Final Thoughts: Here's What I Learned

As the semester comes to a close, I want to share a few things I have learned from my social studies methods class.

1. Technology is a fantastic resource to use in a classroom and it is important to be comfortable using it.
2. Test your limits and step outside your comfort zone.
3. Work with other people.
4. Take constructive criticism.
5. Give constructive criticism.
6. Social studies should be meaningful, value-based, integrative, challenging, and active.
7. Current events projects are a great way to keep social studies relevant

This class was an eye-opening experience for me. Although it was overwhelming at times, I am walking away with a better understanding of social studies and the best ways to teach it, more confidence in my ability to use technology, and the confidence it takes to teach a whole class.

Designing an e-Portfolio

          This semester, we were required to design an e-portfolio to compile all of our work throughout the course. Inside the e-portfolio, we were to include our philosophy on teaching social studies, our unit plans, and the first three tasks of the edTPA, among other things. This task proved to be more difficult than I expected.

          Although we had the majority of the work already done, it took a great deal of time to compile it all into this e-portfolio. The root of my struggle came from my unfamiliarity with the LiveBinder site. To a beginner, this site can be extremely confusing because it offers an abundance of options to customize the e-portfolio. However, once I became familiar with the site, I was able to use it to it's full potential.

          It is easy to see why this site is so useful. Looking back at my completed e-portfolio, I can see why it would be so attractive to a future employer. Everything looks clean and organized. It is easy to navigate through the use of clickable tabs. I am able to clutter it with resources and information, yet still have it look professional and organized. Even thought the experience was difficult and overwhelming at time, I am thankful that I was introduced to this useful resource and was allowed an opportunity to practice using it.

Course Reflection

          

          Upon completion of my social studies methods course, I can't help but look back at everything I have accomplished in this class throughout the semester. As I entered the course, I remember feeling scared and overwhelmed by the fact that the entire course would be online. I do not consider myself a tech savy person at all, so I knew that this aspect of the course would prove to be a challenge for me. However, as I progressed through the course, things got a little easier. I began to become familiar with many of the online resources we were required to use. This course forced me to develop my skills in using technology.  In my future classroom, I definitely want to utilize technology to enhance my lessons, and this course provided me with a great deal of resources I can use to do that. 

          Along with forcing me to become more comfortable with technology this course forced me to reflect more than I have in any other methods course. I was responsible for reflecting on my own teaching as well as on my peers. Learning to give and take constructive feedback are useful skills that will only further my learning. I enjoyed receiving feedback from my peers because I respect them all as future educators. I was eager to hear their suggestions for me. I wanted to use these suggestions to make me better. They offered a different perspective than I could provide for myself and a different perspective from that of my instructor. Their feedback was extremely useful throughout the semester and I thank them for it.

          Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my Social Studies lesson course. This course tested my limits and brought me outside my comfort zone. I believe that it has made me better prepared to enter the teaching field in the near future. 

Fieldwork Reflection

          

          This semester, I completed my fieldwork in a 5th grade classroom in Bishop Dunn Memorial School. I co-taught with 4 of my colleagues. We were responsible for designing and teaching three lessons on the exploration and foundation of the original 13 English colonies. We had to design a direct instruction lesson, and inquiry lesson, and a cooperative learning lesson.

          This fieldwork was a first for me as I had never co-taught with anyone, and I had never taught a whole class lesson. In all of my previous fieldwork placements, I designed lessons and worked one-on-one with a student. This experience gave me the opportunity to practice skills that would be more realistic in my future teaching career. It is great to work with a student one-on-one, but that is not realistic for my future career. I had to learn to work with my colleagues this semester. We had to work productively together to design and implement our lessons. This was easier said than done.

          We all approached designing lessons with our own unique teaching style and our own ideas. It was difficult, at first, to find something that we all agreed on. However, when we did, we were able to create some really engaging lessons. Designing lessons was definitely the most difficult part because we had to combine so many ideas into one lesson. The most time consuming part of the lesson designing process was actually making the PowerPoint presentations. We wanted to make sure our slides were engaging and detailed, so we took a good deal of time designing each one.

Overall, I think we did a great job designing and teaching our lessons. We overcame disagreements in a mature and respectful way. Our lessons ran smoothly in the classroom and the students seemed to enjoy them. This fieldwork experience was a very positive one.

Mock Interview Day

        In class today, we went through a series of mock interviews where we answered questions about direct instruction, inquiry, cooperative learning, differentiation, and assessment. Four of our fellow classmates took on the role of school administrators and came up with interview questions to ask us.

