Current Events in the Classroom!

Current Events!

During my time in elementary school my teachers did not emphasize the importance of current events. Teachers would sometimes send home Time For Kids magazines, but they would go home with students and then just be thrown away. It was not until I was in the high school that I had a teacher who wanted us to do current events, but even then these current events were made optional for extra credit. After looking at some websites provided by my Social Studies Methods professor, I now see how easy it could have been for my teachers to expose me and the rest of the students in my classes to current events. 

Here is the first website I looked at. This one was my favorite because it had a lot of Social Studies related links that would work well in the classroom. Right on this website it had links for two different current event website, one of them being the popular Times For Kids page. Here you are given recent events that are very appropriate for elementary students. It would be very easy for a teacher to pull up this article and read it to the students and have them write down one or two thought about the article. This would be an easy way to start opening the students eyes to current events. One other aspect of this website that I really enjoyed was the link This Day in History. You are able to click on it and then you will be given a list of events that occurred on this day in history. This website is really a great resource to have!

Here is another website that I viewed. This was another great website, that included various activities that teachers can do with students to get them interested in current events. One of the activities that I thought would be great for a classroom was News Mapping. This is a an activity where the teacher posts a map (a community, state, U.S., or world map, depending on the focus of your current events curriculum) on a bulletin board. Then students post stories around the map and string yarn from each story to the location on the map where the story takes place. This was just one of the many great ideas given. The activities can be used for a wide range of students. 

Here is the final website I viewed, it is actually link for another blog. This blog has several links to different online resource that can help get students interested in current events. One of the links is called Newspaper Map it is a tool for locating and reading newspapers from locations all around the world. Newspaper Map claims to have geolocated 10,000 newspapers. To find a newspaper you can browse the map then click on a placemark to open the link within to read a newspaper. You can also locate newspapers by using the search boxes to locate a newspaper by title or location. Along with links to the newspapers, Newspapers Map provides links to translate the newspapers you find on the map. This will allow students to see current events from all over the world. 

These are just a few of the resources on the internet that can help when teaching current events. Obviously depending on the grade level of the students activities will vary. For example the Times For Kids articles will be better suited for 1-3 grade students. Whereas the Newspaper Map would be more acceptable for 4-6 graders. These were all wonderful tools that I will be using in my future classroom. I feel like current event activities should be done at least once a week in the classroom, I think it will be very beneficial to expose students to some of the events occurring in the world. 

Who knew there were so many tribes?

Native Americans

During class we spent a few days doing a jigsaw project with the different Native American tribes. The class was broken into 4 base groups. Every group member had a number 1-6, this number determined what tribe you would be researching. For example all the ones would get together and research one tribe. Once all number groups finished researching their tribes and creating a PowerPoint we went back to our original base groups where we shared all we had learned. 

I researched the Seneca tribe. Prior to this project I really had little background knowledge on the different Native American tribes. This was not something I remember learning a lot about during my time in school. This lesson was for me like a crash course on Native American tribes. In a short amount of time I was able to learn a lot about the different tribes. I learned that many of the tribes had things in common, such as the way they dressed. Native American men generally wore breech cloths with leggings whereas women generally wore wraparound skirts with shorter leggings. Men and women also both wore moccasins on their feet. Another similarity between the tribes was that most of them lived in long house, which held up to 60 people. I now can say I have a better understanding of the Native American tribes. Since each group was given a tribe and then we all shared our information, I was able to learn about 6 tribes, but only had to spend time researching 1. Having each group make a PowerPoint really did help when presenting the information and I think it was a great tool to use. 

From this project I learned how easy it could be to teach the topic of Native Americans. Using the jigsaw method everybody becomes an expert and have the chance to learn about different things. This lesson was done in college class, but it could easily be done with students at the elementary level. To adapt it I might only assign students to one group and they will become experts on the tribe and then present to the whole class, instead of having both expert groups and base groups. Also in our college classroom we had the luxury of having many computers available to us, this may not be the case in elementary classrooms. To adapt this project further, I would allow students some computer time to research, but I would also have many different books for them to look at and find more information. Then instead of having them do a PowerPoint they could make posters to present their work. 

