“Rest and be thankful.” - William Wordsworth

Monday 11/25/13:

During today's class we were given the opportunity to work on all assignments we needed to complete. Dr. Smirnova was available throughout this time to answer questions and clarify ideas. Ericka and I began working on all of the self-tests that aligned with our textbooks chapters. These self-tests were important for us to complete because they helped ensure that we had retained the content information from the class. After we had finished taking the self-tests, we began working on our third activity for the unit plan. We decided to create another direct instruction lesson plan to address information regarding the events leading up to the American Revolution: Activity #3. 

Wednesday 11/27/13 and Friday 11/29/13:

HAPPY THANKSGIVING BREAK! I spent most of this break relaxing and enjoying time with my family. The remainder of my time was dedicated to completing assignments and catching up on work. I met up with my group mates, Alex and Ericka, to work on our LiveBinders. We were able to complete the "About Me," "My Philosophy for Teaching," "My Blog," "Professional Organizations," and "Social Studies Projects I am Proud of" tabs. We are well on our way to completing this professional online portfolio of work.

I enjoy using this online portfolio. I try to be eco-friendly as much as possible, and this would be a way to save paper by keeping all files online. I feel that this would be an important skill to teach students and future teachers because our society is becoming more and more technologically advanced and technology is becoming a major part of education.

“The only journey is the one within.” - Rainer Maria Rilke

Monday 11/18/13:

During today's class, we completed our Jigsaw Native American Project. This project was an extremely effective way to learn about Native American Tribes. The jigsaw method of teaching and learning information begins with the creation of a "base group." A base group is comprised of four to six students (in our class's case six students per group). This base group establishes who will research and present on what topic. For our class, each member of a base group presented on a specific Native American tribe: Mohawk, Cayuga, Seneca, Mohican, Munsee, and Oneida. Each person then split to meet with "expert groups." An expert group focused their research specifically on one particular tribe. 

The information we were instructed to find included the history, geography, culture, clothing, food, habitat and famous people for our assigned tribe. We also were asked to focus on the question: "How did geography influence the Native Americans?" My group focused on the Seneca tribe. The information we compiled can be viewed through our Google presentation. In completing this research, our group decided that geography impacted the Seneca tribe in a variety of ways. The region this tribe lived in allowed its people to hunt, fish and gather, experienced seasonal weather that allowed for a change in clothing, and provided opportunities to trade with nearby tribes. 

After we had compiled all of our research together, we moved from our expert groups back to our base groups. Each tribe expert presented to the base group. Dr. Smirnova encouraged that we still use the format of a lesson during this brief presentation. During this time, we introduced our topics and probed prior knowledge, developed the lesson through direct instruction, allowed time for comparison and discussion, and assessed the skills learned through an assessment.

This activity allowed me to learn more about the Seneca tribe in particular, but also the other Native American tribes that were presented to my base group. My knowledge of Native American tribes was limited to what little instruction I received in elementary and middle school, regarding the interactions between the native peoples and pilgrims, the three sisters, and longhouses. Through this activity, I learned more specific aspects of Native American cultures, about famous people within each tribe and the impact geography had on each tribe. 

As a future teacher, I plan to use the method of jigsaw learning. I believe that it gives students the ability to become "experts" on a particular topic, which would improve their self-efficacy and self-esteem within a classroom. This type of activity also allows students to practice positive interdependence, by showing them that they all have responsibilities that effect other members of the group. I would use this activity to study the thirteen colonies, European countries, particular cultures, etc. Broad topics, such as these, can easily be divided into main points (New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, or England, Ireland, France, or religion, stories, language). These main points could be researched by expert groups, and then presented to base groups to get a fuller picture about a topic.


Wednesday 11/20/13:

During today's class, we participated in two current event lessons.

The first lesson, conducted by Madison, Brittney and Liz, focused on sequences of events. The teachers first began the introduction portion of the lesson by reminding students about the other current event lessons and talked about what current events are. They also activated prior knowledge by asking "Who can give me the definition of the word sequence?" The ladies transitioned from the students' responses to examples of sequences. We were asked to connect the word sequences to our own lives: getting ready in the morning, how we study, ways to get to school. The teachers moved into the development of the lesson by explaining that we will be putting a current event article into a particular sequence. Our class was asked to read the article prior to class, but in a full class application the teachers would have read the article aloud to the students. For the guided practice portion of the lesson, our class was divided into two groups. We were provided with a sheet of poster board, sentence strips and tape. We worked cooperatively and referenced the article in order to place the sentences in order according to the sequence of the current event article. After we had ordered and taped down the sentence strips, the two groups came to the front of the room to share their answers. We compared our order of sentence strips to the correct order of sentence strips. For the closure, the teachers asked if we had any questions about the activity. We also were asked if we found the activity difficult or easy to complete. The teachers also asked us to reflect on what a sequence was to wrap up the activity.

