Matthew+Mount


 * SPRING SEMESTER ASSIGNMENTS**

Cooperative Learning Lesson Plan Simulation/Role-Play Lesson Plan Discussion/Debate Lesson Plan Student-Directed Project Lesson Plan
 * 4 Lesson Plans**

Humanities-Based Lesson Assessment Samples Classroom Procedures Plan Resume and Cover Letter  (wrote cover letter as if just finishing my internship year)
 * 4 Artifacts of Instructional Enhancement**

Focus Student Portfolio Special Education Artifact English Language Learner Artifact Differentiated Instruction Artifact
 * 4 Artifacts of Teaching All Learners**


 * SPRING SEMESTER POSTS**

Reflection 9

I really liked my micro-teaching lesson. I feel like I have a lot of pluses to give it. I felt that I did a good job of making the powerpoint transition smoothly. I also had a lot of maps that helped students visually understand what I was talking about. I also felt that I did not try to cover too much and that my slides had an appropriate number of information on them. I took a lot of time making that powerpoint presentation and preparing myself for it and I felt that it paid off. I also felt that I did a good job of asking the students questions that required them to draw on their prior knowledge. They also drew on prior knowledge by the start up activity where they had to write down as much as they knew about Islam. And I felt that it was good that I had them write down something they learned and something that they wanted to learn about at the end of the lesson, as an assessment. I also liked the fact that this introductory lesson provided students with terms and concepts that they would see more in the unit. We had said for many of the micro-teachers that it would have been nice if they had went over key terms or ideas that would be seen in the lesson. If this had been a real unit, I could have used that info to go over things more again and make sure I covered what they were interested in. For an introduction lesson that was just a lecture, I feel that I did very well.

Probably the only delta that I would have for my lesson would be that I for sure would want to draw on prior knowledge more. I did ask students questions about things we had already discussed, such as why the site of the Dome of the Rock is significant and why people fast. And I started the lesson having students draw from their prior knowledge and write down things they already knew. But I felt that I could have done more of it. My mentor teacher at Okemos always stressed to us how important it is to make students draw on prior knowledge and how important it is for a teacher to question students about things they already know to keep that information in their mind.

I really do not feel that there was much I did bad in my micro-teaching. But I would say that a minus for my micro teaching would be one line I said during my lecture. I was questioning the students on why Islam is the fastest growing religion. I was trying to get the to see that the areas where Islam is the dominant language are areas in the world with high fertility rates. But I told the students that it was because Islam is centered in the area of the world that "pumps out kids." The students got a kick out of it. But I would want to keep the language I use as professional as possible. I would not want my language to offend someone, even though I do not think that instance I offended anyone. So I would have changed that.

Reflection 8

I feel like discussing the terrible really depends on the grade level the student is in. I know that I was in middle school when 9/11 happened. I was not really mature enough to really be able to grasp the enormity of this and my teachers really did not discuss this too much with us. If I had been in high school at the time, I feel like all we would have done for the month would have been to talk about it. I feel that younger students can be taught about the terrible. But I do not think they are mature enough to go too much in depth with it. You could surely talk about genocide in Rwanda or the holocaust with these students, but I would not go too much in depth. Once students are in high school, they have likely had exposure to more gruesome things and can likely handle this more maturely.

When discussing the terrible, I do not feel like it is necessary to get a reaction out of every student. I do not think that as a teacher, it should be our goal to make all our students start crying and vowing to not allow another holocaust to happen. Sure that would be great. But really we are trying to teach students. And some students just might not be as affected. Some students might not have experienced anything bad in their life and might to elicit any sort of reaction when this is being discussed. On the other hand, you might have some students that are really moved by this, whether because it brings up some feeling from their own life or they have some connection to what is being discussed. No student is going to respond to the terrible the same way. It is important as teachers that we not start to think that they should all react like you would or like you would want them to.

When teaching the terrible, there will surely be pushback from students who are apathetic. This makes sense. We live in a society where nearly everyone gets desensitized to the horrible things that go on. One can only listen to so many news stories about gangs, shootings, homicides, suicides, and so on on the local and national news before we start to emotionally detach. As a teacher, it is important to push these students. It is important to question and prod them and make them try to understand why this is important to learn about. Not every student is going to care. But it is important that a student at least acknowledge that studying genocide and other terrible events is important.

I feel like you have to discuss the terrible with students. As social studies teachers, we are shaping future citizens of the world. What a disservice it would be if we shaped these men and women in such a way that they never knew how to deal with terrible things and were completely apathetic towards it. If we as educators want to make a country that cares when people anywhere are being oppressed and killed, we need to have them understand the terrible. Elie Wiesel in his speech for the Nobel prize had discussed how important it is that people never be silent when they see people being oppressed. I feel the same way. But what good would it be for me to hold these opinions if I do not share them with students and have students understand what a non-perfect world we live in.

