SSED Week Three

     Wow, this week has felt like a bit of a whirlwind passing by.  Social Studies Methods is absolutely a class that keeps me constantly on my toes.  I know in the end I will be so thankful for this, though, because it will prepare me for the world of teaching.  In that world I must be prepared and always on top of things.  This week, we went to meet with the teachers we will be interning with over at Washington Elementary and it was great to see how excited the teachers are to have us helping out in their classrooms.  I was absolutely astonished by the "Data Room" that we had our lunch and discussion time in.  There were pictures of each individual student taped to the wall in certain places that allowed teachers to easily see which students needed to progress more and which students needed to be challenged more.  It was the most real form of intervention or differentiation I have ever seen.  I hope to one day work in a school that has teachers who genuinely care about individual students and their progress as much as the teachers I met on Wednesday did.
     This week we had to get together our goals and activities to fill out our professional development plan.  I am excited to get the PDP filled out and approved with Dr. Parker, because I know that it will give me the opportunity to now set goals for myself that I know I need to accomplish.  I believe it will also put the Professional Teaching Standards more into perspective, as I will be addressing those standards in a real way that is applicable to me, personally.  I have found that what I enjoy most about this Social Studies Methods course is the amount of freedom I have through my blog posts and in our online class discussions to gather the information and express it in my own personal way of thinking.  I also love that I am able to see the different ways other students process information, because it is opening my eyes to just how differently we all think.  This is such a valuable tool as I must be able to understand so many ways of thinking to be sure I am reaching every one of my future students effectively.
      It was my turn to lead and moderate our class discussion in the google community page this week. I was a bit nervous to begin a conversation regarding differentiation, because I am honestly always nervous when discussing it.  I believe that every single piece of my lesson plans are more than likely going to contain some form of differentiation, so I can't understand why it is something many education students fear.  After discussing a little bit over email with Taylor, we decided that the fear stems mostly from the fact that we often times just don't even know where to begin when it comes to differentiating in our classrooms. So, I found an article that addresses this issue and decided to pull some discussion questions from it.  So far, it appears that the class responded positively to the article and had a rather lengthy and in-depth conversation regarding the discussion questions I pulled from the article.
     If I had to pick one word to describe all of my collective teaching program experiences for this week, it would be "real."  Through creating my personal plans for achievement, meeting with the teachers from Washington Elementary, and getting to be part of in-depth discussions regarding differentiation, I feel like this week my experiences became "real."

SSED Week Two

This week in Social Studies methods, I feel like I am finally getting the hang of having an online class.  This is the first online course I have ever taken, and it is an entirely different world than what I am used to.  Keeping involved and being an active member of the class looks completely different in an online class than in a face-to-face classroom.  However, I have really enjoyed learning how to use the discussion board to share my ideas and to see how others are thinking about the same things I am but in different ways.  I also have found several interesting teaching blogs online that give honest feelings of teachers dealing with tough situations involving challenging students.  However, I have found most of them to be encouraging.  Either these teachers are really great writers, or they really care about the students in their classrooms.

My creation of a concept visual to help me portray the difference in conceptual teaching and topical teaching was a fun experience.  I enjoyed this assignment primarily because I enjoy creating things, and I also love when I am given the freedom to express my ideas using my own creativity.  This assignment was especially effective for me personally because I am an auditory learner in the sense that discussing and hearing myself speak about things really helps me organize information in my brain.  All the assignments that require voice overs and verbal explanations have been my favorite ones so far.

Our focus this week was mainly on the Professional Teaching Standard regarding to the fact that educators facilitate learning for their students.  We discussed the differences between concepts and topics, and why learning concepts is much more valuable to students' learning than only learning topics.  Students have a desire to know why the information is relevant to them.  They want their teachers to explain to them the "big idea" and why it matters.  By teaching students conceptually, educators give students the connections they crave and facilitate a much more effective learning atmosphere.  Students care about concepts, but they don't care so much about topics.  Students desire relevant information, and will probably ignore whatever they believe is irrelevant.  When students care about what the teacher is teaching and believe that they are being taught relevant information, effective learning will take place.

This week was the first time that I deeply pondered the difference between concepts and topics and how they are so involved in lesson planning.  I have had to come up with concepts for lesson plans, and I have been asked to involve "x" amount of topics and standards and integrate them.  But this week was the first time that I believe I actually grasp the understanding of the difference in teaching concepts and topics.  Through my elementary years, I was taught topic to topic, with no relation.  I had no connection to my learning experience.  My concept visual was a flower with the center being the concept and the petals being the topics.  As an elementary student, my mind had free falling petals without any organization or relevance.  In my future classroom, I plan to give students topics that I have already tied together into a larger concept.  The topics and the facts are important, but they are not important alone.  I plan to be able to answer a student confidently when he or she says, "Why does this even matter?"  I hope that my students have coherent flowers floating around in their brains, so when they need to reference a petal they will know exactly what flower they need to find. 

SSED Week One

This week in my Social Studies course was an eye-opening experience.  I now realize that I was not fully aware of the effect of an encouraging Social Studies experience at a young age.  Through my reading of the article, "Powerful and Purposeful Teaching and Learning in Elementary School Social Studies," my eyes were opened to the impact of Social Studies in early education.  I never linked my inadequate social studies experience with my initial disinterest in all societal topics and issues.  Now, however, I understand that engaging students at a young age gives them the opportunity to grow into involved, well-educated, independently-thinking citizens.  Presenting students with Social Studies related information at a young age in an intriguing way has the ability to "feed the fire" for students in regards to their desire to dig deeper into Social interactions whether is they have occurred through history or they are present in our lives today.

All the information I have learned this week will be effective in my classroom when I begin planning lessons and activities.   I have learned ways to engage students and make their Social Studies time something they look forward to and enjoy.  On Pinterest, I have found many ideas of ways to "bring history to life," as that seems to be the least enjoyed of all social studies topics.  I also have found some fun videos on youtube that tell the stories we all have learned throughout years of history class in a fun way.  In the future, I also plan to look for many hands-on activities that will get students out of their seats and moving while we are have our Social Studies time.  I once used an interactive web-site as part of a lesson plan.  It gave students the opportunity to go online and discover the information for themselves.  Due to the fact that all the information was presented in a level way with no bias

This week, the most prevalent teaching standard, though they all need to be represented at all times, was leadership.  Without leadership in the classroom, the teacher will have no power over the attitude or the atmosphere that is associated with Social studies in his or her classroom.  However, when a teacher steps into the leadership role that he or she should be fulfilling, it is possible for that individual to set a tone in the classroom that is welcoming to Social Studies and motivates students to become involved.  One way that I like to look at how Social Studies affects the young minds is that they, too, are citizens.  Though they are small and their minds and ideas may change once every minute, they will one day be the citizens who vote and the citizens who are elected to serve.  It is valuable to educate them now and allow their thoughts to grow as they do.