught me how to incorporate technology with the majority of projects and assignments that I do at school. Throughout this course, I learned the differences between direct instruction, inquiry, and cooperative lesson plans. In addition, I learned how to work well in groups and be able to divide the work evenly in order to have a successful project (unit plan). I believe that I had success with the amount of effort I put in to each assignment that I completed for this class. I truly spent dedicated hours of time completing each and every assignment that was due by the end of the semester, as well as blogging and wiki. I am really happy that I took this class because I learned so many new exciting ways that I can make my lesson plans better. I now fully understand the importance of incorporating technology in to students learning because technology is the future. As a teacher, you need to always stay on top of the current technology and new learning styles that are available for your students in order to be the best that they can be. I plan on using woordle, biz world, kidspiration, imagination, my social studies text book, and all other programs that I was taught during this class in my future. The fact that Dr. Smirnova is usually available at any time of the night and always willing to help me when I am unsure of an assignment was really great because I never felt intimidated to ask her. I believe that I would not say I had any failures during this class. I would agree that I struggled at times with completing assignments the day they were do, but towards the end of the semester I pushed myself 100% with my blogging, wiki, and finishing the assignments that were do 100% effort. I gained so much knowledge from this class and I am so happy that I did. I gained the knowledge of the difference between a unit plan and lesson plans, the issue with bullying in schools, how Montessori schools are ran, how to use New York State and National standards appropriately within a lesson plan, how to use wiki, and incorporate different types of technology to make learning for students more successful. I am different today than I was compared to the beginning of the course because I am now aware of the potential I have as a student. I was stressed because of the amount of work with this class, but once I put my mind to it and realized that as long as I tried my hardest and did all that I could do than that is better than doing nothing at all. I am different now because I know how to make a successful blog, a wiki unit plan, and work together in classrooms teaching children about social studies teaching with different strategies. My social studies teaching plans are to be encouraging and getting the students excited about learning social studies. I plan on getting the students excited by using a powerful motivator/hook in the beginning of my lessons, using prezi and powerpoint, videos, and hands-on activities, and class discussions while teaching social studies to students. The type of Social Studies classroom that I would like to create would be a welcoming classroom where students can feel free to express their opinions and be able to participate in class. I plan on having a lot of educational posters around the room to make is colorful and exciting. In addition, I want to have computers in my classroom so that the students can do cooperative group projects together and be able to use the computer as a resource. Also, now that I know about how amazing the smart board is I plan on incorporating this in my classroom, in addition to notebook/journals, and textbooks.

Voki

Voki!

I am happy that Dr. Smirnova showed us about voki while reviewing the wiki because this seems like a very good eye catching tool that teachers can use in order to get students attention. Many young students, especially in elementary school are interested in technology that is animated, and the fact that on voki you can select and animate a character to say what you would like for free is pretty neat. I went on the website to see what it was about and it ended up being a lot more fascinating than I thought it would be. First when you go on the website you get to pick what character you want to choose.. there are boys and girls, presidents, and holiday characters to choose from. There are even specific clothing and other specifics that you can add to your characters physical appearance for your own preference. After your character is set up you can add what you would like him/her to say by phone, microphone, or by typing in the text box. This is a great welcoming tool to use for a hook/motivator for students to get drawn in to the lesson. After you voki is made you can transfer your video to your lesson plan !

Social Studies Philosophy Statement

Social Studies Philosophy Statement

My philosophy statement for being a Social Studies teacher is for students to have a positive experience in the classroom, and to learn knowledge that they can carry with them for the rest of their lives.  I want go get students eager to learn each and every day! In addition, I do not want to just throw out facts about history to the students, but to think of an enthusiastic and creative teaching style that will help the students to learn the best way that they can. Also, I want to provide the students with a healthy learning environment where the student can feel free to ask questions and participate in the classroom. The students need to know that I am willing to help them no matter what it is that they find challenging. My students should be able to take the acquired knowledge that I teach them and be able to use it in their lives. I will always be a role model to the students can be someone that they can look up to. Students need to know the importance in history and I plan on getting that point across by being enthusiastic, creative, and fun. I plan on knowing how each and every individual child in my classroom knows best from what type of lesson, to the different types of activities that will be needed to teach in order to succeed. I will always incorporate technology and hands on activities as well as group reading sessions to balance out technology and books. I will always think of the future and how I can be the best teacher that I can be.

  

Free Technology for Teachers

current events

The website about current event news in the elementary classroom is a very insightful and helpful tool that teachers can use to help get ideas on how to go about teaching current events in the classroom. There are ideas that can be used for all elementary grades, some ideas extremely specific and more in depth, while others are a beginner stage for learning about current events.



The SS scott foresman textbook is another great website that is easy to use and follow for looking at current events. The website is kid friendly and colorful, which would get students excited to learn about what is happening in the news.