This was a well-executed mini lesson! I think that the three ladies who presented were well prepared to teach, had all the necessary materials, and spoke clearly. They were working on a condensed schedule, but the activity did not seem rushed. I like that the activity involved the entire class and was engaging throughout. I feel that this would be an activity that could be applied across subject areas. It would be especially beneficial in social studies teaching because it provides an alternative to traditional timeline instruction when learning dates or sequences of events.


The second lesson, conducted by Catilyn, Anne, Tara and James, focused on identifying the difference between fact and opinion. The teachers began the lesson by asking if the class to provide the definitions for fact and for opinion. After the class had provided these definitions, the teacher offered examples of facts and opinions on the PowerPoint, and then asked us students to expand with our own facts or opinions. We then moved into groups of three or four students to discuss an article about Veteran's Day. Each member of the group was assigned a role: manager, time keeper, recorder and speaker. We listened to James read the article aloud and picked out two facts about the article. We then were instructed to form an opinion based on the article and record it on an accompanying worksheet. After we had recorded our facts and opinions, we shared our findings with the class. To conclude, we discussed why teaching the difference between facts and opinions would be important to teach students.

This lesson was great, but time constraints limited how much we as students were able to take away from the activity. I think that if we had had more time to complete it, it would have been more meaningful and would have provided us with a better idea of how to execute the activity as a full class. Overall, I believe that this teaching technique is important to teach students because we are now living in an extremely digital world. Our students will be bombarded by information, and need to begin learning how to separate fact from opinion.

Friday 11/22/13:

During today's class, we were provided with the opportunity to use the class time as an open workshop to complete any work for our final portfolio. Ericka, Alex and I used this opportunity to begin planning our mini lessons. We decided to create lessons on a debate between colonists and the British, a scavenger hunt to find missing generals and a direct instruction lesson about the events prior to the American Revolution.

We used this class time to work on our second activity: the scavenger hunt. Our lesson can be found HERE. Our objectives for this lesson were: 1) 

Given a computer with predetermined websites and an accompanying fact/hint worksheet about a “missing” war general, students will research information about the particular war generals in order to provide the correct name of the general with 100% accuracy; and 2)

Given information found through research, students will present their findings to the class by providing three details that led them to the conclusion of who the “missing” war general is. 

To meet these objectives, we planned to introduce and pre-assess student knowledge of generals in the American Revolution. As teachers, we would model the research process through use of a familiar figure to fourth grade students: Selena Gomez. We would observe the fact list and then use provided websites to validate our facts. After this modeling activity, we would move into the activity by dividing the class into groups. Each group would be provided a fact sheet that would provide hints about who the general was. They would research through provided websites, then share their findings with a class.

This activity would be fairly easy to carry out within a full class application. Students would be able to be engaged in the activity from start to finish. They would be able to work collaboratively with peers and be able to share findings. They would also be able to expand their inquiry skills through this activity.

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world"- Mahatma Gandhi

Monday 11/11/13:

HUG THE GLOBE!

To begin today's class, Dr. Smirnova had us participate in an around the world activity. Each of us were asked to grab the foam globe, hug it, and share two things: an issue that concerns us about geography and how we will address it in our classrooms. I shared my interest in advocating for animals around the world, whether it be through poaching, deforestation, pollution, etc. I also shared that the Dawn dish soap commercials can bring me to tears, because my love for animals is so great. I discussed that I would encourage my students to become educated about issues around the world regarding animals and become advocates for it by writing letters or signing/creating petitions. If possible, I would also create outreach activities with the community that could benefit animals such as collecting litter or volunteering at a local shelter or animal hospital.

After this engaging activity, we moved on to discussing chapter twelve of our textbooks. The notes I took during this portion of the class are posted below:

Geographical Literacy- Geographically literate citizens are aware of (1) what is happening in the world, (2) why it is happening, and  (3) how it affects other people throughout the world as well as themselves. (Sunal 371)

The Five Themes of Geography

Theme 1 : Location, Position on the Earth’s Surface. 

-Absolute or exact location other times

-General or relative location; for example

-Learning activities including the location theme help students learn to locate places in the community, state, or nation; on the earth; or on a map or a globe.

Theme 2: Place, Natural and Cultural Characteristics. 

-Natural and human features of the landscape. 

-Mountains, capital cities, and the developing world. 