Reflection 7

On an emotional level, I was really comforted by the teacher panel. It was great to have them come in and talk about how it is okay to be nervous when you start out. A lot of them talked about how they struggled with the idea of disciplining students. That is something that I worry about. But it was nice to have these teachers talk about how they had the same fears and worries as I do. It is always good when you see that others have or had the same concerns as you. I was also excited by all the things the teachers talked about. Most of them talked about having good relations with their students and being involved in school. I got excited by the idea of actually being a teacher and being connected with the community and the school.

I was intrigued by the similarities and differences that I observed amongst the teachers. It amazed me how almost all of them were coaches. It always seemed to me that most of my social studies teachers were also coaches. Kind of made me nervous at the fact that there probably is not that much that I could coach. I was not very involved in sports. I also liked the fact that they all seemed really humble. They were not stuck up about being the best teacher. They all had things that they felt they were strong at and areas they were weak at. It was also interesting to see that there were some differences between the teachers. Not all of them went to school to be teachers. It was interesting to hear from someone who became a teacher later in life.

On a professional level, I feel that I took a lot away from the teacher panel. I really liked all the information that I got from the teachers. They gave some great pointers on how to deal with parents. I really liked what they said about calling home and telling parents about the positive things their student has done. I never would have thought of that. That is for sure something that I would want to do as a future teacher. I also liked how the teachers discussed making a class website or facebook page so that way parents can see what is going on in the class and what sort of things are coming up. I also really liked how one of the teachers suggested a text message service where parents could get updates about when tests were or if their child received an exam back.

Because time was limited on Monday, there were some things that I feel would have been nice to have covered. I would have liked to have asked them any recommendations they have about getting our masters. I know one of the ladies had recommended we get our masters quickly in order to have a leg up over other teachers who get hired in with us. But I would have liked to have heard any other suggestions. Such as any suggestions about taking classes during the school year or during summer. I would have liked to know if any of them had aspirations of going into administration or counseling later on down the line or if they all just wanted to remain teachers. I also would have liked to have asked about second jobs. Many teachers I know work during the summers to make extra money. It would have been interesting to see what they had to say on that. I would have also liked to ask the male teacher who became a teacher after going to school to be an engineer what the advantages were of becoming a teacher after having experience in the "real world" and what his impressions were on how much schools valued those kinds of teaching candidates.

Reflection 6

A. I am a little unsure if I truly understand these two ideas. But I will give it a shot. From what I understood from the text, cultural relativism is the belief that there is a natural and fundamental diversity in moral principles and standards and that morality is based on the culture around a person. At least that is what I believe the text was saying. Ethical relativism believes that moral principles come from people themselves. The difference between the two is that cultural relativism says that morality is based on the cultural norms and ethical relativism says morality is determined based on what an individual person feels is moral or not moral. An example of cultural relativism would be the fact that women in the Muslim world wear head scarves and are treated lesser than men. In western culture, we would view this as wrong. But Muslim culture says it is right. An example of ethical relativism would be the belief that members of the Klu Klux Klan were not immoral for their actions against African Americans because those people viewed their actions as moral and justified.

B. In a pluralistic society such as the one here in the United States, ethical relativism is detrimental and cannot be allowed. This country has over 300 million people. How could we exist as a nation with laws and order if morality and ethics were whatever each person felt was true? We could not long last as a society if people were allowed to kill others because they thought it was morally acceptable. We would not long survive if some people felt it was moral to kill their children because they were females and those people wanted boys. We would not long survive is some people were allowed to steal whatever they want because they think it is moral. We would not long survive if some people were allowed to kill others who look different than them or who speak different than them just because they believe it is moral to do so. We have a government that lays down the laws and guarantees rights for everyone. Our government basically tells us that we have the right to have our own views of what is moral or not, but that we have to obey the laws of this nation. Great thinkers have always talked about how important government is to maintain order and to create a society where people can live with one another. I feel like I am starting to rant. We have a government that makes laws and says what is right and wrong for citizens to do because without it we could all cause immense harm to one another.