For 6th grade a current event idea i may incorporate in my classroom would be the 5 w"s :

The Five Ws
Introduce students to the 5Ws found in most news stories. Often, the five Ws are introduced in a story's opening paragraph. Create an overhead transparency of a major news story. Invite students to talk about the who, where, when, what, and why of the story. Circle or highlight and label the areas of the story that tell each of the five Ws. Then provide each student or group of students with a news story and ask them to report to the class the who, where, when, what, and why of the story. Students might underline each of the five Ws with a different colored crayon.

**I think that this would be a great way for 6th grade students to realize the importance of current events and be able to make sense of the different components within the article. Highlighting the w's will make the student explore the article and think more in depth by making connections and organizing the underlying thought of the article. It is important to know the five w's and starting off as a class discussion/ activity to make sure each individual student understands the concept is smart before making each student do his/her own article.

For 1st grade, I would use  news mapping

News Mapping
Post a map (a community, state, U.S., or world map, depending on the focus of your current events curriculum) on a bulletin board. Post stories around the map and string yarn from each story to the location on the map where the story takes place.

** I think that new mapping is a fun and creative way to get children excited about learning about current events. Because 1st grade is a very young age where students are learning to read, the fact that the students can work together to find out where each article comes from will not only make them get insight of where the article comes from but also get students to learn about places on the map, and start to learn about geography!

 

Native American Jigsaw

N A T I V E   A M E R I C A N    J I G S A W

I learned about Native Americans by learning about their history in social studies classes and college classes also. The jigsaw activity helped to expand my knowledge on Native Americans by making me brainstorm and remember previous knowledge that I already knew. Also through research on the internet, our social studies text book, and a college text book I had with Native American myths I was able to broaden my knowledge and expand on the details of the lifestyle and beliefs of the Native Americans.

This project helped to develop my content knowledge because this was a social studies project and content knowledge is specific knowledge related to social studies. By using our social studies text book and learning about the different types of knowledge (content, pedagogical, pedagogical content) I was able to further understand the different types of content and understanding which could benefit by doing the Native American jigsaw project.

 I learned from my group member through cooperative learning and by using positive interdependence where the group work together and was able to succeed because we divided the workload, had responsibility to master our individual topic, and then teach the rest of the group our topic in order for our project to be successful. I believe that nothing prevented me from gaining new knowledge because I worked extremely hard on my individual part of my project, and I worked with a great group that each contributed to the project by doing research and teaching their parts to the rest of the group.

I learned a lot about cooperative learning methods by reading the social studies textbook. I learned that it is an approach and set of strategies specifically designed to encourage student cooperation with learning. Also, it is found that students learn as well or better with cooperative learning because it gives a positive self-image, improves the attitude and acceptance of classmates, shows higher academics and increased motivation. In addition, I learned that there are four important goals with cooperative learning which I found to be very useful. Number one is positive interdependence where students work together and this provides group success because there are joint rewards, divided workload, and responsibility. Number two is positive student interaction where students individually master their topics and then teach the rest of the group. Number three is students work to develop adequate interpersonal and small group skills which is to evaluate the group skill by planning and working together. Number four is awareness of the need for group processing and this is how well the goals were accomplished; evaluate individual goals, student responsibility, and group function.

         



Artifact bag

                                                                                      Artifcat Bag project!


Artifact #1 American flag
Topic: citizenship and Economics
*symbol of citizenship
*significance of flag
*what is freedom? Why is it important?
I chose the artifact of an American flag because it is important for students to know how the United States of America started and why we have freedom. Students should also know what the flag represents, the significance of the flag, and how the country has grown throughout history. To make the lesson fun I would incorporate a lesson about citizenship by doing a group project where students could design their own citizenship flag. Students can learn about our patriotic country by using patriotic songs, games, picture books, learning what a citizen is and how each and every citizen in society benefits themselves and others.



Artifact #2 American Money
Topic:Citizenship and Economics
. I chose the artifact of American curreny because it is important for students to know the value of money, where it comes from, and how to obtain it. Students should also know why they should save and when is it necessary to spend money,.

I chose this artifact because I would want to tie together the concept of being a citizen with artifact number one of the American flag and how American citizens must pay taxes as a responsibility of being a citizen. In order to pay taxes a citizen must have money which ties into economics and artifact number two of American money.

Do you think Artifact bags are important?

I believe that artifact bags are a great way to stimulate group conversation and get students excited about learning social studies. Students get to explore a new lesson by having something that is hands on or visual in order to get them excited and benefit from the lesson more. From my own personal experience as an elementary student, I remember that I would get very excited for a lesson when I knew it was something I could look at , see, touch, or feel because this was out of the ordinary and fun to learn about. Artifact bags are convenient and a creative way to get students involved in the lesson. I believe artifact bags will promote previous knowledge from the students and may have them brainstorm more to come up with new ideas about the social studies topic being studied. Overall , I plan on using an artifact bag throughout my social studies lessons as a future teacher.