Kelly+Karalash

Hi! My name is Kelly, and I'm a senior at MSU. I'm majoring in History and minoring in French, but I have wanted to be a teacher ever since I first started elementary school. My free time from school is usually spent at work, but I am also a competitive highland dancer. Highland dance is Scottish, and pretty different from the standard types of dance that most people know, but it has become a huge part of my life.


 * Classroom Discussion/Debate Lesson Plan**


 * Cooperative Learning Lesson Plan**


 * Simulation Lesson Plan**


 * Student-Directed Investigation Lesson Plan**

Reflection 12: According to my personality test, my top three are musical, social, and body movement. My lowest two, however, are spatial and logic/math. I believe that these fit my methods of learning very accurately. I have always been able to learn more effectively by taking part in an activity, especially one where I am able to bounce ideas off of other people. If I am expected to learn by sitting in a chair, by myself, I am more likely to end up distracted. In the past I have noticed that I often have trouble thinking out problems in the "logical" method, and even in math classes. It is much easier for me to argue for both sides of a disagreement or theory than it is for me to pick one. I also have a tendency to combine/skip steps in math, much like I've never had much spatial reasoning skills. If I were to have a student like myself, I would try to plan my lessons to be much more student involved, rather than resorting to direct instruction.

Reflection 11: I was lucky enough to have the teacher that I was closest to in high school for three years - he taught my Honors English 9 class, AP Language and Composition, and AP US History. This teacher was important to me for multiple reasons. First, he truly knew what he was talking about. Anyone could tell from meeting this teacher that the man was smart - he had later told us that he attended Harvard and worked in business for awhile, until he decided to go back to school and became a teacher. He was personable - he would tell stories about his life in ways that we both found entertaining and relatable. By doing so, he became more than just a teacher. He would talk to students as adults, as the people who were in charge of their own lives. This commanded respect from even the most "out of reach" students, who rarely had much expected out of them. He got to know his students through assignments and conversations, acted as a "real" person would - ways that you might expect him to act as someone you meet outside of school, but not as your teacher - and always treated students with a level of respect that made it clear that he believed you were equal to him. His personality and methods encouraged me to push harder academically than I ever had before. I had rested on the fact that I knew I was smart, but he pushed me to be more, to be intelligent in ways that I had not expected that I was capable of. His encouragement went beyond his classes, leading me to take CLEP tests in addition to AP test, and therefore bringing 30 credits into college with me. Though he was a high school teacher, I easily learned more in his classes than I have in most of my college courses. He went beyond being simply an amazing teacher. He was also an amazing person.

Reflection 10: From our visit to Haslett Middle School, I really remember the way that Mr. Pineda got his students involved in the lesson. He would call and ask chatty students questions often, while still involving the quieter ones. I also like the method that he used to create the groups - ensuring that students would work together by splitting up groups that might goof off too much if they worked together. I also found his ways of quieting students talking during his lesson. Instead of stopping talking, he would walk by and put a hand on the table, or mention a talking student's name/ask them a question. Only one time did he say "shhhh" to the group of chatting girls, but he did so in a way that was almost comical, thus preventing the girls from getting upset and possibly talking even more.

Reflection 9: Based on the decorations of the classrooms, one of the null curriculum I had experienced was that education was supposed to be "fun". Posters were up all over the classrooms, and teachers often decorated. My calculus teacher was the only one who had no real decorations up in the room until the principal had approached him and told him to make his room more student friendly. There were also signs and bulletin boards up in every hallway advertising every club and activity imaginable, suggesting another hidden curriculum was involvement. The emphasis on being involved and interacting with other students suggested that it was not only being involved that was important, but making relationships. The set up of our school was also different, where all of the academic subjects were taught in the main portion of the building, while all arts classrooms and athletic areas were in a different section in the back of the school, separated by a long hallway. To me, this suggested almost that the two types of learning were connected, but that the arts and sports were of a lesser importance than scholarly education.