C. I think ethical relativism could be detrimental when looking at a topic such as a Holocaust. This kind of view really makes it seem that what Nazi Germany did to the Jews was fine. After all, the Nazis did think they were doing something good. They felt that Jews were a threat and that they needed to be eliminated. Many felt that Jews were the cause of communism spreading in Europe and that they needed to be eliminated. This kind of mindset would be problematic in a social studies classroom. This view really eliminates any discussion on terrible acts that have been committed. Students can not grow intellectually if they cannot discuss these kind of controversial issues. By saying that there is no morality except for what each person believes, we really cannot teach any of the horrors that have occurred in human history very well. And teaching history this way would promote ignorance and intolerance. By teaching that the Nazis or the Klu Klux Klan were right in what they did because they believed they were acting morally and justly, we allow students to believe that racism and prejudice and horrible actions are okay. This ethical relativism mindset, if brought into a classroom, could lead to us having more Americans in the future who are racist, sexist, homophobic, Islamaphobic, and every other bad word you can think of. The only way that I think ethical relativism should be brought up is if you are asking students if they think it is right or not. So if you are discussing the terrible, you could bring up this worldview and have students talk about it. But I do not think that teachers should be teaching from this point of view. However, it is also problematic to make judgements about people long ago. It is not right to blast all southerners during the civil war and say that they were all racists and horrible people. But it is also not okay to just dismiss what they did. Same goes for the Nazis. Teachers need to be able to have students understand the cultures and norms of people during different times, but allow students to make judgments on whether these norms or actions were right.

Reflection 5

Mr. Mount is a great teacher. He has done a great job fostering a caring, nurturing, and friendly learning environment. I know that my ideas and opinions are appreciated and that I am always free to express my beliefs or opinions. Mr. Mount's is one of the few classrooms where I know I will not be made fun of or have my ideas or beliefs ridiculed. Our class has become very close and we all respect one another. Mr. Mount has gotten to know me as an individual and not just as a student. He takes time to get to know his students. He goes to plays and sporting events to support his students.

I really enjoy how Mr. Mount runs his classroom. He is not a boring teacher. He finds a lot of ways to get his students engaged and excited to learn about history. He changes up his style of teaching often. It isn't always just lectures. However, I do like when he lectures. His powerpoints are easy to follow and he does a good job creating guided notes for us to go along with. He has us do group work and class discussions/debates often. We also often analyze music, current events, and primary sources and make connections between content and what is going on in the real world. I like this because I do not always like learning just by taking notes from a powerpoint. Mr. Mount does a good job changing things up.

Mr. Mount does have areas where he can improve. Sometimes I feel like he could be a little better with classroom management and time management. Sometimes I feel that he could do a better job making sure that other students are on task and are not messing around. And sometimes I feel that he does not like to punish students who misbehave. He also needs to work on making sure that he can fit everything in during class and that he doesn't run out of time. Sometimes we also have too much time because he did not plan well. He is a new teacher and I know he is still learning, but I feel that he can improve in this area.

Reflection 4

1. Cuong used discussion/debate in his lesson on Vietnam. We had to watch the lecture and takes notes on a certain person or group of people that we were assigned. Then we discussed/debated the war from those people's perspectives. This helped us to think critically and helped us understand the perspectives of people different than us, which is something that is important for students to be able to do in this globalizing world. Cuong also used the strategy of having us recall prior knowledge. Before the lesson we listed what wars we knew America had fought in. This helped us get in a mindset where we were thinking about war and were getting in a mindset to do the lesson. The lesson also used cooperative learning. We were split into groups and had to research someone or something that was significant in the Vietnam War and we shared it with the class.

2. I liked how Cuong changed up the lesson. It was not all just the same thing during the hour. We listened to the lecture, did research and presented findings, and debated and role played. A lot of different learning styles were catered to in this lesson. I liked watching that lesson video. It changed things up from the teacher just lecturing all the time. And the video lecture did a good job keeping my focus. I did not really like the debate we had. I just did not feel that I got much out of it and I felt that it could have been structured better. But I know a lot of other students liked it and felt that it helped them view Vietnam from different perspectives. And I know that even though I did not really care for the debate, it is important for students to have to think critically and be able to see the perspectives of other people.

3. This lesson would have to be different depending on who it is being taught to. This would have easily been a two or three day lesson for middle schoolers. All these activities would have taken much more time. Also, I think more direct instruction hammering home the key points would be necessary the younger students are. I feel like this lesson would have worked well for high school or college students because they need less time to do things and they have more background knowledge than say kids in middle school. Also, the debate would be better for older students because they can more quickly think up arguments or ideas and convey a message whereas younger students would need more time. And older students would probably be able to handle the limited structure of the debate, whereas younger students might need more structure.

