Collaboration

 

Working with my group members I have learned many important things about collaborating. It has helping me realize the power of collaborating with other teachers within the educational community. There are so many great ideas out there and when you work together to make a lesson, the students are benefitting greatly.

Two Heads is Better Then One!!!!

Working with Angela and Faith was a great experience, we all put great ideas out there and we were able to expand on the idea to make it the most beneficial to students that it could be. This experience has also helped me realize that I am great at working with others, not just on projects but on creating ideas. We were so excited everytime someone else would come up with something, then we added and expanded on the idea until it came together. There was always someone there bringing a specific talent to the table. I know that I lack skills within creativity, so having two people to assist me in broadening my view was great. They helped bring my creative gene out, and I also was able to contribute my array of ideas within lesson activities.

This is something that we need to continue to do when we start teaching in our own classroom. We need to realize there are teachers out there that have been working for many years and they hold thousands of great ideas. Teaching is a science, you try something and if it works you can improve it, if it doesnt you make adjustments until it is observed to be successful. Then those methods and strategies can be used by other teachers. The reason this is important is because it is all about the students within education, we want our students to get the most of of every single lesson. Using the knowledge of other teacher, collaboration, and your very own ideas will help you in achieving this.

BE OPEN TO COLLABORATION!

Direct Instuction Groups 3 & 4

New strategies! New inspiration! New Ideas!

Observing my peers teach a direct instruction lesson plan has taught me a lot, things that I never though of to make a lesson more engaging to students when you are just providing facts and concepts. The students today not only learned about facts, they gained a skill. One group had the class write an autobiography while having them listen in on the facts and concepts within the lesson. They learned what an autobiography is and how to start the process of writing one using the information that they were provided. There were a lot of things that went well, the groups new there roles and someone always took charge. There was a predominant leader in each group, but each team member still played an important role.

 The students really seemed to get a lot out of each lesson and were clear on what the task was. However, there were some pieces that could have been improved. When assigning groups in one of the lessons, the students were very unsure about where they belonged. It was not clear who was in each group and it felt kind of rushed. I would have liked to see the groups get more direction to which group they fall within. Another part that I think needs improvement is the equality among the group members. It did not feel as though each team member played an equal role in delivering the information. I think that every group member needs to realize their importance to  the team and take a dominant role in delivering the information.

I learned a lot of things and even some things surprised me. When learning about John Smiths life, I learned many facts that i was not aware of before. It was great to know that as a teacher I can learn from my peers and take on new information and strategies. Overall the teams did a great job providing the information to the students. I want to remark that I would LOVE Corey as my teacher, he was hilarious and the students really responded well to him ( he also provided A LOT of great information! GREAT JOB)

Making Discoveries! Groups 1 and 2

INQUIRY AND BEYOND!

I have gained already a lot of knowledge within this type of lesson, and I never realized that students can benefit from inquiry lessons within social studies just like in science. By now I have gained a lot of knowledge about my students, who is going to answer questions, who needs extra help and who is going to fool around. This is knowledge I gained from just one lesson prior with them. I can not wait to have my own class so I can develop an even deeper understanding of my students and a greater relationship with them. From this lesson I learned that students are able to apply the knowledge they have learned to the task at hand. They are excited and ready to learn which is a great feeling for my as a teacher. 

This lesson, was very successful, the students understood the task and were able to go about creating their own newspaper. I feel the activity was very motivating and engaging for students. They understood what the treasure hunt was and how they would use the hints to fill out their newspaper. While walking around the room I though i was going to have to help them come up with answers and formulate an understanding, but infact the opposite happened. Before I could even ask a prompting question, they had the answer. This was great to see, it was exciting for me because I knew that something I had helped come up with was being successfully used to develop even greater understanding. I felt as though the pre assessment was great to refresh the students on what we learned, and the modeling was done in a way that students were drawn in to watch and they understood what their task was going to be. 