Reflection 8: (A) The part of the reading that surprised me the most was where they discussed Hall's assumption that "each human life reproduced the entire evolutionary history of the whole biological system" (74). This type of belief claimed that only "civilized people" could maintain rational thought, and that those civilized people came from Northern Europe alone. (B) I would argue that some of the strongest influences on how social studies began were based solely on racism. They wanted to teach the Anglo-Saxon and Protestant ideology. (C) The foundations of social studies impact the structure and some of the obstacles that we are still fighting to overcome today. As the reading mentioned, some of these beliefs from which social studies was founded still impact which students teachers believe may be capable of following the set lessons and curriculum. Jesse Jones claimed that African Americans were essentially unable to comprehend arts and the humanities, which led to the bias that is still present today. We may take it easier on African American students, or simply assume they are not capable of doing the work.

Reflection 7: After our discussion, I would try to create a lesson that was very grade specific. While I believe that it is incredibly important that students are taught history correctly - learning how things truly happened - I still believe that the level of in depth learning depends on the age of the students. For high school students, I would provide much of the facts about Columbus, his mission, what happened when he arrived, and so forth. I would also provide them readings such as those by De Las Casas so that they are informed about how natives were treated at that time. However, for middle school students, I would only begin to introduce the concept that Columbus was not quite the man that they were taught about in elementary school. Columbus was human, and humans make mistakes. There were also different beliefs at that time, so it would be crucial for students to learn more about that than about the level of cruelty that Columbus inflicted.

Reflection 6: I really enjoyed creating a professional growth and development plan. In many classes I have had, teachers/professors asked students to create goals that they had hoped to reach by the end of the semester. However, these were never followed through, and we never had to actually explain how we planned to reach these goals. Since we have to provide proof that we are reaching these goals, and we are actually figuring out how to do so, I feel like it is an incredibly useful task. I think that it would be useful in a high school classroom, however I probably would not have them do three goals, but rather one. Students are at the age where they are being held more accountable for their actions, and this would help them do so.

Reflection 5: The Ken Robinson video had great affect upon me. In the article we read for class, Phyllis talked about the dangers towards the individual that are risked for the greater good, and how a teacher must sometimes risk this. However, I do agree more with Robinson. When he spoke of the woman who choreographed Cats, and how if she were in a school today, she would have most likely been put on medication to calm her down, it made me stop to think. Furthermore, I began to apply it to my own life. This girl was told to dance because she simply could not sit still. Not only am I a dancer, but I noticed during the video and since then that I am constantly moving, especially when compared to my classmates. It makes me agree even more strongly with Robinson about how we are too quick to put children on medication today in order to "solve" their "problems."

As social studies teachers, we could incorporate more activities into our classes that emphasize creativity. Students could be expected to write journals for imaginary people in history, they could be given assignments much like the one we did in class today about finding ways to communicate with restrictions - only using bodies, or pictures. By allowing students to be creative, they are not only strengthening that trait of theirs. Students are also able to engage with the lesson in a way that would hopefully make it more creative and effective.

Reflection 4: (We have been discussing the Modern Middle East Unit Plans)
 * 1) 1 rule...NEVER assume!!!! These days, families are extremely mobile due to today's economy. Many students bounce around from school to school and state to state. Since there is no national curriculum NOR coordinated scheduling among schools as to when units are taught, you must not assume that all students in your class have had exposure to the same curriculum.

In order to understand modern cultures and their related conflicts, you must first understand their past. (The 2 are often related, especially in cultures tied to ancient times!). For example, there is a long-standing animosity between the Muslim culture and Christian, going back to the Crusades. Understanding how/why the animosities originated will help students better understand the area's culture and political viewpoints/interactions and help them to be more sensitive when discussing related issues critically in class.

Remember...history and religion are heavily interconnected with the Middle East culture. To understand their modern culture and the interactions they have with the rest of the world, you must acknowledge this and study both of these topics (even if briefly in a review). In my opinion, to do any less would be disrespectful of the region and leave students with an incomplete perception of an important force in global politics.

