Group 1 + 2 Exploring Goods and Services

 

Last week, my class started teaching second graders at Bishop Dunn Elementary School. The first lesson was designed as a direct instruction lesson. In a direct instruction lesson, the teacher models for the students and guides them through the new ideas or concepts. Group one's lesson focused on goods and services. The goal was for students to have a strong understanding of goods/services and how they are connected to each other. The group did an excellent job of explaining goods and services to the students. The only suggestion that I have would be to hide the answers to the questions from the students prior to asking. This gives students the opportunity to activate prior knowledge and share what they already know. It also gives the teachers the chance to see how much the students know and what they may need to focus on throughout their remaining lessons. Overall, I thought that Group 1 did an excellent job and the students really seemed to learn a lot from this lesson. 

Group 2's lesson focused on from the factory to you. Their goal was to teach students how goods get from the factory to your home and how we can be both producers and consumers. I thought that Group 2 did an excellent job of activating the student's prior knowledge. They really got them thinking about how things get to the store and what steps are involved. They also helped the students make a strong connection between the factory and goods/services. I think the students now have a strong understanding of how things are made and what is involved in getting those things from the factory to a store where we as consumers can purchase them. Overall, I think that the first day of teaching went very well and I was really impressed with the lessons of both groups!

Teaching Current Events

While exploring current events, I came across this video about a teacher who created a current events newspaper for her students. As seen in this video, the students really like learning about what is happening in the world and are able to make strong connections to their own lives. I thought this teacher did a great thing for her students by providing them with the latest news and most important headlines without overwhelming them with unnecessary information. I hope that I could have something like this for my students so that they can experience and explore current events in a positive and rewarding way.

Exploring Current Events

 

Recently, my class was asked to explore several different resources regarding incorporating current events into classroom curriculum. I must admit, after reading about some of the activities that teachers use in the classroom, I can see that there are many fun and exciting ways for students to learn about current events. One of the activities that I read about seemed particularly interesting. In this activity, students would be asked to pick an ongoing story and keep track of that story while it develops. The students would share new information or bring in follow up articles and discuss how their thoughts and opinions have changed over time. I think this is a great way to keep students actively involved in their community and to encourage them to form opinions and take a stand on a particular topic.

When I was a student in elementary school, I can remember being asked to bring in a current event news article to share with the class. Each week the teacher would have us share our article with the class and she would ask us to explain why we chose the article. She would then put all of the articles on the bulletin board to display to the class. The reason that I remember this assignment so clearly is because I thoroughly enjoyed participating. I loved learning about what was going on around me and since I was never really able to watch the news, this was a great way for me to learn about the most important events that were happening. 

As a future teacher candidate, I am definitely going to incorporate current events into my classroom curriculum. I think it is extremely important to teach children about things that are happening in our country as well as other countries. It is important for students to understand what is going on around them because somehow, it will most likely impact their lives. I believe that children of all ages should be introduced to current events. Obviously, the activities would need to be adjusted based on the grade level but I believe that teaching students about current events is a great way to get them involved in their own learning. For example, if I was teaching a sixth grade class, I would give students a current news story and have them partake in a debate. The students would need to form an opinion and take a side. After carefully reading the story and understanding all of its components, the students would be able to take on certain roles and defend their position.

Letters to Daddy: The Musical Key to Bully Free

Last week I had the opportunity to attend a musical presentation called Letters to Daddy at Mount Saint Mary College. When I first heard that the presentation was being offered, I had no idea what to expect. I wondered how they were going to execute a musical performance about bullying.


When I arrived at the musical, I found out that the cast consisted solely of children. I thought this was incredible because children understand more than anybody how it feels to be bullied and why it is so important to get the message out. I was amazed at how incredibly talented each of the children were and even though it is a small cast, they are making such a huge impact on the fight against bullying. 


The main characters in the play were two young girls whose father is a fifth grade teacher at an elementary school. In the opening of the play, the younger sister explains through song that her dad had his class write letters telling him about something in their life that causes them the most pain. Caroline, who is the older sister, gets punished for standing up to a bully in school. While she is sitting in her dad's office, she finds the letters that the students had written. Caroline and her friends begin to read the letters out loud to each other. As they read about all of the pain and suffering that other children endure, they begin to realize that everyone has a secret and although people may appear tough on the outside, they could be dealing with a lot of hurt and anger on the inside. 