Reflection 3

1. In "How Are Teachers Responding to Globalization?," the authors discuss greatly how teachers need to be responsive to prepare students for a globalizing world. The authors discuss how it is vital for teachers to help students gain the ability to look at a situation or event and see it from multiple perspectives. The authors also discuss how important it is to have cross-cultural experiences. This is important for teachers. Teachers that have spent time in cultures different than their own will be better at seeing the world from other perspectives and will be able to bring what they learned into their practice. It is also good for students. Interactions with people from different backgrounds and cultures than a student will help them grow as a person and will make them more prepared to deal with people from all over the world when they get older and enter the work world. The authors also discussed the importance of helping students understand global issues and to help them see the interconnectedness of the world and world events over time. This will help students to better understand the world that they live in. Also, by making comparisons to the events of the present and comparing it to things in the past that are being taught about, the subject becomes more relevant to students.

2. I really liked what the authors had to say. I really think it is important for teachers to make students better prepared to deal with the globalizing world. However, the authors did bring up some criticisms that I think are troublesome and that I will probably deal with as a teacher. They discussed how teachers struggle and often do not even try to implement these ideas because they are so worried about meeting standards and just covering what they need to cover. This will be an issue that I know I will face. They also discussed the problems that parents and communities have with implementing these ideas. Many parents just want their kid taught what is necessary. They will view trying to teach kids these kind of skills as a waste of time. There are also segments of the population that do not think that kids need to be taught anything but the American perspective. They would feel that teachers are trying to indoctrinate their kids. This would probably also be something I would have to deal with. So even though teachers need to be responsive to prepare students for the globalizing world, it will not be easy and that is something that I and other future educators will have to take into account.

Reflection 2

I feel that for the cooperative learning activity we are doing, the best assessment would involve something of a jigsaw style assessment. I would have each person in the group present to their group about which candidate they had. The other group members would take notes. After all of this was done, the people in each group would be assigned a different candidate than the one they had researched originally. Then everyone would go into new groups and teach the new people about the new candidate that they had just learned about. Then when it was all done, each student would give a 1-10 grade on how prepared and knowledgeable they felt about that candidate they had just taught people about. This would be the grade that the original person would receive. I feel like an example would help me make my point. Lets say that John is assigned to present to his group about Santorum. He comes to class and presents to his original group about Santorum. Susie, who was in John's original group, would be responsible for teaching about Santorum to a new group of students. The grade that she gives about how knowledgeable and prepared she was will be a reflection on John, who taught that material to her. It is also a reflection on her and her effort of learning what others taught her. This assessment would help show who was pulling their weight in preparing to teach this info and how attentive people were in learning from their other group-mates.

Reflection 1

1. The article "From Gutenberg to Gates: Media Matters" does a great job expressing the importance of media. The article described how the president of the National council for the social studies discussed in 2003 that media literacy is essential to the citizenship role. He made this argument by discussing how the founding fathers knew that citizens must be informed and that media is critical because it allows citizens to critically think, analyze, and ask questions and come up with conclusions. Many school districts and state departments, such as Wisconsin's Department of Public Instruction, have added media literacy to their social studies standards. The article also went into detail about how great an impact media has in modern students lives. Students today are constantly plugged in, Young people today, according to the article, spend 6.5 hours daily with media and technology and are exposed to 8 hours of media exposure a day. Young people today are being transformed by technology. Media and technology now is a social institution that shapes young people's lives, much like family, government, church, etc. The article discussed that schools that ignore media literacy make their students vulnerable to manipulation by media messages. Schools need to work to make sure that students can analyze and interpret the media messages thrown at them and that can make them better able to perform the duties of citizenship.

2. World War I is such an interesting topic. It was the first truly mechanized war. If I was teaching a unit on World War I, I would show during class the movie All Quiet on the Western Front. The movie would be used to show the idea/concept of trench warfare. This movie does a great job showing the conditions soldiers went through. It also does a good job really showing what trench warfare was like. A lot of students might have a hard time really getting a mental picture of what trenches were like and how they worked and this movie helps them to visually see concepts such as "no mans land" and so on. I don't know if I would show the whole movie or just clips of the movie. But I do know that it would be a great way to illustrate trench warfare.


 * FALL SEMESTER POSTS**

Google Docs I wrote in my PGDP that i would post info that related to my areas I wanted to grow in. I went to the session today about using Google Docs in the classroom. I learned a lot. I saw how valuable google docs are in group projects. I saw how easy it is for teachers to use google doc assignments and how easy it makes for grading. I am definitely going to figure out better how to use google docs and I am positive I will be using them in my classroom.