        The questions were all extremely thought provoking and required us to rely heavily on the content we had learned throughout the semester. I thought each administrator did a good job of coming up with appropriate questions to ask. They expected us to know our information and be able to give an educated, thoughtful reply. The hardest part of this activity was formulating a response quickly enough so that there was not an awkward pause in the conversation. Having no idea what you are going to be asked is a scary thought. You have to be ready to answer a variety of questions and you need to be able to gather your thoughts quickly and efficiently.

        I enjoyed this activity because it was a fun way to practice the interviewing process. Soon enough, I will be graduating and going to a series of interviews to try and find a job. It is extremely useful for me to practice these skills so that I will be more prepared when it comes time to go to a real interview!

My Current Events Project

             For my current events project, I worked with my colleague Matt. We chose to base our current events presentation and activity on mass shootings in America. We found an article from the LA Times that puts these mass shootings in order from the most recent dating all the way back to 1984. We created a PowerPoint presentation in which we introduced the topic, and provided additional resources for students to use in their research. As our activity, we provided a variety of online resources to create timelines of some of the major shootings in America. We showed how there are many different types of timelines and linked a bunch of resources to the PowerPoint. 

          Through the process of designing a current events lesson, I saw the importance of implementing current events in the classroom. We decided to use a timeline after reading the article from the Free Technology for Teachers website. The article named timelines as one way to allow students to visually explore the news. I can definitely see myself using current event in my future classroom. Depending one what grade I teach I will have to adjust my lesson. Obviously, I would not use an article on mass shootings in a first grade classroom. I would adjust the articles I use and the activities I implement so that they are appropriate for the grade level. I would definitely use the Newsela website because you can increase and decrease the lexile level to fit the grade level. This will be a great resource to use in my future classroom.

Economics

Economics PowerPoint

        Attached to this post, you will find my class' Economics PowerPoint. My group was responsible for slides 39-41. Our task was to discuss the 5 principles of teaching economics. The five principles for teaching economics are meaningful, integrative, value-based, challenging, and active. We explored what each of these five principles means and ways to make lessons hit all 5 principles. We also came up with three possible lessons for our unit on the 13 colonies that address all 5 principles.
        I thought this assignment was important because often times economics is not touched upon until middle school or high school, but there are many ways to incorporate it into an elementary school. Growing up I was fortunate enough to have a program in my school called Junior Achievement. This was an economics program that a parent volunteered to run in our class each year starting in kindergarten. I had the privilege of teaching a Junior Achievement session in my mom's kindergarten class this past year because she had no parent volunteers. The lessons are all pre-made, I just had to implement them in the classroom. We read stories and talked about the concepts of spending and saving money. We also learned the names of all the coins. The kids really enjoyed the sessions and at the end, they each received a piggy bank and a certificate of achievement. I think that programs like these are so important because they teach students real life skills that they will use every day.

Choose To Be Grateful

        Today I read a New York Times article on choosing to be grateful. It emphasized the fact that being grateful doesn't always have to be genuine. Acting grateful can lead you to becoming more grateful in an authentic way. The article encourages being grateful for the important things in live along with the less important things.

        This article really stood out to me because I try to live my live in a positive, grateful way. I notice myself feeling better when I find something to be grateful for in every situation. Recently I was in a minor car accident on a highway going at least 65 miles an hour. The car that hit me was a big SUV and I was driving a small Honda Civic. The other driver went to switch lanes without looking and hit the side of my car leaving a huge wheel mark and dent on my drivers side door. While this situation was obviously not ideal and I had every reason to dwell on the negative and be very upset, I thought about how grateful I was for what happened. I was going 65 miles per hour, and had the other driver hit me anywhere else on my car I may not have been able to keep control of the vehicle and things could have ended up much worse. I was grateful that the man was willing to accept full responsibility for the accident and pay for the repairs to my car. It is easy to be grateful when things are going well, but it is hard to stay grateful in a bad situation.

        I can see myself using the principles of this article in my future classroom. It is a good idea to encourage positive thinking in students. I might use a wall of my classroom and title it "Things We're Grateful For..." I would leave a stack of colored index cards near the wall and encourage students to write down the things they are grateful for and post them on the wall. I would emphasize the fact that it could be something as small as being grateful it was a sunny day or something as large as welcoming a new brother or sister. My hope, would be that students finds things to be grateful for every day and they focus more on the good things in their lives, rather than focusing on the bad.