Joe+Fox

My name is Joe Fox and I am a fifth year senior here at MSU. I grew up in Greenville, Michigan, which is about 30 miles Northeast of Grand Rapids. I am a history major and a geography minor and I am also pursuing the RX endorsement. I come from a family of Spartans, with both of my parents and my older brother all having attended Michigan State University. I started becoming interested in Social Studies when I was very young, as both of my parents are Social Studies teachers. I love being here at Michigan State and the basketball program here has been a focal point in my life since a very young age. I have followed their success for as long as I can remember, with some of my earliest memories being watching the Spartans with my family. I really look forward to working with everyone in class this year and learning how to become a successful secondary school teacher.



Sports During the Great Depression __Unemployment __ a) nearly 30 percent unemployment b) little to do when not looking for work and food c) 20 million households owned radios, listened to sporting events __Boxing __  a) Joe Louis - hero of Detroit  b) racial issues  c) Schmelling fights, fight 2 - 1938, nazi superiority, live on the radio in 4 languages __Baseball __  a) Joe DiMaggio - hero of New York  b) Golden age of baseball - end of Babe Ruth’s career, start of DiMaggio’s  c) radio led to popularity of the Yankees - now spread country wide  d) 1936 - New York Yankees vs. New York Giants - broadcasted on radio, Yankees win - lead to worldwide popularity? series of stars - Ott, DiMaggio, Gehrig __Football __ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> a) 1930s - time of growth for the NFL <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> b) Bronko Nagurski - hero of the NFL, 6’2”, 230 lb. Chicago Bear <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> c) people bought radios to listen to Bronko play <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> d) college football grows in popularity - Notre Dame is on the radio <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> e) rule changes to cater to fans, more passing and adjusting the ball to make it more passable __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Horse Racing __ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> a) popularized by radios and newspapers <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> b) hero of racing - Seabiscuit - late bloomer, gained success late in career, beat War Admiral in a one on one match, “Greatest Match in History”, 40,000 spectators, 40 million listeners <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> c) caused a lot of purses to grow as the sport became more popular

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Common Denominator during all of these events? //__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 26.6667px;">Radio!! __//

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 18.6667px;">Middle School Cooperative Learning Lesson Plan **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Class - **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">World History and Geography
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Unit - **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">World Religions
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Lesson - **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">A two day introduction to World Religions
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">GLCEs - **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">G.1.2
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Bell Ringer - **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">List the five most prominent religions in the world today.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Introduction (10 minutes) - **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">"Intro to World Religions HD" - A YouTube video ([]) that gives a small, relatively unbiased introduction to the different major world religions. It does not cover any major conflicts between them; it just shows the background and gives the fundamental beliefs of each religion. We will use this video to get a bit more background information on each of the five major religions that students may not know about.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Jigsaw, part 1 (40 minutes) - **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The first thing we will do after the video is count off from one to five and have each of the smaller groups (ones, twos, etc.) sit together. Each of these groups will represent a major world religion. It will be the students’ job to become as knowledgeable as they can in reference to their particular religion. I will have checked out several books on all of the different religions, and the students will have access to these books as resources. The students will use this group time to help each other learn about the religions and take notes. They will need to find out how many people in the world belong to their religious group, where the religion started, what the prominent symbols are from each religion, and where the people who practice the religion live now. The students will need some extra time do this, as they will collaborate with one another and may need to share books. After students have completed these tasks, we will again separate into groups, this time lettering off from A to E. The students will get in their new groups and write down their group members names, and which religion they covered, and that will be all we have time for in day one.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Jigsaw, part 2 (25 minutes) - **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">We will start class off right away in our new groups. This is where the cooperative learning will really start to take shape. After joining the new groups, each student will have two to three minutes to teach to their new groups the important facts about their particular religion. This will be a very important task, as the other group members will not know much about the other religions prior to these explanations. The new groups will use this information to make posters. I will provide large poster boards and markers for each group and they will put together a poster that shows the five major world religions. The posters can include whatever information the students want, but they should at the very least cover religious symbols, where they started, and number of people in the world practicing them today.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Closing (25 minutes) - **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Each group will have a few minutes to share their posters, on which they will be graded for presentation, organization of the poster, information displayed, and visual quality. After all the groups have presented, the class will have a vote on which poster will represent their particular class period, and the winning poster and all its authors’ names will go up on the wall for the duration of the unit. I think this would be a good way of insuring that some new students who may not be use to recognition in other classrooms get their names up on the wall for having done a good job.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Ticket out of the Door - **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The ticket out of the door will be the students’ vote which poster is the best. I will tally these votes and then hang the winning poster up on the wall.