Reflection 12 1. (A) This is the link to the map I used: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PtolemyWorldMap.jpg. This map is Ptolemy's map of the anicent world. Ptolemy was Greek and wrote a book on the geography of the world around 150 AD. Ptolemy's book was translated into Latin in the 15th century and Western European acholars drew this map from the descriptions in the work. The map is written in Latin. (B) There are some distortions in this map. The outlines of Asia and Africa are clearly distorted. This would make sense since Europeans did not have much contact with Asia and Africa around the time of Rome. There definitely was some. But it would make sense that large areas of the map are very vague. It seems that the areas that Rome had conquered were drawn very well and much detail was given. There is also distortions in the oceans. The map has Africa extending completely south and there is no ocean south of it. The map does give a lot of detail to water, especially rivers. In some areas, the only thing that was reasonable in the map was the location of rivers. Like even the middle east and india are distorted, the euphrates and tigres and ganges and indus are pretty well located.

2. (A) I consider the Molleweide Map projection to be the most accurate. I feel that it does the best job at conveying how the world actually works. The continents do not seem to be too distorted. The mercator projection makes the northern hemisphere look larger than what it actually is. Just look at how large Greenland is. The Peter's Map really distorts the southern hemisphere by making it much larger. It also elongates the continents. The Gall's Map also elongates the continents. And the Miller Cylindrical World map Projection clearly distorts the poles. So I feel that the Molleweide is the best. (B) I really think that activity 5 is the most useful and versatile activity. It works well in younger grades to help kids see that old mapmakers really did not know that much about the world and how it looked and that now we do know way more. And in older grades, you can analyze maps more in depth. You can look at a map and see what bias is in the map. You can look to see what the author was trying to show. You can infer about what was valued by looking at a map. I have done this kind of stuff in my undergraduate classes here at MSU. So i think that this is the activity that is the most versatile and can work with all different education levels.

Reflection 11

(A) The topic I chose was Vietnam (B) > http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-11-06-vets-usat_x.htm
 * For the kinetic activity, I would have students do a skit where they acted out aspects of the Vietnam war. This would help students who learn best through movement and physical activity.
 * I found a USA Today article online. The link is below. This article discusses how former Vietnam soldiers see connections between the Vietnam War and the War in Iraq. This activity would be good because it would relate Vietnam to a current event. The article discusses ways that both wars started were similar and how both wars presented challenges in ending the conflict. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-04-13-vietnam-iraq-cover_x.htm
 * For the music activity, I would have students listen to a song by Creedence Clearwater Revival. The song is called Fortunate Son. I would then go into the draft and how minorities and people of lower classes were more likely to be drafted. I would discuss draft dodging. I would have students analyze the song and how it related to the topics we discussed that day. I would possibly then assign students to go home and look up songs from this era and how they related to the war and life in america.
 * For the interpersonal activity, I would have students read parts of the Sorrow of War. This is a book written by a North Vietnamese soldiers discussing his experiences. I would also have them read little from the link below. It gives letters from American soldiers and this gives insight into American soldiers' experiences. http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/pdocs/vietnamletters.pdf

Reflection 10

1. (A) Intrinsic motivation is when a person is motivated to do something for the personal joy or reward they will get out of it. I had a teacher who made us do a project where we researched the most recent member of our family who came to America. This was part of our unit on immigration in the early 1900s. Many kids got really motivated to do this because they were learning something that interested them and that fascinated them, which was their ancestors. Extrinsic motivation is when someone is motivated to do something for the reward they will get from someone else. So for instance, I have seen teachers give extra credit for kids to go home and watch the news and then write a couple of paragraphs about what they saw. The student only does this so they can get extra credit. (B) I am having a hard time deciding which motivation that Ben Pineda uses. There is some intrinsic motivation. He told them it was important to know the amendments so they would know their rights. A student might feel the desire to understand the laws because they want to be informed. And then again, there was extrinsic motivation. He did tell them that they needed to memorize the amendments. So I am really not sure which one was used more quite frankly.

2. (A) Multicultural education is when teachers try to incorporate aspects of social studies that have traditionally been marginalized in order for students of many different groups to feel valued. It is really trying to create more equity in educational content. So women, minorities, people of different classes, and different religious groups all feel valued. (B) Even if I do not teach in a school with a lot of diversity, I will still make it an effort to create a classroom culture that values differences in our society. When covering social studies, it is really easy to talk about women or minority groups or others that normally get overlooked. This can even mean examining more controversial areas that usually get overlooked, like Malcolm X or class struggles or gay rights. Even in a mostly white school district, students all have different stories. And especially in a school or classroom that is mainly made up of people from one group, whether that be black or white or Hispanic, it is important that teachers open students eyes to different worlds and peoples and beliefs outside their own.