The part of this lesson that needs to be readjusted was the fact that we ran out of time.We spent too much time reviewing and pre assessing that there was not ample time to finish the activity at hand. Students were rushed to create and develop their newspapers and unfortunately we did not have the time to present our findings. This is something we must take into consideration and adjust for next time. I feel as though if we had another 15 minutes the students would have been able to successfully complete the task and present their findings. 

I learned a lot doing this particular lesson, I learned that there are already soo many great ideas out there that are available to us as new teachers and we truly need to take advantage of them. The strategies that are used have been proven to get students attention and engage them. STudents can gain knowledge from these activities and they can have fun while doing it. I learned the power of t he treasure hunt activity, I saw how the students were highly engaged and they were understanding how the hints correlated to the concepts. Seeing that they were able to make the connections, and make inferences is a higher order of thinking that I want my students to do. 

Watching the other lesson, I got some new ideas for my own class. Creating a broadcast system. This is using social studies to its fullest potential. I feel as though the students were excited to do this activity, and the directions were clear enough for them to understand what the task was. Gina did a great job modeling what she expected from them, using a relevant story that they have all heard before. She assessed their prior knowledge and successfully prepared them for the activity at hand.

The text really dives into inquiry lessons and what you need to teach them. This really helped me develop this lesson, first you really want to identify key skills that the students will develop, then understanding that they will be gathering information on an unspecified body of information. This took place as the hints, they were to make there own connections using the hints. They were given information to process and asked to discover or infer about the hints provided. Many of the data gathering skills were used, having the students question, interpret, observe, and hypothesize. They were then asked to organize the data in the newspaper, classifying the information. They had to find relationships, predict, make conclusions, which are all apart of data processing. Then lastly they were asked to communicate this information by writing it in the newspaper and then (If we had time) presenting the information to the class.

Direct Instruction! Groups 1 and 2

Direct Instruction!

Writing something like, "you learn nothing ever goes to plan" would not be correct in this situation. Throughout many of my teachings I have found you can not completely be prepared for what will happen. STudents may or may not fully understand the information, they may get lost, you may forget something, you may not be able to complete everything you wanted to, and soo much more. In this case I feel almost everything did go to plan. We were able to accomplish everything that we had wanted to and the students were excited to learn. I learned that you need to over plan! Always be prepared to do more and in this case we were and we got through everything. I also learned that from my past experience and now, that every class is going to be different. Every student thinks and understands in a different way and therefore you can not predict their responses. I also learned that teacher social studies can be fun! This is NOT how I felt in the beginning of this class because social studies has always been one of my worst subjects in school, however I learned I can successfully teach it!

Overall, I think the entire lesson went well. Everyone played an essential role in increasing the knowledge of the students. Our slides were engaging and even silly at times, but the explanations behind them made the visual representation clear, making the information unforgettable. When the students think of the Colombian exchange they should think back to the picture of the Indian and the little sick face, they will remember disease! Giving them these fun and engaging associations will help them in the long run. The other parts that went well was the use of the smart board. This is an amazing way for teachers to increase the knowledge of students and to assess how much they have learned! The students were excited about the games and enjoyed working together as teams to come up with the answer. Lastly, my group did a great job checking for understanding! We constantly stopped and asked questions to make sure that the students were on the same page. 

What will we change next time?? I think the only section of the lesson that needed improvement was the modeling. Angela did a GREAT job modeling, however we failed to give them a visual representation of what we were talking about. We should have added pictures of explorers, to help refresh the students memory, but because it was a last minute addition we did not have time to redo it. This is something that teachers face daily, time restraints. learning how to deal with this is part of pedagogy, learning the art and science of planning engaging, fun, exciting lessons!

I learned a lot about social studies, in general I learned new concepts and gained new knowledge about the topic. I also learned that social studies can be fun and exciting for students to learn. It does not need to be boring, even when directly teaching concepts and facts, teacher NEED to make it fun and exciting!

