The Next Chapter of My Journey

As I reflect on my journey throughout this course, I realize the meaningful and life changing effects that it has on my teaching and myself personally. This has not been an easy course. I had to push myself out of my comfort zone and work extra hard in order to do the best that I can do while improving my skills. Although it was challenging, it helped me to learn even more about social studies, teaching methods, and about myself.

When presenting our unit plan in front of a 5th grade classroom, it was the first time that I ever had to actually teach a lesson in front of a whole classroom. It was nerve wracking and exciting at the same time. I felt like an actual teacher and that the students were my own students. I never felt this connection before in any of my other methods classes. I did gain some great experiences in those classes because I worked one-on-one with students but I never got the chance to teach a whole classroom.

Working with my peers on the unit plan was a great experience. My group worked extremely well together. We all were able to contribute to the unit plan in our own ways. I felt that my group demonstrated the Jigsaw Method well by each of us assigning ourselves our own roles when breaking down the unit plan. We each had a variety of roles that we contributed together and we each voiced our thoughts and ideas to one another. The majority of our ideas were combined and put together in this unit plan. One important thing that I learned about the unit plan process is to give yourself a lot of time before you have to conduct the unit plan. This was a lengthy process that takes many days to complete. It is important that you start early in order to get it done beforehand so that you can make finishing touches and even backup activities.

I feel that I have learned a lot about myself in this course. I always felt that I was shy and not very good at presenting in front of people. At the closing of this course, I feel completely different from the way that I felt from the beginning of the course. I feel a lot more comfortable with presenting and teaching in front of people now. When I was teaching and presenting my unit plan to the 5th grade students, I felt confident and I felt that I belonged there teaching these students. It was a powerful feeling that I enjoy and will hold onto. My goal is to improve my skills even more in teaching by practicing presenting in front of people and developing unit plans.

I feel that I am ready to become a teacher due to my experiences and discoveries. I feel that I have learned a lot about the unit plan process and I feel comfortable with developing them. I love the three major instruction methods that we taught this semester: direct instruction, indirect/inquiry instruction, and cooperative learning instruction. I will definitely be incorporating these types of lessons in my future classroom. These lessons really helped the students to understand the lessons more, develop their thinking and scientific method skills, as well as their social skills by working together with their peers. I also loved the Jigsaw Method because when I was a student I always felt that I was unable to contribute in my groups. This method really gave students the chance to contribute and be responsible for their participation. The activities we conducted (Native American Tribe project, Current Events, Artifact Bag, Economics Presentation) helped me to learn a lot more about social studies and how to teach it effectively to students. I will definitely be incorporating these projects into my future classroom.

I really enjoyed this course because the lessons and teaching methods that I learned were engaging for the students and were meaningful because they were able to apply what they were learning in various ways. This is what helped me to decide my philosophy of teaching statement which is, "Teachers are able to make a difference for all students through learning by engaging them in the lessons using a variety of teaching methods and providing them the opportunity to make connections to their own lives." I feel like this statement really applies to how I feel about teaching and one of the important things that I learned from this course. I also feel that this statement incorporates the 5 powerful Social Studies Elements (Meaningful, Integrative, Value-Based, Challenged, Active). These elements are important when developing unit plans because it is important that these unit plans are effective and mean something to these students in order for them to learn.

As I continue the next chapter towards becoming a teacher, I will definitely be using all of the teaching methods and resources that I learned from this course. With my new goals and skills, I will keep improving my teaching in order to make a difference in the lives of students.

My Experience with the Survey on Learning to Teach Social Studies

As we are reaching the conclusion of my social studies methods course, I participated in a survey to test my knowledge of social studies and how to teach it. This survey was done on Google Forms.

Overall, I felt that I did a good job on this survey. There were many questions on the main areas of social studies that we covered such as Geography, History, Economics, Civics, etc. I feel that I have gained a lot of knowledge on these areas through the projects that I created and participated in with my peers. The majority of the questions were questions that students would have to answer in their social studies regents test. In the beginning of this course, I was never confident when it came to Social Studies because I never did well on the tests and struggled with my knowledge of it. I was nervous before taking this survey. However, when I was taking the survey, I felt completely confident and could answer every question. I feel that my knowledge of social studies has really improved from this course. I was especially able to apply my knowledge when it came to questions on the concepts and skills gained from each area of social studies and how to teach these areas.