Throughout the musical, the children begin to grow and learn from each other. They realize that it is okay to be different and then you should not judge someone before you get to know them. They realize that they are all unique and special. The children discover that the continents of the Earth complete each other and fit together like a puzzle. The children put the puzzle together and it becomes a heart. This scene of the musical was especially important because it delivers one of the main messages, "Put the heart back in the Earth."
This is such a powerful and uplifting message and the children did an amazing job of portraying it. 


I learned so much from this musical and it even made me get a little bit emotional. I can remember what it feels like to be bullied in school and sometimes, the pain is unbearable. Even now as a perspective teacher, it is easy to see how mean children can be to one another. It is important to teach acceptance and to encourage children to love one another despite their differences. I am so glad that I had the opportunity to see this wonderful musical and even I feel like it forced me to look inside myself and reflect on what is important in life. It was a truly beautiful message and one that I will definitely share with my students in the future.

Native American Jigsaw

This past week we have been working on an activity called Jigsaw. If you are thinking that sounds familiar to you then you are probably right. If you have ever completed a puzzle you have probably heard the word jigsaw. So how exactly does that relate to what we have been doing in class? Well,the purpose of this jigsaw activity was for the class to learn about Native Americans and the different tribes they have made an impact in history.

First, the class was split up into three base groups. Each member of the group was given a specific tribe to research. Then we were split into "expert groups" Our expert groups consisted of the people in the class that were assigned the same tribe. I was assigned the Dine' tribe so it was my responsibility to research and report to my group. After conducting research, we got back into our expert groups to share what we found. Once we all felt that we had sufficient information we taught or information to our classmates in our base groups. By each contributing our own research and information, we acted as individual pieces to the puzzle. Hence, the Jigsaw Activity.

I thought this activity was extremely useful and much more meaningful. Instead of having each student in the class research all of the different tribes, we were able to focus on one tribe and then communicate and collaborate to help each other become experts. I would definitely use this exercise in my classroom. Although it would probably need to be adjusted to be successful at the elementary level, I think it is a fun and exciting way for students to learn. It also promotes collaborations and allows the students to take part in their own learning.

The Artifact Bag

This week we had to create an artifact bag on a particular topic that could be used in a lesson designed to accommodate a particular standard. The topic that I chose was the United States Constitution. This period of history has always interested me because it is such a influential part of our nation's history and has helped to shape our society. Exploring social studies concepts through artifacts is a great way to captivate the student's attention and provides a hands-on experience that may help establish strong connections. 

The first thing that we had to do was choose an artifact to go along with our topic. The artifacts that I chose were a copy of the constitution, notes written by Thomas Jefferson, and a picture of the delegates signing the constitution. Next, we had to choose a children's picture book to supplement both our artifacts and the topic that we chose. The book that I found is called We the Kids by David Catrow. Catrow who is a political cartoonist wrote this book to help kids better understand the Preamble which is the opening to the United States Constitution. Using humorous illustrations, Catrow helps children understand and relate to the words of the preamble. 

After creating our artifact bags, we formed small groups to share what we had created. It was really fun and interesting to see everybody's artifacts and how they tied it all together. I think this was a great activity. I learned so much from researching my topic and I think this would be an excellent way for the student's to explore artifacts and their importance to particular eras in history. 

This week we have been working collaboratively to explore the world of banking. Our task was for each person in our group to explore a particular topic so that we would understand the ideas and concepts before beginning the unit. After exploring and learning about the ideas on our own, we shared what we learned with the rest of our group members. Our next task was to create a test that would assess how well the students understood the ideas and concepts of banking. 

This activity really forced us to think about what types of questions would be good for certain information. For example, some topics were very straightforward and were good for multiple choice questions. While others were good for the essay portion of the test because it was more open ended and required more explanation from the student to ensure understanding. I was glad that we were able to work collaboratively for this project because everyone contributed and helped to make this process easier. 

This assignment help me realize how much careful consideration needs to be done before creating an assessment tool such as a test. You need to consider the types of questions, how you are going to grade, and what accommodations might need to be put into place for students who are having difficulty.