3. (A) Differentiated instruction refers to catering to the needs of all students. This means changing how you teach in some instances to help people who might learn differently. For instance, you might do less lecture and more activities if you have many students that are hands on learners. (B) I feel like the two parts of the figure 4-1 chart that I most need to consider is the curriculum and student box. It is really easy for me to know what content I want to teach. However, I really need to focus on what knowledge students are bringing to the table and I need to make sure that what I am teaching is reaching standards that are set by the state.

4. (A) Of the eight intelligences listed for the multiple intelligence theory, I see interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence the most in myself. I am usually pretty good at understanding people's motivations, desires, and feelings of others. I am also pretty good at understanding my own feelings and emotions and getting at the deeper issues or motivations of why I want something or want to do something. (B) Musical intelligence is one that I certainly think is overlooked in secondary education. I feel like the arts are not appreciated in secondary education. Secondary education tends to value subjects and skills that will help someone go to college. Music is not one of those things. Teachers do not value that their student has the ability to recognize pitches, tones, and rhythms.

Reflection 9 (still pretty sure my numbering is off)

1. There is a big difference between objectivity and subjectivity and it is important for teachers to understand this. A teacher needs to be able to objectively lead a discussion on a controversy. A teacher needs to be able to remove their bias and be able to explain all sides of an issue and merits of all positions. This is much different than subjectively discussing a controversial issue. I have had teachers that could not keep their own views out of a discussion of a controversial topic. It was apparent what their bias was. Teachers that subjectively argue a topic are making the debate one-sided and are likely alienating many students who disagree.

2. A teacher being able to maintain an impartial tone is huge. Without the teacher making it evident what their beliefs are, students are better able to make decisions on what they believe and are better able to critically think. A teacher that lets students formulate their own opinion and argue what they believe without throwing their own opinion in there is best. It is also important that teachers do not used loaded questions. Many teachers do not come right out and give their opinion. But they give questions that are loaded. This means that the teacher is looking for one answer and that answer is in favor of one side. These kind of questions do not help students. It does nothing for critical thinking. All is does is make students conform to what the teacher wants.

3. (a) It is vital that teachers are impartial and objective. Teachers need to be able to mask their beliefs so that students can make informed decisions on their own and so students can develop critical thinking skills. I have sat in classes with teachers that were subjective. I always felt that I had to conform to what they thought in my writing, for instance, in order to do well. That is not what teachers want. (b) This upcoming 2012 election will be a great opportunity for me as an intern to practice being impartial and objective. Students are going to come in with opinions that they got from home. Issues like the size of government, health care, tax cuts for the rich, America's role in the world, the validity of using tax payer dollars to bail out businesses, and more will be discussed. It is important that I understand all sides of issues and be able to argue and explain both sides. As a teacher I could bring up these issues and objectively discuss merits of both sides and then have students research and debate for themselves. That would be good because it would make students see that I am not trying to push my beliefs on them and that they are able to formulate their own opinions.

Reflection 8 (my numbering might be off)

(A) There are many obstacles and excuses as to why teachers avoid teaching controversial topics. First of all, many teachers do not feel qualified to lead a debate or discussion on touchy issues. Leading these things requires some knowledge and many teachers may feel like they do not have the basis to be able to lead a debate/discussion and have points to make. Another problem is the fact that so much of education is based around the textbook. So many students and teachers make the textbook as the place to gain knowledge, that when teachers try to have debates and discussions, students are not really interested because they just want to know the right answer. This is the problem with rote memorization and regurgitation of facts from textbooks. Another problem is that there is bias in the education system. Some believe that there is a bias towards the status quo and that textbooks leave out certain things. It is hard for a teacher to push students to think about problems in the world and to make them question what they know when that goes against what schools seem to be about, which is making future citizens and workers.

(B) Werner definetly believes that controversy is worth addressing. In the conclusion he discusses how the study of issues should be seen as a means for achieving goals related to critical thinking and citizenship. He also says that studying issues helps to draw connections between the curriculum and the actual world that we live in. He is discouraged that the study of issues is so insignificant in america schools. He says that even though there are so many barriers and obstacles, it is hopeful that many teachers are successfully using issues in the curriculum is cause for hope.

(C) I really like the idea of using issues and controversy in the classroom. I loved when my teachers used issues and controversies. I had one teacher that made us debate the merits of invading Iraq and if we should even be there. Some of the class were picked to be for it and some were picked to be against it and there were a few people who were the panel that would question each side and make a decision. This was controversial and it got heated at times but we really took something away from that. I think the worst thing about the education system is that it just promotes regurgitation of facts. Little critical thinking really happens in social studies in schools. That has been the most stark difference between high school and college for me. A college social science or language arts class requires you to argue and make points and to critically think. None of these things are asked of kids in high school. So I for sure will make it an effort to cultivate meaningful discussions about controversial issues and that my classroom will foster critical thinking and make students analyze their views.

