Dr. Diamond

WE MADE IT TO THE LAST DAY OF SOCIAL STUDIES METHODS! Today on the last day of our class we conducted a mock intervention simulation. I chose to be a part of one of the four administrators for the interview along with Amanda, Cierra, and Marie. I was required to create a fake profile about myself and the school I was in search of a teacher for. I introduced myself as Dr. Diamond. Dr. Diamond went to Stanford and obtained her bachelors in information technology. She then got pursued her education and got her Masters at Harvard, and then finally her ph.D at UCLA in Los Angelas. Dr. Diamond was looking to hire a teacher candidate as a 4th-grade social studies teacher who specializes in technology at Jewel Elementary School located in Cornwall, NY. I went into the mock interviews with a jar of questions. The jar of questions had different questions this way each candidate got a fair pick, and not one question was harder than the other. I asked questions specifically about technology. Technology is huge and extremely important for student learning. I wanted to see who would be the best candidate for my school, personally. Many of my classmates did well! They were actually nervous for us to interview them, which was funny because we are on the same level as them, but they saw us as higher. I really enjoyed this experience. In the end, we had to choose one candidate we would think is the perfect fit for our school! I chose Angie. Angie answered each question in depth, was confident, and had a positive personality. I think this was a great simulation to go through because it is truly like what the real world can be once we graduate and look for jobs. There will always be competition within you and someone else so you have to learn to market yourself to be the greatest. Show what you learned, show all the hard work you put into your learning, and show what makes you better than the next person. 




Today was also the last day of class. I am so proud of myself and where this course has taken me. This course really tested me and my want to be a teacher. It truly secured my want to be an educator. It showed me what the real life as a teacher will be like: staying up all night planning your lessons, trying to make them the best for the children. I am thankful for all the experiences provided by Dr. Smirnova, and am beyond proud of myself for completing the course! 

My Philosophy of Teaching!

Each teacher has their own educational philosophy. I am grateful for the education I have received from elementary school until present. Each teacher has impacted me in different ways, and some have influenced the way I see education. As a child, I always was amazed at my teachers. I always wondered how they knew EVERYTHING, and of course, if they lived at school. I always felt a sense of love when I was at school. I always had fun, and couldn't wait to go to school the next day to see my teachers! School is one huge learning experience. I believe all teachers need to have passion when it comes to their job. Teaching is a very passionate career. I will have a very important job, which is shaping the minds of young children, and inspire them to be the best person they can, through teaching. When I think about my educational philosophy, I automatically think of PASSION. My philosophy of education is passion driven. To be a teacher means to shape the minds of young individuals. Teaching is passion driven. I didn't wake up one morning and decide I wanted to a be a teacher. It didn't dawn on me until 11th grade in my US History class. I had such an amazing teacher, and he was so passionate about what he taught. It made learning so much fun! I know that teaching is such a demanding, tiring, and challenging field. But it is also inspiring, amazing, and rewarding. My main goal of teaching is to engage my students, have fun, and encourage them, this way they want to learn! 

I will find ways to accommodate each and every one of my students. I know every child learns differently, that is why I will differentiate my instruction this way I reach the needs of all my students. Some students may work better in groups, some students may work better independently, and some students may work better with my support. No matter what the student needs, I will be sure to provide them with instruction that is best for them. When it comes to teaching it is important that teachers share their knowledge with their students. Teachers have to be educated to the point that they have to share all their knowledge. This allows students to learn and is important because you are their basis for education which leads to their future. Teachers need to have compassion and be approachable. Along with having compassion and being approachable teachers need to be loving, caring, understanding, good communicator, and an even better listener. 

As a new teacher, I will be sure to incorporate everything I learned from this course. The 5 principles of Powerful Teaching which are, the role of inquiry, cooperative learning, educating young citizens, and problem-solving/ critical thinking skills. I think incorporating these 5 principles of Powerful Teaching will make me an amazing teacher. I will make my activities that are during class time engaging, interactive, and value-based along with collaborative. These activities will allow students to follow Bloom's Taxonomy and will allow students to think in a critical manner. When teaching Social studies I will incorporate technology, artifacts, WebQuests, treasure hunts, presentations that require problem-solving skills, and inquiry. Students will not learn if teachers just slam facts, dates, information, names, and graphic-organizers. Social Studies should be taught in an interactive, engaging, encouraging, loving environment. 

