We Made it!

I can't believe the semester is over. This has been the most difficult semester in my college years. Not only was I taking 6 major courses, I lost one of the most important people in my life a week before midterms. Dealing with all of life's issues can be very hard, but you have to push through. I would like to thank Dr. Smirnova for helping me throughout that hard time and being so understanding. At times it was extremely difficult, but I made it, and very much looking forward to Summer. 

Looking back, when I first walked in to Dr. Smirnova's Social Studies Methods course I was a ball of anxiety. Many people had told me this was the most challenging course they had ever taken. Hearing this got me more worked up because I was taking both Social Studies Methods and Science Methods with Dr. Smirnova this semester. Coming out of these courses, I am extremely happy with the goals I have accomplished. Nothing ever comes easy, and I think these courses are a prime example of that. I worked very hard in these courses, and from the projects I have presented, lessons I have taught, and live binders I am completing, I can see the changes in myself. I'm very proud of what I accomplished this semester amidst life's challenges. I would like to thank Dr. Smirnova for being a teacher that pushes her students. I am coming out of this course with so much new knowledge. I am so happy I took this course right before I student teach in the Fall, because I have many added tools to my teacher tool box from this course! I am looking forward to reflecting on this course this Summer as I prepare for student teaching in the Fall. 

Enjoy the Summer everyone! 

Practice Makes Perfect

In class today, we completed mock interviews. I really enjoyed this activity, and thought it was great practice. Four of our peers were interviewers while the rest of the class were interviewees. Being that it was in our classroom, among our friends and colleagues, I didn't think I would be stressed. Wow, was I wrong! When I walked into class, everyone came dressed for the part which added some intimidation factor, and I was actually very nervous. I think the atmosphere really transformed into an interview setting. We were unsure of what the interviewers were going to ask us, and we were unsure of how qualified our competition was. We sat in groups, and each interviewer came to each group. In the interview I found myself trying to answer questions to the best of my ability, and listening to my peers on their answers. It felt like a real interview. I really enjoyed this simulation and I think it bettered my understanding in the interview process. I have been on job interviews before, but none for an education position. I enjoyed that the questions were based on our activities and lessons we completed this semester. I believe it wasn't only good practice, but a good review of the entire semester. Based on the practice in this setting, I hope one day I will be able to look back on this experience and see how it bettered me for actual experiences. Hopefully one day this experience will help me say.....

                                                

Technology Tool Box

From the start of this semester, Dr. Smirnova stressed the importance of technology, and how much we would be using it. I was apprehensive at first because I am not that tech savy. Coming out of this course I am confident, and I enjoy all of the resources technology can provide to us. Right from the start, we were building our technology tool box with our about me projects. We learned about 30 new technology sites that, over the course of the semester, we became very confident with. Even better was most of these sites had a free option. The free option fit our needs just fine. Dr. Smirnova also gave us her personal access to some sites. It was great to become familiar with these sites without the cost, so one day when we have our own classrooms we can know which sites we may want to bring in. I had never heard of glogster, now I use it for everything! I learned how useful vokis and word clouds are. I also learned how to use sites like powtoon and voice over sites. All of these engaging and unique sites are key to having a successful 21st century classroom. 

This video provides great insight on the importance of creating a technological classroom. In this day and age, it is so important to have a digital classroom. Students today were born into technology, and can better their learning by learning through a digital environment. I am so excited to take what I learned in this class and embark on my adventure in creating a digital classroom for my students. 

Word Cloud Fun

Throughout this semester, I found myself using word clouds often. A word cloud is a picture that holds words about a topic. The above is a word cloud about word clouds. It has many words that all pertain to word clouds. WE used this for the introduction of our lesson on "The Colonies Become Free." We asked the students if they knew any of the words. It was a quick pre-assessment. Below is the word cloud we made for our lesson.  

We also used word clouds in our current event presentation. Using wordle, tagul or tagxedo, our peers created word clouds based on the 5 W's in regards to their articles. Our peers' word clouds are below. 

Jigsaw Method

We experienced the jigsaw learning method today in class. This is where there are groups of students, and then each student is assigned to a topic. The students then break into sub groups based on topics. These groups become expert groups on their topics. It is a fun and different approach to group work. 

This video is very helpful, and informative. The video shows history, the structure, and tips for teachers. The video goes on to say "increases student engagement, encourages collaboration, and results in better learning. " I enjoyed this learning environment, and feel it would work well in my classroom. I believe students would enjoy being an expert and teaching their peers. 

Economic 101!

We created a class economics 101 presentation. We each took a topic, and then researched it and created a presentation on it. It was an exciting way. Even though some did the same topics, no two presentations looked the same. I thought that was interesting and how creative each of us are. My topic was Macroeconomics vs Microeconomics. This is a challenging topic for young students but I found was to make it not so challenging. Because I enjoyed creating the glogster in the past, I made another for this presentation. This is link to my glogster, and there is a picture at the bottom of this blog post. I enjoyed presenting in out groups on our topics. It also helped build our technology toolbox, because many different sites were used. Here is the link to our class presentations. 

What's in the Bag?

In class today we did an activity called "Artifact Bag." This activity was extremely engaging, and interesting to all our students.  For my artifact bag I did the event, "Independence Day." I really enjoyed having students use the inquiry process to guess whats in the bag. I also enjoyed completing this process with my peers and their own bags. I loved some of the different props my colleagues put in their bag. This is a very fun and engaging activity for all students. Here is the link to my artifact bag presentation. The artifact bag was introduced to us via Dr. Smirnova, when she shared important life events with us in artifact bags.

My event was "Independence Day," so on the outside of my bag, there was a picture of fireworks. Inside the bag there were three items, a barbecue, a parade, and an Uncle Sam picture. All of these would help students use the inquiry process and guess the event. 

I loved all the artifact bags in my groups. They were enjoyable, and you could see that my peer's took a lot of time to put their bags together. My favorite was Sam's. She had tangible items, and I think from here the student's would be hands on, minds on, and would be able to perfectly execute the inquiry process, and accomplish the goal.