By watching Gina and Jessy I learned some new things, such as the power point website that they used to provide information. It was soo interesting and like nothing I have ever seen before. I also saw different teaching methods, Gina is a very dominant person in the classroom, she demands the attention of the students and she gets it. This is something that I need to learn to do, I need to find my voice and be a powerful presence in the room. The part that I felt might have been too much was the graphic organizer, the idea was to have the students fill it out during the lesson, but when looking at  the organizer it seemed very overwhelming. I feel as though instead of having them fill out such a large amount of information they should have reduced it down to a few crucial points. Some of the students ignored it completely while others could not pay attention because they were trying to fill everything in and could not keep up. However, we learn from things such as this. What will be successful and what will not.

MAKE IT MEANINGFUL! MAKE IT VALUE-BASED! It is crucial to keep the essential parts to a lesson in mind. Making sure that students are being challenged and they are able to relate to the information. The should not just be given a handful of facts, instead they should be able to see why these facts are important to learn and how it has affected there life. Another part of the book that I kept in mind was throughout chapter 14, the use of diagnostic, formative, summative assessments. How you include them into your lesson is crucial! In general, direct instruction does not need to be boring! This idea I got from the textbook in almost every chapter. Making the lessons fun and exciting rather then simply having students memorize facts and concepts. Build their knowledge of these facts and concepts, help the develop a greater understanding for what these concepts are!

USING CURRENT EVENTS!

 Being able to bring current events into the classroom is a very powerful tool for teachers to use. Students have a much easier time relating to the material, and the material can be used to create understandings for new concepts. The article that I chose was about Hurricane Katrina. The article discusses how Hurricane Katrina was a devastating event that occurred in 2005, it struck millions of people's homes, businesses, families, and even took 1,700 lives. It is a time that will forever be marked in history for reasons that go far beyond what we could have imagined. This storm did not only shock us because of the magnitude and the devastation it caused, but the governments faults were put under a magnifying glass. This particular article called simply enough Hurricane Katrina by Vincent Laforet of the New York Times, sheds light on things we knew and the things that we were soon to find out. Vincent Laforet goes into detail about the Hurricane itself, describing the magnitude, where it hit, and how it left our nation. The hurricane was a category 3 storm with winds reaching 145-miles an hour and bringing 29 foot walls of water onto the land.



Bringing this article into the classroom can allow you to discuss geography, discussing where the storm hit and even why it hit this particular area. It can allow  students to investigate the features of the land and how a hurricane in particular can affect it. Such topics can be that the simple fact that the area is surrounded by an ocean, feeding the storm and building 29-foot waves to wash ashore. If the concept to be taught is geography using this lesson, I would have students first map out where the storm hit using the map of the United States. I would then encourage them to do a web quest and find information about the geographical location of the area. This information will allow them to figure out how these people lived, the geographical reason why the storm hit this area, and how living in this area has affected the culture they have built.

Other concepts that were discussed was economics, the fact that this hurricane's damage ending up costing billions of dollars. Where does all this money come from and how can we provide and distribute food and necessities to these people affected. Economics is truly the study of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. When the storm hit every single person affected has lost the ability to care for themselves. They now were in the hands of the government and the people to distribute goods and the necessities that they needed to survive. If this article was used for an economics lesson, I would have students brainstorm ideas on how they could raise money. Then once they have done so they would need to find ways to produce the goods needed and distribute them evenly among those affected. They are becoming the economic system, which will help them understand the concepts of economics along with understanding the principles of decision making.

Current event articles greatly influence students in the classroom, it allows them to relate to the lesson because it is something occurring in their lives today. Studying economics may be a very boring and tedious process, but allowing students to become the economic system is much more meaningful and engaging. Creating a situation where they discover what it means to make these economic decisions and understanding how it affects them is beneficial. Current event articles are meaningful and value based, it also is challenging for students because they are forced to learn the concepts because they must make important decisions. They also want to learn the information because it is something that they are hearing their parents talk about or it is something they saw on television. They find these articles engaging simply because they can relate to them, they can see how the information directly affects them. Current event articles are a great tool for teachers to bring into the classroom because students become engaged and excited to learn.

Putting Jigsaw to use!!!