Cooperative Learning & Geography Come Together!

This past week we worked hard to complete a project about Native Americans, this project was called the NAT project. Dr. Smirnova split us into groups and each group got assigned a different tribe. JIGSAW came back into play! The different tribes were Dine', Mowhawk, Muscogee, Tlingit, and Lakota. The tribe I had to research along with my group was the Dine'. My group members were Alexis, Ganny, and Marie. The question we had to answer was: How did geography influence the Native American Tribes? Our task was to design a presentation that answered this question. The presentation had to include history, geography, culture, food, clothes, habitat, famous people, and generalizations of our tribe. We had to work Cooperatively and follow the rules of cooperative learning by following PIGS. PIGS stands for, Positive Interdependence, Individual Accountability, Group Processing, and Social Skills & Face to face interaction. Each part of PIGS was present while working with my group on this project. Positive interdependence was shown by taking a specific topic and working on it equally. Individual Accountability was present because we each chose a part of the Dine' tribe to research, and were accountable for completing our own work. Group Processing was present at the end of our presentation. After reading the 3 pluses and a wish from my classmates I was able to see what we could improve on. Most of my classmates wrote that they wished the presentation was shorter. I agree with them. I always try my best to add the most information this way I can teach an abundance of information. I believe my group did a wonderful job by making the presentation filled with pictures, and great information about the Dine' tribe. Lastly, Social Skills & Face To face interaction was present when working with my group. During class time we worked together and decided upon what we were going to be working on independently. During the class period, my group and I realized we were the only group talking to each other. We didn't know why no other group was talking considering this was a GROUP PROJECT. My group and I were connected after class as well by texting and facetiming about what we should include in the presentation. I believe working socially and having face to face interaction is key when working on a group project. 

While presenting our project we tried our best to engage the class. I included videos of tribal dances, the Dine' healing song, and we all did our best to make the slides VISUAL. To begin our presentation Alexis asked the class "How does geography influence the Native Americans?" and presented a word cloud to the class. We then proceeded by showing the class a word cloud and asked them if the recognized any words in the cloud. We asked the class to tell us the 5 themes of geography. The class responded and remembered the 5 themes. This was a great introduction to our presentation. We taught the class about the Dine' tribe. The Dine' tribe is also known as the Navajo's. The Dine' tribe is the second largest tribe in the nation and the largest tribe in the United States. The tribe extends from Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. They believed in many gods such as the sun god, and Earth Mother. Earth mother was the most sacred God and was the most powerful. The worshiped the sun, wind, and watercourses, and did not like to talk about death. When Columbus came to the United States the Navajo's were forced to relocate. This movement was called the Long Walk of the Navajo from Arizona to New Mexico. They relied on their environment for shelter, food, clothing, and water. I taught the class about the Navajo culture. The Navajo's were very family geared. They speak a language called Athabaskan. They have many celebrations such as 8 months pregnant, baby's first laugh, coming to age, marriage, first footprint.  The grew their own crops which resulted in eating their own food. We ended our presentation with a post-assessment. We had the class participate in a KAHOOT to test their knowledge.

Overall, I think that this project was great! It was very helpful for teaching the 5 themes of geography and learning about different tribes. 

My Presentation

Muscogee 

Tlingit

Lakota

The Fun in Geography

Let's explore what Geography is all about! Geography is the study of the Earth. The study is divided into five themes such as Location, Place, Human/environmental interaction, Movement, and Region. Each of these five places is different from one another. So, you are probably wondering why geography is super important. Geography does a number of things.  There are four important points why geography is important. 

1. Geography helps students answer the four questions children are curious and ask: What is it? Why is it there? Where is it? What is the significance of its location?

2. Geography helps students understand important connections between the physical and human systems & how they interact on the surface of the Earth.

3. Students are able to practice critical thinking skills about the distribution and different arrangments of people, places, events. Children are able to see the importance and connect their knowledge to the world.

4. Geography mainly captures the imagination of students through a focus on exploration and adventure from different perspectives & media. 