Mini-teaching lesson on debate/discussion

Reflection 7

Personal Questions (A) The temperament type I got was guardian. (B) According to the site, guardians have the temperament that makes them prone to serve and preserve the important social institutions of our country. Guardians tend to have good skills managing and therefore are important members of their communities. Guardians believe in following the rules and cooperating with others.Guardians also are schedulers and like to follow proper procedures. They love structure and routines in their life. Guardians also tend to be cautious about change. Guardians are trustworthy and people rely on them. Guardians like working in groups when everyone does what is asked of them and when responsibilities are clear cut. These are just some of the characteristics of guardians. I feel like this fits me pretty well. I really enjoy structure in my life. And I really like helping others and making the world around me better. (C) Some famous people who had my same temperament type are George Washington, Sandra Day O'Connor, and Mother Teresa. These are some pretty big names. I do not know that I really compare to these people. But then again, I am just a college student. I do not know where life will take me or what kind of impact I will have in the world. (D) I am not quite sure what type of guardian I am. I might have missed it when the site gave me my results. However, if I am the type of guardian that is the provider, then being a teacher is good for me.

Political Questions (A) My coordinates on the political spectrum is -3.38 and -0.41. This means that I am a little ways left on the horizontal scale and I am almost right in the middle between authoritarian and libertarian on the vertical scale. (B) According to the analysis on the website that shows where everyone who ran in 2008 fit on the spectrum, I am closest to Cynthia McKinney, who was running as the Green Party candidate. Between McCain and Obama, I was closest to Obama. This is a little surprising to me. I have always considered myself a moderate conservative. (C) According to the charts of famous people and where they fell on the spectrum, I am closest to Gandhi. He is a little bit more left of me and a little bit more libertarian than me though. (D) This exercise really shows that there is a huge array of political beliefs in the world and in our country. I was pretty much in the middle between libertarian and authoritarian and I was a little ways to the left. However, I am sure there are people who got extremes, like really authoritarian and really conservative and so on. This really shows that compromise is essential to our democracy. Since people are all over the political map, the government needs to be more willing to compromise and take more middle of the road positions in order to get things done. So our two party system can function healthily when both major parties support positions that are more middle of the political spectrum in order to appease the most people. This explains why both parties run campaigns that go after independents.

Unit Plan on Columbus

Reflection 6

I believe we were supposed to write about whether Columbus Day should be celebrated or not. I feel like it should be celebrated. Columbus discovering the Americas was an important event in the history of the world. However, I feel like it would be much better celebrated if it was also a day to remember the native peoples of the Americas and what they went through. After all, I feel like this is the biggest problem people have with Columbus day. By still celebrating the day but taking more time to reflect on the native people and how Columbus discovering America affected native people.

Reflection 5

(A) (B) This chart shows that teachers really do not have much say in the curriculum. Elected officials set state and national standards on what must be taught. School boards determine what there district must teach. And at this point teachers get to create their own unit and lesson plans. So most of the big decisions are not done by teachers. Even though I am sure teachers work with school boards and elected officials take into consideration what teachers and teacher's unions have to say about what should be taught, mainly teachers just basically figure out what to teach based on what people above them decide needs to be taught.
 * **Type of Curriculum** || **Example** ||
 * Formal curriculum || National Standards that mandate that high school students take a year of world history ||
 * Delivered curriculum || In a lesson plan on the Red Scare and McCarthyism, even thought it wasn't planned, the class discusses how this relates to America after September 11th ||
 * Learned curriculum || A student comes away from his history class understanding how propaganda works and starts to notice it in daily life ||
 * Hidden curriculum || Students might view knowledge as random facts that need to be memorized because that is how the tests are set up in school ||
 * Null curriculum || In my US history class in high school we had to skip the Korean War to have time for Vietnam and Civil Rights ||

Reflection 4

(A) I feel like the modern Middle East is a topic that I know quite a bit about. I know a lot about the history of terrorism and warfare in this region, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the reasoning behind the sunni-shia split, and more. I think the only area I could use a little more knowledge of is pertaining to the Middle East under British and French colonial rule.

(B) I feel that the modern Middle East relates to the Middle East since the beginning of the 20th century. I feel that much of what characterizes the Middle East and the problems that are going on there today can be traced back to the beginning of the 1900s. This covers colonial rule, the development of nation states, exploitation by the world powers, the cold war, the advent of Muslim extremism, and the war on terrorism.

(C) It is important for Americans to have an understanding of the modern Middle East because so much of world events are happening here. This region is vastly important. America is fighting in multiple countries in this region. America has a vested interest in this region. We are supplying arms to multiple nations in this region. This is such an important area of the world for Americans to have a better understanding of. Americans might have a better understanding of the rising price of gas if they understood about current events in the Middle East.