-Students gather data and answer questions such as the following to help them describe place.

Theme 3: Relationships within Places, Humans and Environments. 

-The natural environment tends to limit what people can do in a place. People have been quite clever in dealing with these limitations. In dry areas where water was not sufficient to grow needed food, people found ways to import water. Today, people in dry places use advanced transportation to import food. .

Theme 4: Movement, Humans Interacting on the Earth. 

-Movement of ideas and products affects not only places of origin and destination but also places along the way. 

-Raw materials are extracted, new products are grown or produced in factories, and transportation centers are expanded or established.

-Ideas such as preservation, conservation, and democracy are being attempted in new places. 

-People travel to other nations to visit and may spend part of their lives working or living in other nations. ----There are systematic movements among the natural forces on the earth. 

-Global problems are concerns of geographers as they study movements between places and regions.

Theme 5: Regions, How They Form and Change. 

-Geographers frequently divide it into regions. Geographers study all the places and activities defined by the other four themes. Geographers begin to get a picture of how the entire world works as they investigate the interactions between regions.

-A region can be as small as an individual classroom, school, neighborhood, or community with which very young students are familiar. In this region, they can observe and investigate. .

We also participated in quiz games to test our knowledge of geography and elements associated with geography using Jognog. Jognog is a website that utilizes the principles of gameification, by creating fun quizzes that allow students to earn points/coins and forms of praise for completing the quizzes. This site could be used for creation and implementation of pre-assessment quizzes and final examinations.



Wednesday 11/13/13:

To begin today's class, we participated in an activity created by Laura, Brianna and Rachel. Prior to class, we were asked to read four different articles. In class, we were divided into four groups to explore the articles more in depth. Each group was asked to identify the article based on three quotes listed on a given worksheet. This allowed us to use our inquiry skills, which are important for students to practice within the classroom. After each group had located its article, we were asked to identify the title and author, determine if the news piece was national/global/local, and provide a summary of the article to the class. This is another important skill for students to learn, because it allows them to identify the main ideas of an article.

I thought this current event project would be fun and useful within a classroom! It is a way to have students become familiar with news around the world, as well as in the local community. This activity could be useful as a unit. Each week students could examine different sets of articles. For instance, the students could begin with local news from their community. Next, they could explore county news. Following county news, the students could move to state-wide news. The exploration of articles from this point could move to tri-state, regional, national, hemisphere and global. When the unit moves into the global piece, specific areas could be studied together (African, European, etc.).

Friday 11/15/13:

Today in class we began to work on our Native American Jigsaw projects. My group is made up of myself, Alex and Liz and we are studying the Seneca Tribe. Dr. Smirnova instructed each group to talk about: history, geography, culture, clothes, food, habitat and famous people.

The link to our PRESENTATION is here.

I think that using a jigsaw activity is an engaging way to have students learn material. The use of base and expert groups allows students to feel power in their learning and gives them an opportunity to practice skills like self-management and self-motivation to complete a task. Jigsaw learning also encourages students to work collaboratively with one another by working on skills such as listening effectively, being respectful and sharing information with others.

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” - Ernest Hemingway

I can not believe that this is our final week of fieldwork! I have learned so much in such a short amount of time. I learned my strengths and weaknesses within lesson planning and implementing lessons within the classroom. I am able to create lesson plans easily, but I need to have a strict format to follow in order to have all of the necessary information. I need to begin to use more formal language and project my voice within the classroom. I also need to be sure to always have a back up plan when implementing lessons in case I have extra time or technology does not work properly. I also learned that working with others can be challenging, but it is always a rewarding experience because we are able to learn from one another. Overall, I am extremely proud of myself and my peers for successfully completing our Social Studies Methods fieldwork!

Monday 11/4/13:

I had the opportunity to observe Groups 3 and 4 again. Both groups taught a cooperative learning lesson to the fourth grade class. Both lessons explained the social skills necessary for effective group work. The approaches to teaching cooperative learning for Groups 3 and 4 were different; Group 3 had students create their own Declaration of Independence, while Group 4 had students engage in a debate. I will presenting my notes on my classmates lesson's in a "3 plus and 1 wish" format.  

Group 3:
- Your group improved on time management during this lesson. The direct instruction powerpoint presentation portion of your lesson was streamlined, making information more clear and concise. I especially liked how Anne explained PIGS, in a quick and easy way for the students to understand and use during the lesson. The timer on the SmartBoard also allowed students to manage their own time during the time allotted for them to write their Declaration of Independence.
- I loved your activity! The writing of a Declaration of Independence from the perspective of students. I think that it was a smart idea to divide the aspects of the declaration so that each group wrote a different part under a common theme. I liked that each group had an opportunity to present its section and that the class listened respectfully. 
- I like how you built on the teachings from previous groups. This made the transition from one group to another more seamless.
- I wish that you had posted what the parts of the Declaration of Independence were on the SmartBoard. This would have eliminated questioning from students and using valuable class time for excess explanation. The slide could have been used as a reference for the students throughout the activity.

