Fieldwork

This past week in Social Studies Methods our class was preparing for fieldwork. In groups, we were creating a getting to know you activity for the 5th-grade class at Bishopp Dun. My group, One Happy Globe, is teaching about Christopher Columbus. I was so eager to meet the class that we will be teaching. I think I like teaching the 5th- grade based off of prior experiences in the field.  My group and I created a getting to know you activity based off the globe. We started our getting to know you activity by introducing ourselves and explaining what the activity was. We then passed the globe to a student and they told us their name and we asked them a question based off where their finger landed. One student landed on Antartica and began telling us everything he knew about Antartica. At that moment I realized how advanced this 5th- grade class is going to be. Each child had an amazing answer to the questions we asked. Towards the end of our activity, we had the students ask us questions. Some of the questions asked were, "what would you be if you weren't going to be a teacher?", "cupcakes or donuts?", "how old are you?", "if you could travel anywhere where would you want to go?". I thought these were good questions, and we were able to give them elaborate answers so they were able to get to know us a little. I noticed that a lot of students have traveled internationally, mostly to Europe. It amazed me because they are only 9-10 years old and they have already gained so much experience from traveling. These students are very fortunate! I enjoyed getting to know each and every one of the students and am excited to teach my lesson on Christopher Columbus. I believe that the students will be an active, engaged, enthusiastic class, which will make our jobs as teachers easier and fun! I can't wait to teach our lesson!

Cooperative Learning JIGSAW!

Cooperative Learning is an educational approach which aims to organize classroom activities into academic and social learning experiences. There is much more to cooperative learning than merely arranging students into groups, and it has been described as "structuring positive interdependence."

Our class participated in a JIGSAW yesterday. Last week we got put into base groups for each piece of cooperative learning. After we got put in our base groups we split into expert groups. I was in the group processing expert group. Our task was to make an interactive presentation that way we can teach our base groups the piece of cooperative learning that we became experts in. Once we finished we regrouped with our base groups and taught as experts. 

Reflection...
I really enjoyed each one of our presentations. Each one was unique and engaging in their own way. Cassandra's presentation was engaging from the start! We each chose a job to keep each other on track with positive interdependence and individual and group accountability. I was the project manager, meaning I had to keep the whole group on task. I loved the activity that Cassandra provided which made us work in groups and truly understand individual and group accountability.




Fieldwork.... YAY!!!!!!!!! 

I am so excited!!!! YAY!!!!

3 lessons 
GROUP 2 focus- Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 :)

Direct Instruction, Inquiry-Based, Cooperative Learning

Travel map- engaging have students take notes

KNL chart allows students to reflect on what they learned

Modeling happens in the head/ demonstration is physical.


Add Dr. Smirnova in google docs & pp presentations

Social Studies is Interactive!

Social studies is a body of integrated knowledge, concepts, skills, generalizations, and theories in the SS fields(history, geography, citizenship, anthropology, archaeology.

Origins of social studies

*history has dominated the discipline

*lectures & discussions are primary teaching devices

*Occasional audio visual aids and field trips

Elementary

*small group & independent work

*manipulatives, films, tv, computers

*integrated approaches

5 Powerful Teaching Elements of Social Studies!

Social Studies should not be just memorizing the facts

1. Engagement- From teacher with the class, connect with real- world situations
2. Integrative- Students are able to write, created pictures, combine with social studies
3. Value- based- Democracy, we as Americans have rights. We have to strengthen the sense of students' democratic values and social responsibility.
4. Challenging- Give students' creative tasks. Incorporate different perspectives & draws on student's critical thinking skills.
5. Active- Have students participate! Use the physical environment to help them understand Social Studies.

How do students learn?

When we read? 10%

When we hear? 20%

When we see/ hear? 30%

When we discuss? 50%

When do things? 75%

When we teach others? 95%

Jerome Bruner's take on knowledge

1. Metacognition

2. Generalization

3. Concepts

4.Facts

I like this take on the structure of knowledge. It is important to understand this for my future as a teacher. It is all about making the classroom a wonderful environment. Having students just memorizing facts doesn't explain "what they know". Facts are just facts.

Educational philosophies

• Re- constructionism-theory that allows understanding about the world today.
• Existentialism- the focus is on the student themselves.
• Progressivism
• Perennialism & Essentialism 

Students learn best when they are creating something and actually doing something.

Models of instruction

Personal model- giving students individual projects to help with self- esteem.

Social interactive model- organizing the classroom this way students are able to interact with the content & each other.