"It's not just learning which way is North, South, East, & West. Or the scale of the map. Geography is the world and all that is in it" 

This is a wonderful quote from a video from Chapter 13 of the text. Click here to watch!

What is Geo-Literacy?

According to Daniel Edelson students need to be geographically literate to make decisions. It is the understanding of the skills that are necessary to make these decisions.There are three components of geo-literacy. 

•  Understanding human & natural systems
• Geographic reasoning
• Systematic decision making

Children have to be able to make effective decisions related to geography. They will understand how our world works, how our world is connected, and how to make well-reasoned decisions.

There are 5 Major Themes of Geography.

1. Location

2.Place

3.Human & environment interaction

4.Movement

5.Regions

There are wonderful activities you can have your students involved in. 

Activites you can include in your elementary classroom!

Location: Design a country, literature around the world, map puzzles, create an atlas.

Place: ABC book of your community, say hello in different languages, collect dirt, create a postage stamp or postcard, or a weather report. 

Human/ Environment Interaction: Read aloud The Lorax to teach students about human interaction, collect your town's growing population, have students identify their wants and needs, collect pictures of your town over 10 years.

Movement: The products we use, commuter graph, roots of their family, interview community elders, license plates from all around.

Regions: Map your school region, time zones, bingo, regions in your community & cultural regions.

There are different tools and analytical concepts for teaching Geography.

technology, maps, scale, change, diversity, models, systems.

There are two beautiful well -known songs you can incorporate when teaching geography. This will engage students and keep them involved. 

This Land is Your Land

America the Beautiful

Geography should be interactive and concrete. They should participate in experiences that will be most familiar to them. Some examples of having students participate in experiences are, neighborhood map art project, interactive geography games, picture books, virtual field trips, building maps, bring Flat Stanley into the classroom! These are all fun interactive experiences for children to be involved in and learn more about geography!

After viewing the power point 103 creatively simple ways to teach Geography  I chose 3 ways I'd like to teach Geography in my future classroom. The first way I'd love to teach geography in the classroom is through clay models. I would love have students create clay models with physcial features with plasticine. As a child, I loved working with clay. It was always engaging and fun! 

Another fun way I'd teach geography in the classroom would be through a Landscape in a Box. A landscape in a box allows students to be creative while learning. 

The next way I'd like to incorporate geography in the classroom would be by having students to participate in Adopt a Rock. The students will have the opportunity to give the rocks a home. The students will name the rock, make-up where it came from, why it is shaped the way it is. The students can take the rock home and take pictures of the rock and the travels the rock went through. The main thing to have kids realize is that every rock matters.

There is a wonderful video that you can watch to learn more about the 5 major themes of geography. Click here!

Artifact Bags are Super COOL!

"Using artifacts, from primary documents to items that can be held in one's hand, is a motivational strategy"(Fuhler, 2006). An artifact bag is a hands-on activity that increases childrens knowledge. Artifact bags can be used with any subject, topic, and grade level. Artifact bags are super engaging and informative. Students are able to become a real live

historian for the day! Artifact bags follow the inquiry investigative process. The inquiry investigative process is shown through artifact bag presentations because students have to figure out what the items are, and why they are in the bag. 

I got to make my own artifact bag! My artifact bag contained items that related to The Voyages of Christopher Columbus, which was my unit plan topic. I had the opportunity to go a flee market the weekend before the artifact bag was due. I found 3 very cool items there! I was excited to share my artifact bag because my items were tangible. 

The first artifact I included in my bag was an Italian flag. An Italian flag represented Christopher Columbus' nationality. 

The second artifact I included in my bag was a compass. I found this compass at the flee market. I thought it was really cool because it was important to Columbus's journey. Without the compass, Columbus would have had a hard time figuring out which way to sail to reach land

The third item in my bag was a map. Columbus took 4 voyages after discovering America. He also used a map to help him figure out how to reach land!

The last item I included was this little pilgrim I found at the flee-market. This pilgrim represents the Taino people who were already in the Americas once Columbus arrived.