I feel confident in my knowledge of social studies. I feel this way especially after taking this course. I feel that I am ready to teach social studies and that I am able to handle each area as an expert. I recommend that the future students of this course take this survey at the end in order for them to reflect and gain confidence in their knowledge of social studies.

Mock Interview Experience

Today I was involved in a mock interview in my social studies methods course. Dr. Smirnova selected 4 students to be administrators and they came up with their own background stories of what they do and how they became one. The rest of us had to come dressed and prepared to answer their questions regarding the important concepts that we have learned in this course. We had to go into our groups and each answer the questions. 

I was pretty nervous about this mock interview because interviews have always made me nervous. I tried to answer all of the questions to the best of my ability and did not leave one question unanswered. The best question that I was asked was "if each learning component was composed of the structures of a house, would assessment fall under the foundation, the walls, or the roof?" I felt that this was a very powerful and unique question that I never expected to be asked. I needed a moment to really think and reflect on the question through my prior-knowledge and my experiences. My answer was that assessment would be the roof since it covers the whole entire lesson. Assessment is extremely important in the lesson because it gets students to access their prior knowledge, reflect through the lesson, and reflect on their experience and what they learned. 

I feel like I really need to work on my confidence as a teacher. I felt by getting nervous it prevented me from answering the question with a confident expression. I feel that it would be best for me to attend and practice some more mock interviews in order for me to succeed when the actual interviews come my way in the future. This was a great experience that showed me that overall I did a very good job during the mock interview process but need a little more practice when it comes to my confidence. 

Expressing Gratitude in Your Life and in the Classroom

As the holiday seasons are approaching us, it is important to stop and reflect on what we are grateful for. The holiday seasons gives us an opportunity to spend time with our families and friends. Even though life can prove to be difficult and challenging at times, it is important that we take a second to look at what and who we have around us that makes us the people that we are today. This New York Times article gave me the idea to stop and reflect on what I am grateful for personally. 

Personally, I am grateful for all the people that I have in my life. I am so thankful for my supportive and loving family. These people are always there for me no matter what and always care about what is going on in my life. It is especially good to see them during the holiday seasons. I love having my family all together. I am also thankful for all my friends. We always have a great time together and I am so thankful to have such supportive friends in my life. I am grateful for my present performance in college and my journey to becoming a teacher. I can't wait for the future that is ahead of me for my teaching experiences. 

As effective teachers, the students look up to us as models. Not only is it important that we teach the students the curriculum and build their skills, but it is also important that we model how we express and give the students an understanding of what gratitude is. One way that the students can learn gratitude is by reflecting what they are grateful for in journals. You can incorporate writing journals into the classroom and have the students write down whatever they want in them for a certain amount of time every day. The teacher could encourage the students to write down what they are grateful for as one of the writing exercises and give examples to the students so that they understand what gratitude means. The students could also write letters to their families and/or friends about why they are grateful to have them in their lives. 

Learning to Teach Economics Project

Dr. Smirnova created an activity for us to complete to give us a better understanding of the Economics topic of Social Studies while giving us the experience of working cooperatively with our peers. She gave us a list of numbers with a task assigned to them and gave us the option to pick one of the numbers to contribute to the classroom PowerPoint on economics. I chose the first number and task which was to "Research the definition of economics and explain how you will introduce the term to the first grade and to the 5th grade students." For each number that we picked, we also had a partner. My partner and I had to work together to contribute our task to the classroom PowerPoint.

The classroom PowerPoint was called Engaging Students in Studying Economics

When first deciding on how we were going to begin this task, we made it clear that we needed to assign ourselves roles. These roles were our own separate tasks that we needed to complete for the PowerPoint so that we each could contribute equally and learn from the information that we each gathered for the task. We split the task in half in order to be experts on what we were assigned and to learn from one another on what we gathered. My role was to research the definition of economics while my partners role was to explain how you will introduce the term to the first grade and to the 5th grade students.

There are many definitions to the topic of Economics. I researched throughout the internet the various definitions of this term. Each definition that I came across was slightly different and added information that was not present in other definitions. I recorded the most effective definitions that consists of the main ideas of economics. I gathered definitions from Free Dictionary.com on the term Economics, the American Economic Association, Lionel Ribbon's personal definition, and a webpage dedicated to Economics called What is Economics? I felt that these were a great variety of definitions for this term. 