Information processing model- equip students with skills to find information, process, organize, reflect, explain.  Short term memory, long term memory, processing.

The behavioral model is on the bottom because it's teaching the understanding.

Strategies

Direct individual- student does the work & shares

• projects

Indirect interactive- student becomes center of the classroom

•  jigsaw map, role play, simulation, 

Indirect cognitive- problem - solving 

• graphic organizers, inquiry problem

Direct- I do, we do, you do!  

• convergent questions (yes or no answers)- what, who, when, how? 
• repetition & memorization.
• lecture
• home assignments/ readings from the text.

Methods- way of specific ways of reaching the goal

NO WORKSHEETS!!

Goals are what you want students to achieve in the end by generalizing. 

understand, grasp, comprehend. 

Objectives are more specific (belong in the independent practice)

"Given a graphic organizer on explorers, students will insert 8 out of 8".

The Earth is All We Have!

Everything I learned today!

Does the Earth operate off of energy?

The energy from the Earth comes from fossil fuels. Each morning the sun rises, within the same day, the sun sets. The sun is an open system with the regard to energy. Basically, the sun is an open system, and the matter is a closed system.  Humans living on the Earth lye upon the troposphere within the atmosphere. The stratosphere allows the transfer of gasses through the system.

Why does the Earth get hot?

The sun!

The problem is that we're using fossil fuels rather than the sun. Everyday activities such as driving the car, using a stove in your house, we are creating combustion. 

Effects- breathing, causes cancer, stop plants from growing, generates a lot of heat.

Where do green house gasses come from?

Fossil fuels! The way we generate waste and get rid of it causes methane gasses to fill and burn. We allow fires to occur, derived transportation, industrial agriculture.

FUN FACT ABOUT COWS!

The main reason cows are a problem on the Earth- they fart a lot & cause extra heat.

When it comes to climate change the main message is "WE MUST CHANGE". The question is "Can we change?" The ability to change seems hard and unreachable. 

- There is a way we can organize the world to not have these problems. Sadly, as humans, we are stupid.

As humans, we draw on energy. We depend on using energy every day to live.

What is an anomaly? 

Unexpected deviation. 

What is the hottest year ever measured?

2016!

The ocean is getting warmer... why is this a problem?

We are bleaching out our coral reefs. That means we are taking away our habitats from these reefs. We are creating dead oceans. 

Warm oceans are also creating storms because of the air above the ocean. This makes hurricanes much stronger. 

Why do hurricanes occur?

The extra heat that evaporates more water from the ocean, causing bigger downpours and floods. At the same time, the land loses all its moisture from the atmosphere because it is hot. 

Glaciers

are melting

Oceans

are warming

Fires

are increasing

HOW CAN WE MAKE CHANGE OCCUR?

Normally, the Earth allows enough heat to escape. The Earth was able to self - regulate itself. 
* The Earth stayed with in boundaries where humans can sustain life.
* The technology.
*Avoid green house gasses.

If we got into a nuclear war...
The fires of the war would cause a nuclear winter... but humans would most likely die because of loss of food.

The U.S. Department of Defense
Climate change "will likely lead to food and water shortages, pandemic disease, disputes over refugees and... natural disasters in regions across the globe."

Climate change is a medical issue, cancer causing, loss of species due to habitat.

Learning starts here!

Within the first few minutes of Social Studies Methods I came to the conclusion that we are going to be teaching digital learners, and more importantly, we are going to learn how to become digital teachers☺.Growing up in the early 2000s in a public school atmosphere the resources were limited when it came to technology. Throughout elementary school, my teachers educated myself and my classmates mainly through textbooks, workbooks, and hand outs. As our special, we went to computer class once a week. I can recall programs that we explored, and games that we played. As far as I remember there was little to no technology in the classroom until the 5th grade. I remember entering my classroom in the middle school and on the wall was what looked like a giant computer screen. It wasn't until every student was fascinated with this giant "computer screen" that the teacher explained to us what it was. We never saw something like that in the classroom.  I learned that it was a smart board. Basically, smart boards were what replaced chalkboards. I was thrilled with the idea of smart boards and always loved when I got to show my work on it. At the increasing rate that technology is heading in students of today are going to be much more technologically advanced than when we were students. 

The video above reassured me that the learners of today are going digital. Classrooms of today are not going to be the same as they were in the past. Students will learn digitally. The teachers will change their way of teaching through the use of technology. There will be no more pencil to paper report cards, assessments, projects, and assignments. The children of today will be tested virtually. The world will soon be full of digital learners accompanied by digital teachers☺!