This really is a great lesson and the jigsaw idea could be used in various ways not just with Native American tribes. This is definitely a lesson that will be used in my future classroom!

For more information about the Seneca tribe recommend looking at the following two websites. They were very helpful! 

Click Here

Click Here

Power, Democracy and Governance

Democracy Education in Elementary Schools

I recently read an article about the importance of teaching democracy in the classroom. I really think that this article was great! I agree with the author of the article that it is very important to teach students about democracy at a young age. It is important that they understand how our government works and how it varies from other types of governments. Democracy is an abstract concept for elementary education students, so they need to be able to experience it in the classroom. The article included several different methods of this can be done. Below are the methods described in the article. 

Student-centered education

This is a away for teachers to show their students that they have choices. It is also giving them responsibility to make their own choices and follow through with them.

Democratic classroom management

This is a technique that allows for the teacher to set up democracy in the classroom. This can be done by allowing students to help come up with classroom rules and vote on things. This gives the students a sense of power that is important.

Effective teacher guidance 

Teachers can set up classroom governments to show students how a government is set up and how it works. The class can vote on who they think would be best at representing the class. Teachers can also encourage this type of set up in after school activities. 

Giving value to different ideas

This is an important concept that students need to be familiar with. Students need to learn that everybody has different opinions and it is okay to disagree. Not everybody thinks the same and that it what makes all people different.

Democracy by means of games in the classroom

Games are always a great way to capture the attention of students. Since democracy is very abstract having students act out different roles and show how democracy works could be very beneficial for the whole class. 

If you want to learn more about the topic of democracy then I encourage you to view this article! Enjoy!

Last Day!

Group 4 - Cooperative Lesson

For their final lesson Group 4 each group of students were given a secret mission. This idea really caught the students attention. They were eager to get started and see what they would need too do. This lesson was very well done and there were several aspects that I really enjoyed.

One aspect of the lesson that I thought was a great idea was they came up with an acronym for the word team. This was a great way to get students in the mind set of working together as a team. It also helped them to see some of the main characteristics of being part of a team. 

Another aspect that I enjoyed was that the lesson that I really enjoyed was that each group was given a different mission. This made the lesson more exciting for the students. Each group had a different format in which they would present their mission to the rest of the class. The formats used were a play, a letter, a commercial, a collage, and a music album. This made students more excited about listening to their classmates present. 

One final aspect of the lesson that I thought was done well was they had their groups practice before they had to go up and present their final project to the class. This helped make the presentation go a bit smoother and students knew what they were talking about. They also helped the students keep their posters well organized and neat. 

If I had to change one aspect of the lesson I would have had them assigned jobs to the students. I did notice that at some points their were students who seemed left out or just not focused on the projects that were being done. 

Overall I thought that Group 4 really did a great job! All of the lessons were exciting and for the most part all students seemed interested and involved! Great job Group 4 I really enjoyed observing all of your lessons. 

Almost Done!

Group 4 - Indirect Lesson

Again this was another good lesson put together by group 4, especially working with some undesirable conditions. During this lesson the 2nd grade teacher informed the group that there was going to be a fire drill about 15 minutes into the lesson. Knowing this the group started a little bit early to make up for possible loss of time. Though there did not end up being a fire drill, the group did a great job working during the stressful situation. Again their were several parts of this lesson that I really enjoyed.

One aspect of the lesson that I thought was done well was during their presentation the projector overheated. This was very inconveniencing because their lesson was all on a PowerPoint, but this did not stop them. Group 4 simply went on with lesson and taught from memory. They made sure to give students all the information they needed to move on with the lesson. 

