Blogging is to learning as...

I have honestly always been interested in writing a blog-and always envied those who did. My first issue...I didn't even know how to start a blog! Well, that was sure cleared up during the first evening of class. Come to find-it was super easy, almost embarrassingly easy. Second issue...I have no time these days. Luckily, I had to make time to blog for my Social Studies class this summer. I have always been pretty consistent at keeping a written journal, mostly since high school and beyond. These were my private thoughts that I didn't share with anybody. So this on-line blogging thing is a bit different. First, I am not so much as writing about my private thoughts and secrets, but more so my personal views and experiences. Second, I can allow numerous people access to view these writings. I like these different takes on my journal writings. It challenges me to talk about issues that other people are interested in (whether they agree with my view or not) and to also word it in a way that is thoughtful and academic. I really hope to keep blogging throughout my student teaching, first year on the job, and well into my career. While we were required to mainly write about social studies these past six weeks, I hope to incorporate other educational issues, research, and teaching strategies into my future blog posts.
For the purpose of my social studies class, blogging gave me the opportunity to reflect on the readings, lessons plans, and teachings (among other things- such as become more technologically savvy-it is 2010 for Pete's sake!). I understand that reflection is critical to my future as an educator and the more practice, the better I'll be at it. Reflecting is somewhat natural to me, but blogging helped me to put my thoughts into words as well as have them recorded for me to refer back to. I also found it interesting to read other classmates' posts (when I had the time, of course!). I can honestly say I do not see any way that blogging has hindered my learning experience in my social studies course.
While the title of the course gave some insights as to what I would be learning (Integrating Social Studies and the Arts) I now realize just how easy it is to incorporate social studies throughout the school day into a wide range of content areas and topics. Since social studies is not tested in North Carolina, it is easy for teachers to push the subject aside and focus on the subjects that are tested, specifically mathematics and literacy. While I am not saying that these two subjects are not important or even that social studies is more important than math and language arts, I am saying that it is just as important. There are a number a ways to meet English Language Arts objectives and Social Studies objectives in the same unit, in the same lesson. As a pre-service teacher about to enter my student teaching, I will make a huge effort to bridge the gap between social studies and other content ares. We are ultimately teaching our students how to be responsible and informed citizens of their community, state, and country. How can we do that when we push social studies down to the bottom of the totem pole?

His-Story

While I can't recall much of my early Social Studies experiences, I do remember somewhere along the road the concept of "his" story. Basically, who ever is telling the story is getting their perspective into the history books. More times than not, it's usually the story of the "winner" or the story of the person/side holding more power and money (these two usually go hand and hand, right?) As an elementary student, I am almost certain I was only exposed to one side or perspective of the story for any event in history.
Approaching teaching in this manner provides a great disservice to all of our students. My group and I are doing our notebook unit on the American Revolution. I pretty much had to reteach myself about this event in our history (it was very interesting too!) but also consider ways I would teach portions of this era to my students. One of our essential questions addresses taking in to account the point of view of the British. I found it interesting to research and read about this view point of the Revolutionary War-one that I don't think I have ever truly considered before. Students would no doubt find researching both sides interesting as well!
It is important to teach and show students that there is always more than one way to view an event or time in history. Just like we are told to teach students that there is more than one way to approach a math problem, or as Mrs. Toliver would say, "There is more than one way to skin a cat!" we need to point out to our students that there are always two sides to every story.
Maxim, page 87 states "Provide every child with the time, opportunities, resources, understanding, and affection to achieve the important goals of social studies education." It is important to address individual differences among our students and show our appreciation for them as unique individuals. Biases must be eliminated from the elementary school environment. Showing students multiple points of view and and teaching them to consider alternate perspectives will help to open their eyes and their minds to a diverse and multicultural world

Does the Textbook Actually Contain the Answers We Seek?

If the textbook contains the answers, then what are the questions?