My partner and I communicated with each other our ideas and what we should contribute to the PowerPoint slides. I taught my partner the definitions that I researched and she taught my the different ways to introduce the term. We agreed on what to add to the slides and then we contributed it. This is a great Cooperative Learning lesson because we became experts on the information that we researched based on our roles, we taught each other the information that we learned, and we contributed to the class. This is a great example of the Jigsaw Method because we each had a responsibility and we needed to complete our roles in order to contribute to the class. This is a great activity to use in the classroom when teaching Economics because students will be able to become experts on a certain aspect of Economics and will be able to get the opportunity to learn more about Economics from their peers. 

An Effective Resource for Teaching Economics

Planning is an important part of every lesson that teachers teach to the students in the classroom. It is important that teachers create effective lesson plans and activities that will help students to learn in the best way possible. In order to plan an effective lesson, it is important that the lessons and activities are connected to the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) themes and the academic disciplines that make up the social studies curriculum.

The Annenberg Learner's website on Applying Themes and Disciplines is a helpful tool for teachers to use when creating lessons that incorporate all the main areas of Social Studies. This is extremely helpful when planning lesson plans on Economics. This website is a great way for teachers to practice creating effective lesson plans for teaching economics. Teachers can complete the assignments that are listed under each tab located on the left-hand side of the website. Under Session 4, the tabs consists of Engage, Explore, Explain, Apply, Evaluate, Resources, Printouts, and Assignments. Teachers have the opportunity to explore these tabs which consists of articles, videos, and reflection questions to help them create effective lessons on economics that will cover a variety of important Social Studies standards and disciplines. This website is a great resource for teachers because it also includes a lot of information including graphic organizers and frameworks to help teachers get started. 

As teachers, we are constantly looking for the best way to communicate the lessons to the students in order for them to gain a better understanding of what they are learning. We are also trying to find ways to have the students take the next step in improving their social studies skills. I definitely recommend taking a look at this website and experiencing the resources that it has to offer. 

My Artifact Bag Experience

Today, Dr. Smirnova split us into groups by assigning us a number from 1-5. I was placed into the same group as the people who had the same number as me. I presented my Artifact Bag to my group.

I started off by presenting my PowerPoint Presentation. I called my group "historian detectives" and I told them that today they will be discovering who the historical figure is by analyzing and researching the artifacts that they are given. I also told them that they will contributing to the 5W's interactive Chart and will be reflecting on their experience after the activity. I then presented my artifact bag. On the bag, I decorated it with a pictures that said history on a scroll, a detective badge and accessories, and a big question mark with a magnifying glass. I took out the first artifact which was the Mayflower Compact. I printed out a picture of it and placed it in a Ziploc bag. I told the students to handle the artifact delicately since it is a primary source. Each student got to hold and get a look at the artifact. I then presented the next two artifacts which was a photograph of Plymouth Colony in a Ziploc bag and the Holy Bible. I then presented the interactive 5 W's Chart and had the group discuss and identify the artifacts. They worked very well together and gave each other many different ideas. There were two
members holding the artifacts and questioning what they were and who they relate to and another member recording their responses on the 5 W's Chart while also giving ideas. I helped provide a little input when the members asked me some questions about the artifact. I encouraged the group members to think critically about the artifacts. The group came to a conclusion and guessed right that it was William Bradford that the artifacts connected to. William Bradford signed the Mayflower Compact, he was the governor of Plymouth Colony, and he was a Separatist when it came to the view of the Holy Bible.

I then showed my group members a book that can be used for further learning about William Bradford and what occurred during that time. The book is called "The Landing of the Pilgrims" by James Daugherty. I also presented some interactive websites that teachers can use for resources about the facts of William Bradford, a cartoon video about his life, some unit plan ideas, and an activity booklet. The suggested formative assessment for teachers for this activity would be to have the students print out the 5 W's chart so that each students has a chance to write down their ideas and then have them contribute to the online interactive chart. The suggested summative assessment for teachers would be to give a small google forms quiz on the artifact bag or to give an independent practice where students come up with their own artifact bags regarding history. The group members gave me many encouraging reflections at the closing of the project.

This was a great experience for my first time presenting an artifact bag. I will definitely use this in my future classroom. I will also have the students complete their own and share them.