Another aspect of the lesson that I really enjoyed was that they used the artifact bag activity that we had learned about in class earlier in the semester. I liked being able to see this method done in an elementary setting. I thought it was great that all groups had different artifacts in their bags, but they all related back to the idea of Native Americans and how they used these items and how the item they had could be traded. I really think the students were very excited about this activity. 

One final aspect of the lesson that I thought was done well was students were given jobs and told exactly what they needed to do. For the most part I feel like the students stuck with their jobs and at the end the final product turned out nicely. 

If I had to change one aspect of this lesson I might not have used the SOAPS idea or might have focused more time on teaching it to the students. This idea seemed hard for many students to understand and they really did not fully understand what it was used for. I do think that it would work much better in a classroom with slightly older students, because I do think it is a good tool that could be very beneficial. 

Final Group!

Group 4 - Direct Lesson

Group 4 had the topic of trading and transporting goods. I think they did a wonderful job teaching. Being the last group they had a lot of time to prepare and were able to listen and use the feedback that was given to the previous groups. This group really gave off a great energy and really put together some great lessons. There were several aspects of the lesson that I really enjoyed. 

One aspect that I really enjoyed was that the group gave the students a story to go with. They called themselves the Happy Traders and they were a band that had been on tour. I think this was a great way to grab the students attention.

I also liked how the group made and sang a song for the students. The song was all about trading and it was easy for students to join in and sing. 

One final aspect of the lesson that I thought was done very well was the vocabulary was taught and reviewed a lot. Students were given definitions, examples, and were asked to repeat definitions. This really helped to reinforce the new vocabulary and I really think it helped the students remember the new words and there meanings. 

If I had to change one aspect of the lesson I would not have given the students the Popsicle sticks. Each student was given a Popsicle stick with form of transportation on it. They were used to identify the groups and for students to use when they agreed or disagreed with something. I noticed that these sticks were very distracting for most students. They were playing with the sticks instead of focusing on the lesson. 

Overall Group 4 did a great job! I really enjoyed the lesson and look forward to observing their indirect lesson. 

Let's Watch Once More!

Group 3 - Cooperative Lesson

This was Group 3's last lesson and it was one of my favorites. Students had the chance to make their own businesses. They had to make decisions, work with money, and create a final poster with all their information. 

One aspect of the lesson that I enjoyed was that they reviewed all the jobs that students need to do. They also assigned students their jobs which sped up the process because student's were not arguing about who would do what. 

I also liked how groups were practicing what they were going to say before they went up in front of the whole class. This helped the students be more prepared when they had to present. 

One final thing that I really enjoyed was that the students had a chance to evaluate how they worked in their groups. They were given a sheet of paper and they had to identify things they did well and thing they could have improved on. 

If I had to change one aspect of the lesson I would have tried to enforce student jobs a bit more. I noticed that some students were doing other student jobs or some jobs were not being done. For example the timekeeper, this was a hard job to do without a timer. The use of a timer on the board would have been very helpful, but this was something that other groups could have done as well. 

Great Job Group 3! I really enjoyed observing your lessons, they were all very well done!! 

Let's Watch Again!

Group 3 - Indirect Lesson

Group 3 did a great job with their indirect lesson.  

One aspect of the lesson that I really enjoyed was the skits that Group 3 did during their introduction. They used these skits to reinforce the vocabulary they had learned in the previous lesson. Students were able to share what they thought was being shown in the skits. 

Another aspect of the lesson that I enjoyed was the Voki. They used George Washington as the Voki character. I like how they used Washington in their first lesson and were now bringing him back for the second lesson. He is somebody that the students have heard of and I think that made it more exciting for the students. 

One final aspect that I like was that they modeled the Inquiry process for the students. This is a very important thing to do during and indirect lesson. This helped students know what they were expected to do. It made the lesson move much smoother. 

If I had to change one aspect of the lesson I would have changed some of the terms used when doing the inquiry process. Some of these words were hard for students to say and I am not sure if they really knew what some of the words meant. This made it difficult for them to present the information that they came up with to the class. 