Reflection 3

(A) According to the text, unit plans should be developed around essential questions. These essential questions help address what the big ideas and concepts are that teachers want to have students learn during a unit.

(B) Teacher’s practice needs to be theorized and teachers need to think long and hard about teaching units because if they do not, they will have no idea what they are trying to get their students to take away from each unit. How will a teacher know if they are teaching topics that the state and national government mandate be taught unless they take the time to make unit plans and theorize about their goals and essential questions. Without thinking about teaching units, teachers can fail to fully teach all the goals and objectives they had for each unit. And quite honestly, it would be really hard to even know what objectives and goals you had if you did not think about them, which is why unit planning is good.

(C) A thoughtfully planned unit is a blessing for both teachers and students. For teachers, creating and using unit plans allows for a teacher to understand what they need to cover and how they plan to do it. It allows teachers to make sure they are covering what they are required to cover. It also helps them to understand what skills and knowledge they want their students to take away from each lesson and to make sure it happens. Unit plans are really there to provide teachers with structure and order so they can be effective. For students, having a teacher that unit plans is great because the teacher is making sure that they have a reason and rational for everything they are doing. The teacher knows what they want the students to take away. So for the students, they are benefitting from the fact that what they are learning and what goes on in the classroom is for their benefit and has been planned to make them grow. And by unit planning, a teacher figures out how to best convey what they are trying to teach by going back to old unit plans and adding or deleting certain things, which is beneficial to students.

(D) Unit planning can definitely compliment a teaching philosophy. Some aspects of my teaching philosophy are that I feel like it is essential that I help students develop and hone their critical thinking and writing skills. Sure this sounds great. But it does me nothing if I do not work to incorporate it into how I teach. By using unit plans, it would provide me a way to see what I need to cover and convey to my students and helps me to see times when I could definitely incorporate reading, writing, and critical thinking skills into lessons. Also, as a teacher I feel that I need to make it a priority that I assess where my students are at and how I can help them improve. By becoming an expert at unit planning I can find ways to incorporate assessment into my class. To sum it up, unit planning is great because it helps a teacher put their philosophies into action.

Reflection 2

A lesson plan is an outline of what a teacher has in mind for that day. It outlines the goals of the lesson, what you will cover, how much time you will allow for each part of the lesson, and so on. A good lesson plan allows for alterations, due to the fact that nothing in life ever goes as plans. Teachers need lesson plans because they allow the teacher to think through what they are trying to accomplish that day and gives them a point of reference during class. A teacher can look at it and make sure they are covering what they need to cover. It can be really bad when a teacher just “wings it” and has no idea of what they are going to do. Being organized as a teacher is massively important and creating lesson plans helps a teacher to be organized and on top of their game. And another bonus of making lesson plans is that you can save them and evaluate how well the lesson went and save the good lesson plans to re-use another year. I feel like having a lesson plan is always a good idea. However, a teacher needs to be flexible enough that if something isn’t working, they can just adjust to the situation. Sometimes students might not be feeling it or maybe something big has happened, like a death at the school or a national tragedy, and a teacher needs to be able to change it up. A lesson plan is just an idea of what you want to do. So always following what you had planned isn’t the best idea.

Reflection 1

(A) My best memories from social studies classes came from high school. I had one teacher for world and American history that did a great job at having his class really get involved. I remember when we were about to learn about the Versailles Treaty he split us up into different countries and we as a class created our own treaty ending the war. We had to think like diplomats from Europe and people that hated history really got into it. Also, when we were learning about the Red Scare we simulated what it was like to live during the Red Scare. Some of us were “communists” and some of us were “Americans” and the “communists” goal was to not get caught and “Americans” had the task of picking out the “communists.” My fellow classmates and I really got into this and it was successful because it actually made history come alive for us. And that is how social studies should be.

(B) I don’t think I have one specific worst memory of a social studies class. I just remember that I hated busy work. I hated when teachers just gave us worksheets to do all class period. I have always loved history but even I got bored when I was just given busy work to do. Social studies is a topic that impacts everyone’s lives and it can be really fun to learn about when teachers plan lessons that get students involved and engaged. But for me, worksheets didn’t do it.

(C) I have always known I wanted to be a history teacher. I have always liked the idea of working with kids. And I love social studies, especially history, and I have always wanted to help others get as into social studies as much as I am. I feel like teaching social studies is a great way to mold future citizens. What could be more important than that? We, as citizens, need to have an understanding of the world that we live in and social studies helps us do that.