At the end of my presentation, my group and the group we were paired with (Kristen and Cassandra) were able to figure out that the artifacts belong to Columbus. During class, we shared our artifact bags with our group and group 3. Kristen and Cassandras artifact bags were interesting. They were on the Spanish conquistadors. The artifacts they created were really cool. Kristen included armor worn by the conquistadors. Cassandra included a fake bullet which was really cool. Cassandra included a piece of headwear that she made by herself that mirrored Moctezuma's headpiece

.

In my presentation, I included a book to learn more about Columbus. This book tells the story of Columbus and takes you through his journeys. This is a great book for children who want to learn more about Columbus from reading!

I also included a website where you can learn more information about Columbus. 

Overall I love the artifact bags. Creating the artifact bag was really fun. I loved that I was able to get tangible items. I will most definitely be using these in my future classroom. Artifact bags are great for students to research. They can be used to introduce a topic or to end the unit. It is great for the visual learners, and it is just really FUN!


Click on the links below to explore the class' individual artifact bags!
My Artifact Bag Presentation 
Alexis Artifact Bag
Gauen's Artifact Bag
Rachel's Artifact Bag
Cierra's Artifact Bag
Cassandra's Artifact Bag
Amanda's Artifact Bag
Kim's Artifact Bag
Aimee's Artifat Bag

Mystery in Artifact Bags

This week in class we participated in a Mystery Bag activity. We learned how to make history alive through an artifact bag lesson. The task was to choose a mystery bag and figure out what the significance was in the items. I worked with Kim, Rachel, and Alexis. My group & I were given a bag with very interesting artifacts. We were excited to open the mystery bag, unwrap our items and begin our research on what these items were and who do they belong to! The first item we unwrapped was this one doll. In each doll was another doll. The doll opened and had another inside it. After researching we found out these dolls were called Matryoshka. We found out Matryoshka is a doll which was first made in 1890 in Russia. These dolls are used for decoration and entertainment. Matryoshka is a popular item in the Russian culture. The next item we discovered was gzhel pottery. The pottery is a beautiful blue and white consisting of designs. Gzhel pottery is pottery created in the 19th century. After researching we found out that this was pottery from the Russian culture. Gzhel is named after a city located in Southeast Moscow, Russia. This pottery can be used for a number of different things. For example, gzhel pottery can be used for decoration, vases, candlesticks, clocks, tea, and dinner sets & more. The third item we found in the bag was an award for Dr. Smirnova! This award was presented to her. The award was the National Teachers Training Academy of Science.  She got this award in 2005 after she came to America from Russia! We had to translate this award this way we could figure out what it meant. It was in the Russian language. This was a really cool experience because we got to work together and figure out what these items were and how they related to each other. The gzhel & Matryoshka are both Russian decorations. This activity was hands on and engaging. I really love the idea of Mystery bags because it encourges students to want to learn. To end the activity we had to fill out a chart which asked us the 5 W's: Who, What, When, Where, Why. Ultimately, we all used the inquiry method to figure out what the artifacts symbolized. We had to use the information given, conduct a investigation, and conclude  our investigation with an conclusion which explained our evidence. Each group presented their bags & we came to the conlcusion that this was all about Dr. Smirnova. 

Here is our presentation!

Gzhel

Matryoshka

Dr. Smirnova's Award

Making History Alive in the Classroom

Here are some more Strategies that can make history alive in the classroom!

Using the technology of today, teachers will have the power to increase the engagement of students in the class! Making History Alive will be filled with meaning, value-based, participatory, and activeness. 

It is important to have students engaged while learning history. Learned from chapter 12 section 6
One strategy that should be used in the classroom is the EPIC strategy. The EPIC strategy:
EXPERIENCES- related to the topic being taught
PERCEPTIONS-feeling that students have, details that they remembered
INFORMATION-teacher shares information about the topic being studied
CONNECTIONS- teacher helps students make connections between the students' experiences and perceptions and the topic being studied. 



Role Playing/ Simulations- Leads children to be engaged and have a better understanding and purpose


Artifacts to get the students engaged in the lesson you will be teaching. Teaching with artifacts is a good way to keep the students engaged. Real life objects from the past are very cool for students to see.

Local History- Interview members of the community or family members that know about the past. You can combine geography and social studies. You can also have the students go to different historical sites in their area and see what makes their area unique.

A website to enhance your learning!