Round Two

   The second group's lessons kept getting post-pined due to the school's 2-hour delays. Despite all of the confusion with the delays, group 2 did an amazing job! They really kept the theme going about the students being explorers. They did a great job keeping all of the students engaged throughout the entire lesson by circling the room and having them put on their "explorer hats." The symbols the teachers put on the board to warn them that they'll have to write something down or put their explorer hats back on was creative and effective. Overall, there weren't really any parts of the lesson that I think I would change. There was one part towards the end where the teacher told the students to fill out an exit ticket in order to "get off the boat," which didn't really make sense because they never mentioned a boat prior to that. It was a cute idea, but it wasn't executed properly!
   The group's second day also went really well! The teachers gave a lot of rules and instructions for the students to follow throughout the inquiry lesson, which was a web quest that the students seemed to like. The introduction was definitely way too long for the inquiry lesson; I think some of the information could've either been left out or pushed over to the cooperative introduction. Their inquiry and cooperative lessons were linked; the students were required to create a poster about what they learned from their web quest. I think it was a great way to make the lessons seem like they were blended together and really only one, so the students weren't being asked to do two unrelated tasks. It's definitely tricky to teach two separate lessons within the one hour timeframe we have, but I think that group 2 did a good job getting the important parts of the lesson done, even though they didn't get to independent practice either!

Day Two

Group One did their inquiry and cooperative lessons, which went really well! The teachers were definitely more relaxed this time and they had fun activities planned that the students loved. Their cooperative project involved the students making teepees, which I thought was very creative and extremely engaging. Their artifact bags could have been executed a little bit better, but the kids still seemed to have fun with it. The time management was not done very well; the group didn't even get to explain what their independent practices were. I'm getting more and more anxious for when it's my groups turn to teach!!

Articles, Articles, Articles, and More Articles

   One article from eclass explains why the social studies standards were created and it taught me that social studies has two main characteristics: to "promote civic competence" and that it's integrative. The article also claims that social studies basically helps construct every students' understanding of the world and therefore determines how they will view reality. It breaks down all of the key topics covered within social studies and briefly explains what each one is, which is helpful. The main idea that is being stressed over and over again is that social studies is the only subject that incorporates discipline-based knowledge, processes, and attitudes. It also recognizes that social studies takes into account the fact that things change over time and we continuously have to find ways to fix the current problems in the world. I found this article very informative; I learned a lot of new things.

Day One

   Group one presented their direct lesson today and of course the smart board shutdown on them! I think they did a wonderful job and recovered quickly and efficiently to their technological problems. The kids seemed to gain a lot of knowledge from their lesson and had fun while doing it. I liked their idea of creating little cards with one red side and one green side to have the students hold up to say whether they agreed or disagreed with a classmate's answer to a question. I also like how one time they had the kids stand up if they agree because it let them move around a little and it was something different from the cards. Overall, I think the lesson went pretty well, especially considering it was their first time ever being up in front of a class. After seeing them go, I'm calmer about certain aspects of having to teach a lesson, but the smart board going out and the comments that were made about what went wrong made me even more nervous for when it's my group's turn!

Some Things I've Learned

   I learned many things from the Powerpoint that we were given to look through. Right in the beginning, it says that Social Studies has a greater instructional variety than any other subject, which I've never learned before. I think that's interesting, but I feel like you can also do many different methods during science as well because it's easy to incorporate readings, experiments/projects, and all sorts of fun activities. I found the pyramid that shows how much information students retain from various learning methods to be extremely interesting and displayed very well. I think the sample of the lesson helps to really demonstrate Bloom's taxonomy. I also like the slide that explains the different things that can be assessed to show us that it's not always for academic purposes; you can even use assessments to figure out what students are interested in.
   The way the three different forms of assessment are described in the powerpoint helped me comprehend what each one is even more. I like how Pre-assessment is described as "Finding Out", Formative Assessment is "Keeping Track & Checking-Up", and Summative Assessment is "Making Sure". It puts them each into simple, memorable phrases that will help me distinguish the different types. The powerpoint as a whole was very informative; I feel like I have gained a lot of knowledge from it.

About Me Projects

   Today we had to present our "About Me" Projects. I wasn't aware that we would be presenting, so I'm glad I dressed up a little that day. I was extremely impressed with some of the projects that my classmates created! I enjoyed watching everyone's presentations and being introduced to all of the different types of tools that I can utilize in my future classroom either for teaching purposes or for my students to do projects. I wish my presentation sou;d have gone a little smoother, but the first time I present in front of a new class is usually a little nerve-wracking.
   The last half hour of class was spent working in our groups on our lesson plans. My group hadn't started yet, since we still have a couple weeks, so it was nice to have time to finally set up our lesson plans. We even met up after class for a couple of hours to get started on what we're actually going to be doing. There's still so much more work to be put into our three lessons, but I'm glad we started and actually started thinking about possible activities to do.

And So It Begins...

   We went in for our first day of fieldwork and it was amazing! The students were very well-behaved and we all had so much fun finally meeting the kids and getting to know a little bit about them. I love having my sister as our cooperating teacher! We've both been excited for me to meet all of her students and it's officially happened; the students were just as excited as the two of us were. She set their desks up into groups of six and the groups of college students rotated around to each group. We didn't get much time to get to know our first group, but we were able to spend about 10-15 minutes with the rest of them, which was great! We really got a chance to get to know the kids and have them feel more comfortable around us. I think it was a great idea to go in early to meet the kids, find out some of their interests, and have them become comfortable with us because it will definitely make everything go more smoothly when we start teaching them.

Clearing Up

   We spent the second day of class just going over some of our upcoming assignments because everyone in the class was very confused about what expectations we were supposed to meet. There are still many things that the class as a whole is confused about, but we're hoping it will get easier as the class continues. We were also given our official groups that we will be teaching in during fieldwork, as well as what we are doing on Tuesday when we go in to meet the students. The teacher is my sister, so I'm very excited to get started and meet all of her students. I'm hoping that everything goes well and the kids like us. My group has picked out a book to look at with the students; we won't be reading the book, but the kids will be looking at the pictures while we ask them some basic questions about the topic we will be teaching them about in a couple of weeks. These questions will serve as a type of pre-test for us to understand where the students are intellectually. It's important for us to learn what prior knowledge the students have before we try to build off of it. We're going tomorrow so hopefully everything goes as planned and everyone has a good time; I'll keep you updated!