Reflection 3: (A) For me, the most difficult part in planning this unit has been getting my group to agree on how long to spend on each topic. Some believe that a review session on the Middle East is necessary, and some believe that certain lessons within the unit need to have more time spent on them. Time constraints are a bit difficult for us to work with. (B) I think that units should be planned differently based upon the age of the students. While I think that middle school students should be taught chronologically, I believe that high school students would benefit more from being taught chronologically within a theme. So instead of going in order, high school students would be given a theme such as conflict, and would then move chronologically within that theme of conflict. In order to tie the different themes together, they would be responsible for papers, tests, and projects that require them to draw from knowledge gained in each theme. By doing this, I believe that students would gain a greater understanding of each individual theme, rather than just learning that point A went to point B, to point C.

Reflection 2: (A) To me, good teachers possess the ability to modify their lesson plans to teach in the most effective manner for a variety of students with a wide range of methods of learning. A good teacher would need to be patient and compassionate to be able to bond with students on a level that is both personal yet professional, but would also need to know when and how to be an effective disciplinarian in order to maintain control of the classroom as a learning space. (B) I feel like I am strong in the aspect of helping students find new ways to look at what they are learning in order for them to better understand the material. I am also good at getting to know students' personalities, in a way that makes us able to communicate one on one. I have found that when students are able to communicate with their teacher in this manner, there are fewer overall problems. Students feel more at ease approaching the teacher with questions, and are more willing to listen and behave in the classroom setting. There is more presence of respect for the teacher when the students know that the teacher respects them as well. I feel like I need to improve more with discipline. I have always been the type of person to feel guilty easily, so when it comes to disciplining students I would rather be much more lenient than the situation necessarily calls for. (C) In order to practice and improve my teaching, I believe that I need to focus more on my skills of being in front of the classroom and maintaining order with students who might not necessarily want to behave and learn.

Reflection 1: (A) My favorite memory from a social studies class during high school would be from my AP United States History class. One of the assignments that my teacher had given us was a group project in which we could invent a person from the Gilded Age of the United States, research the standard of living and events that would have shaped that person's life, and then create a presentation to introduce our person and the full life they lived. Each group chose a person who would have had different life experiences, ranging from women suffragists, members of the upper class, to immigrants from different heritages. My group chose to research the life of a Chinese immigrant worker, which led us to understand a section of United States history that we had never truly studied before. While most history classes focused on the big events, or aspects of life that had affected the majority, we had the chance to focus upon a group of people that was largely forgotten about in high school textbooks. This was the first time that we got to step back, choose what we wanted to learn, and proceed as we saw fit. (B) My worst experience from a social studies class would be from a high school level world history course. Though I knew I was truly interested in the topic, the teacher mostly assigned only "busy work" - worksheets and questions from the book - that we were expected to turn in at the end of the day. I have never been the type to be able to learn by simply looking for a specific answer and writing it down, so I struggled during the duration of the course. The monotonous structure of the course prevented me from actually learning and retaining the material in a way to prove beneficial. (C) I knew that I wanted to teach from a very young age, but it took me all the way through high school to decide what subjects. I eventually figured out my own personal favorite subjects, but I was still uncertain about whether or not I wanted to teach them. History was my favorite, with geography being a close second. In the end, it was my own experiences with teachers that persuaded me to choose teaching social studies. Many social studies courses have the bad reputation of being dry and boring, especially history. However, I had had multiple teachers that showed me how the methods used to teach the students had all of the impact in the world upon how the subject was appreciated. I was lucky to have had these teachers, and I decided that I wanted to prove to other students that a subject does not necessarily have to be boring, but it is more of whatever you make it to be. I believe it is crucial for students to learn social studies, as it provides them with an outlook on the past, the present, other cultures, and the structures of society. Social studies is one of the key topics necessary to promote understanding among people. How does this change your understanding of the harm that Phyllis talked about? Do you agree with Robinson? How as social studies teachers can we foster the creativity Robinson is describing? What other thoughts do you have?