Group 4:
- I liked that throughout the lesson you probed answers from students. You waited for an appropriate amount of time for student responses, and when the students did not answer you made sure to rephrase the question or restate it. I like that you intentionally called on different students or asking to see new hands in order to be sure that everyone was engaged and participating throughout your lesson plan.
- It was smart to go over the vocabulary words that you planned on using during your debate activity. During this section of your lesson, I liked that you paused and waited to see if students knew the words or could make guesses about their definitions before showing the correct definition on your PowerPoint slides.
- I think that the debate was a smart choice of an activity! It was engaging and a way to get all the students involved. It is also a relevant topic across all subject areas, as well as in real life application. Students will need to learn how to formulate and express their opinions, while still respecting and attempting to understand the opinions of others.
- Although you all always do a fantastic job implementing the lesson, I wish you had switched up the order of who talks when during the lesson. Each of you as teachers will need to be able to do the introduction, implementation, and closing sections of a lesson plan, so this fieldwork time would have been a good time to practice!


Wednesday 11/6/13:

Today was our final day of fieldwork at Bishop Dunn Memorial School! I am so thankful for all of the experiences I have had: the most important being working with Group 1! I feel that we were successful as a group because we worked collaboratively throughout the entire fieldwork experience. We were in constant contact, whether it be through Googledocs, text messages or emails. We each made a conscious effort to stay in touch with one another. We always respected each others ideas and opinions. We worked for ourselves and our students, and in the end, we did a great job teaching our fourth grade class.

Hooray for group one! I also feel that this experience strengthened the bond I have with my friends here on campus. This semester, we branched out from only seeing each other during school functions and during classes, to meeting on weekends to work on our lessons. Although we would set aside an hour or so to work, we would end up spending half of our Sundays together in a classroom watching YouTube videos, chatting and sharing coffee. I am honestly so grateful for the friendships I have formed with these lovely ladies!

And of course, a thank you to Dr. Smirnova. Thank you for constantly editing our lesson plans late at night and providing thoughtful, helpful resources and comments that helped improve our teaching! We really do appreciate all of your guidance. Thank you for making me more tech-savvy as well!

For our final day together at Bishop Dunn Memorial School, we, as a class, designed a post-test for the students to complete. Each group created 3-5 questions that wrapped up what had been taught during our three lesson blocks. Before the students took the test, each grouped reviewed information about the lessons. The students were asked to complete the test on the computers, with an allotted time of 10 minutes. Upon the completion of the post-test, we all shared things that we had learned during our time with the fourth grade class. Each of us shared how much we enjoyed working with such a wonderfully smart class, and bits about things that we had learned from them. 

After we had all shared, the groups prepared for our closing ceremony. Each group had created a certificate for the students for completing fieldwork. Students were called individually by name to receive their certificates, while their fellow classmates clapped and offered words of praise. During this time, we congratulated the students. As a final closing, we participated in a round of fireworks!

Overall, this experience at Bishop Dunn has been incredible. I enjoyed working collaboratively with my peers and implementing lessons in a co-teaching way. I'm happy that I had the opportunity to practice this type of teaching before going into the field on my own.



Friday 11/8/13:

Today we reflected as a class on our fieldwork experiences as whole class! We each individually shared our feelings about the experience and what we had learned. My classmate, Courtney, shared that the most important part was actually implementing an entire lesson plan in front of a classroom. We have always been writing our lesson plans in the Mount Saint Mary College lesson plan format, but we have never experienced actually acting out the entire lesson plan. Now that we have done so, I have realized the importance of having an introduction and a conclusion. Without them, students will feel lost in regards to what content will be taught or what was learned during the lesson plan.

I shared that it is important to give students control during lessons. I know that this can be challenging for me, because I like to have control and for things to work out the way I had planned. Some of the best activities were the ones that students had the most control, such as the cooperative learning activities (skit, song, advertisement, acrostic poem, Declaration of Independence). I also shared that I loved working with my group and that collaboration was very important.

After we had reflected on our experiences, we created a LiveBinder account.

LiveBinder is an online portfolio for work that we have completed throughout the semester. The portfolio includes sections about me, my philosophy of education, my blog, professional organizations, social studies projects, my unit plan, and edTPA tasks.