Jigsaw and Native Americans

Jigsaw is a great way to have students work collaboratively with one another. Jigsaw is just like a puzzle and each student is a piece of that puzzle. Each student is highly responsible for their part, if they fail to bring their collaborative skills and effort the puzzle will fail. 

During this class activity we were asked to get into groups of five and each member of the group was to take on an important role of gathering as much information possible on the Native American Indians that were assigned. We worked through google docs and by collaborating with out mastery group in class. The mastery group is the group that you go to that incorporates the people that have the same topic as you. You work with these people to get a good idea of what you want to teach your peers about so that everyone is learning the same thing. It is also helpful so that if one person forgets a piece of information the mastery group can help.

During my experience I had learned a huge piece of knowledge that I must have overlooked during my time reviewing all of the information. My tribe had slaves! In fact they were one of the first people to have slaves from what we know in history. I CAN NOT BELIEVE I DID NOT SEE THAT IN MY RESEARCH!!!

Once we were done working in our mastery groups we got back into our main group. The main group is the people that we will be teaching out topic to and learning about their topic. My group made FANTASTIC handouts for one another. Each hand out was different, some people use publisher and other used processor. It was great to see the different ideas that we all had. We all made sure t o include captivating pictures and colors, which made the boring information seem a lot more interesting.

I learned so many new facts and more importantly I was able to see how Jigsaw can be useful in my classroom!

The fight against bullying

"The Girl you just called fat? She is overdosing on diet pills.
The Girl you just called ugly? She spends hours putting makeup on hoping people will like her.
The Boy you just tripped? He is abused enough at home.
See that man with the ugly scars? He fought for our country.
That guy you just made fun of for crying? His mother is dying.
You never know what its like until you walk a mile in their shoes"

Bullying is a harsh reality in schools today, it is something that teachers, administration, parents, and even the students themselves can put an end to. It wont be an easy task because bullying comes in so many forms, and many times they are not visible to the eye, cyber bullying for one is something new that we must add to the list. Before we can figure out how to put an end to it, lets take a look at what bullying is.

Bullying is any type of physical, emotional, psychological initimidation over another person, doing something to have power over another

• Name calling
• Leaing people out of activities
• saying or writing mean things
• Threatening
• Making someone feel uncomfortable
• Scarying someone
• Using violence against someone
• Physically hurting someone
• Making them do things they do not want to do.

Who are the Bullies??
Someone who has low self-esteem but puts on an act that they have a strong self-esteem. Someone who wants to overt control. They may come from homes where violence is the norm. They may see it as a way of being popular, or making themselves look tough and in charge. Some bullies do it to get attention or things, or to make other people afraid of them. Others might be jealous of the person they are bullying. They may be being bullied themselves. Some bullies may not even understand how wrong their behaviour is and how it makes the person being bullied feel.

Who is the victim?

It can be anyone, it can be the bully themselves. Many children that are being bullied seem insecure, socially isolated, anxious. Some young people are bullied for no particular reason, but sometimes it's because they are different in some way - perhaps it's the colour of their skin, the way they talk, their size or their name.
Sometimes young people are bullied because they look like they won't stand up for themselves.

"Some people think bullying is just part of growing up and a way for young people to learn to stick up for themselves. But bullying can make young people feel lonely, unhappy and frightened. It makes them feel unsafe and think there must be something wrong with them. They lose confidence and may not want to go to school any more. It may make them sick."

We need to stop bullying, but how do we do this. First thing is that we need to raise the awareness so that it does not go unseen, that parents, adults, teachers, administrators and everyone in a childs life knows what to look for.  Once we know how to look for it we need to have responses in place that we can use to stop it. We can create a better school environment by having teachers and students practice peer mediation. We can have rules put into place in the classroom that the students help to come up with against bllyings and the consequences against it. 

USE COOPERATIVE CLASSROOM LESSONS!! 

This encourages students that wouldnt normally work together to do so, it reduces social anxiety and it allows these students to have a voice that they would not other wise have.  

"Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke."

"Everyone who wants to do good to the human race always ends in universal bullying. "