Overall this was another successful lesson. I really enjoyed observing this lesson because again I was able to see a successful indirect lesson, which was something my group struggled with!

Let's Watch!

Group 3 - Direct Lesson

Group 3 focused on the topic of trip to the bank. They had a lot of creative ideas, and there were many things that I enjoyed. The lesson were put together very well and I really enjoyed observing. 

One thing I really enjoyed about the lesson was the money boxes. Each group of students received a box and whenever the group was listening, paying attention, or answering questions they were rewarded money in their box. Also if students were miss behaving money was taken out of their box. This was a great way to keep students on task because they want to earn as much money as possible. I think Group 3 had the most control over the class because of this fun and creative method!

Another aspect of the lesson that I enjoyed was the video that went over all the new vocabulary terms. The topic of trip to the bank included a lot of vocabulary words that students needed to know, so I think that the video was fun and helped to reinforce the new words. Students seemed interested the whole time and really seemed to enjoy the video!

One final aspect of the lesson that I enjoyed was the activity where each student received a bag with picture and a sheet of paper and the students had to put the different pictured in sequence. I think the students really enjoyed this activity because it was hands on.

If I had to change one aspect of the lesson I would have tried to have students engaged at all times. during some of the activities after the group finished they began fooling around and getting noisy. Maybe students could have been given a fun activity sheet or something to keep them busy while other groups finished up. 

Overall you did a great job group 3! I loved your lesson and I really think the students did as well. I look forward to observing your indirect lesson.

Stepping Back Again!

Group 2 - Indirect Lesson

Group 2 did a great job with their indirect lesson plan! I was eager to see this lesson because it is the lesson that my group had the most trouble with. There were some many things that I enjoyed about this lesson. From beginning to end I thought it was done very well.

I liked that they used a Voki to get the attention of the students. They did not just used the Voki in the beginning they also constantly referred back to it during their lesson. This kept the students thinking about the message and what they needed to do. They also had a follow up message, which should students that their hard work was appreciated. 

I like how they went through the inquiry process with the students. They modeled for the students on the board before having them work in groups. During this time they showed students how they should be thinking and what steps they need to take. They also went over a hypothesis. They emphasized that your hypothesis might not always be right and that's okay. I thought it was great that they showed an example where their hypothesis was wrong, this really helped to reinforce the idea for the students. 

One final aspect of the lesson that I really liked was that they went over all the different jobs that need to be in a group. They also assigned students specific jobs rather then having them choose their own. Some students did not like this at first, but they quickly got over it and did a great job with the job they were given. 

I thought this was a great lesson, but if I had to change one thing I would say next time when doing the Voki instead of using the website voice try recording your own voice. I think this would have made the Voki seem more really for the students. 

Stepping Back to Watch!

Group 2 - Direct Lesson

Group 2 introduced the class to the topic of goods from the factory to you. They did a great job putting together their lesson and there were several aspects of the lesson that I enjoyed. 

The first thing I really enjoyed about the lesson was the Verizon skit the group did to introduce the lesson. This was a great way to get the students interested in the lesson. It was different and fun for the students. 

Another part of the lesson that I thought was very good was that they went over the new vocabulary in several different ways. Students were hearing several different new words, such as producer, consumer, advertisement etc. Group 2 did several different activities to reinforce these new words. They first had a PowerPoint presentation with all the new words, then a SMARTBoard activity, and also a worksheet.

One other aspect of the lesson that I enjoyed was the video about how crayons are made. I like how it showed the crayons being made in the factory. Students all paid close attention to the video, I think they like it because it was a product that they are very familiar with. I thought the video was a great idea!

If I had to change one aspect of the lesson, I might have collected the Popsicle sticks when the students no longer needed them. The Popsicle sticks had a green and red side, students used them to agree or disagree. I really like the idea, I just noticed that students began to play with them instead of paying attention to what they needed to do.  

Overall great job group 2! I really enjoyed observing your lesson and look forward to seeing what you have planned for lesson 2.