In response to this quote, pulled from Understanding By Design, I thought maybe this is a trick question. I don't believe a textbook contains the "answers" anymore than a dictionary does. These materials contain what I would call information. I think most people would call it that. I'm talking about facts, dates, places, people, and definitions. These are not the answers to the questions we are (or should be) presenting to our students in the classroom. Simple solutions to questions that they can google is not the goal here. Teachers need to be asking questions that evoke thought and consideration from the students. Questions need to be asked that spark discussions and different points of view. Children are capable of digging deep and providing insights that even their teacher had not thought of.

We need to be asking the right questions, however, for this HOT to occur. What are the "right" questions? Well, there is no single best answer to this question. It certainly depends on the content and the students. Simply put, questions need to push students to make connections. Idealy, there would be multiple answers to one question. Questions and their answers should instigate the asking of other questions. "Good" questions focus on the big idea-what's important? What does this mean to me?

The questions that texbook answers are the ones asked at the end of a chapter. And while sometimes it is important to know the facts, the questions we really want to be asking our students cannot be found in a textbook.

Annual Planning

Creating an annual plan may feel daunting at first. I mean, a WHOLE years worth of ideas and units!? I am sure I am feeling this way because it is the first time I have ever created one. Luckily, I have some wonderful peers to work with and learn from along the way. Mapping out the direction you hope to take through the discourse of the year is comforting and supportive. It keeps you on track, focused, and heading in the right direction. There are goals to accomplish all along the way and they are written out for you so you can easily refer to them and remind yourself. I know me, and I enjoy having a plan-I need to know when and what is going to take place, and exactly how it is going to play out. Once you have created an annual plan and made it through the year, it would be useful to go back and reflect on the plan. What worked? What needs to be changed? Should something be taken out/added in? These are all wonderful advantages of taking the time and thought to create an annual plan for your classroom.

What if students don't grasp the material as you had hoped? What if you have to spend more/less time on a topic or unit than you have planned for? Does this totally disrupt your plan for the remainder of the year? Teaching requires flexibility and the understanding that often times, things do not go according to plan. I may feel even more stressed if all the work I put into creating an annual plan goes to waste. Then again, it would be a learning experience and the following year's plan would be even better.
Chaos would take place in the classroom without a plan. Not just what is to take place today or next week, but next month, after winter break, and so on. There at least needs to be an idea-an ideal direction you hope to go in.

From the readings, I was under then impression that before anything, goals and essential questions need to be developed. Once these are established, the next task is to create assessment ideas. After deciding upon a topic/unit, look for resources. There are so many wonderful and awesome things out there for us teachers to use in our lesson planning and in our classroom. It is not always necessary to "reinvent the wheel." The library, the Internet, a magazine or book, your peers...everywhere! Keep an eye and a teacher's ear open to everything and you will surely discover useful ideas that you wouldn't have been able to come up with solo.

Exploring the Art Museum

I can't even remember the last time I was actually inside of the North Carolina Art Museum here in Raleigh. It was probably some time when I was in elementary or middle school. Man-was I missing out! I know that it was recently been renovated and it looks amazing inside...not to mention the art! Inside and out, it was just beautiful. We first received some information about the resources offered to educators-items I could definitely see myself using in my classroom. Then we headed inside to begin our tour. Although our tour lasted a feet-aching 2 hours (maybe it was the walk before!) I learned so much and or guide was extremely entertaining and knowledgeable, which of course helped the time fly by. One of the last pieces we looked at was one of my favorites. I can't remember the name, but it was a portrait of Mona Lisa's face created out of spools of thread...spools of thread! It was remarkable how those spools were picked and arranged in such a way to resembled Mona Lisa's face so closely. It is difficult to pick out which pieces I liked best because I liked many of them for different reasons. However, I can say that I really liked the Rodin Garden outside. It was beautiful out there. I hope that when I take a class of students to the Museum, we will have a guide as fun and smart as the one we had yesterday. I feel like I learned so much, I would even be able to tell my students a thing or two!