= =

= = =Teaching 9/11 Lesson Plan=

I think 9/11 could be a crucial lesson in trying to teach your class the relevance of Social Studies to every day life. It is an event recent enough in history to show the students that it is important to be informed of current events. I also think it would be important to send a letter home beforehand to let their child know that we planned on talking about these events, that can sometimes be controversial.

5 minutes (up to 10) - The first thing I would do is open the floor for discussion. I would ask my class what they know and what they have learned previously about any events having to do with 9/11. I would also keep a list of names, facts, and events that people bring up on the blackboard and try to keep engaged that way. If this segment generates a lot of discussion, I am very willing to let it go over 5 minutes, but am hesitant to let it go on more than 10 or 15. Issues as salient as 9/11 tend to bring up a lot of discussion, but I don't want to monopolize the kids who aren't as out going and don't want to contribute their opinion in the open.

10 minutes - There was a very powerful documentary amongst the mass of documentaries that came out this year released by HBO. It dealt with stories that individual people had that were all in regards to the events on 9/11. Two stories in particular stood out to me, and both were relatively short, I would love to show these two to my students. The first is the story of a man who risked his life to go back in to a fire in the World Trade Center and saved another man's life who was trapped. It included interviews from both men and was a very uplifting story. The other was an interview with George W. Bush about his thoughts on that day. As neither were very controversial in nature I think parents would approve of these two stories.

5 minutes to 10 minutes - Next I would ask the class their thoughts on the two stories brought forward in the video. I would also ask them what they had heard about President Bush, and ask how they thought he handled this crises.

15 minutes- Using the President Bush discussion as a bridge, I think it is very important to discuss the War on Terror. I think this war is a very important topic in current events and also will be remembered historically. Going around the room and asking students if they know of any soldiers who fought, and what they thought of the war in general. This can be a very touchy subject if people know people who have fought or died in the war, but I think students would be very interested in voicing their opinions on this matter. I will also try to play peacekeeper in this debate and try not to let it get too personal or out of hand, which is what makes this conversation more risky than some of the others. Remaining class time/homework - For the remainder of the class, there will be a writing exercise about the impact of this one day's events on the world to date. It is a very open-ended writing assignment, and will be available to be taken home and turned in the next day. I will also try to encourage the students to talk to their parents about this subject to help them with their paper. I will stress, however that it should be their own opinions on the paper, whether or not it may shadow some of their parents thoughts. They should write 2 pages, free written, not typed, about the impact the war has had either on the world, the country, or their every day life.

If the students wish, the next day we can also discuss what they thought about the assignment, and what they wrote if they are willing to share.

Unit Plan - Enlightenment for 10th Graders


 * Day One -** Introduction and Roots
 * -** Begin with a short question and answer session about what the students already know about the Enlightenment, try to figure out if the students have ever studied this topic before.
 * -** We will start by introducing a lesson on what the Enlightenment is, where it occurred, and who it primarily began with. This will be primarily a lecture and a power point led by myself.
 * -** __In Class:__ The students will write a summary about what they wish to learn about the Enlightenment and what is curious to them about it. I based this off of a KWL chart, but as I never did one of these in school, I was wary about assigning one without knowing more about them.

- The rest of the day will be spent in the library, to begin working on the report.
 * Day Two -** Where the Enlightenment occurred, and Why it occurred there.
 * -** We will start with a more detailed lecture about where the Enlightenment occurred, and then have a short free write about why the students think the Enlightenment started where it did.
 * -** The primary assessment for the Enlightenment will be a report based on one of the major names from the Enlightenment. I will provide a short list of names: Descartes, Voltaire, Locke, Newton, and the students will be allowed to either pick from one of these or go to the library and find someone they would rather write a report on. The report will need to be a biographical report on the history of the person, and their contributions to the Enlightenment. It will also need to be 3-5 pages, double spaced.

- Start with a short free write about philosophy, using the phrase "What does it mean to be?" Another option for the free write would be to answer the question, "What does it all mean?" Following the free write, students will be able to volunteer opinions with what they wrote about, and I'm hoping this will lead to a little debate among the students. - Next a short lecture on Voltaire, Locke, and their different ideas on philosophy. - Class discussion about why they think enlightened thinking started to take off at this time. - If possible, use remaining time for students to work on their reports.
 * Day Three** - Philosophy Day

- Short lectures on both the political and mathematical aspects of the Enlightenment. Also discuss how the ideas of people like Descartes have affected the world today. - Allow the rest of the class period to work on their reports, with an emphasis on the students working together with each other if they have the same person. They still need to complete their own reports. As homework they need to finish up their reports.
 * Day Four -** Political and Mathematical Enlightenment

- Each student gets one minute to summarize their findings, if they wish to present with another person who did a report on the same person, they can. They can do this as long as their own reports. - After all of the students conclusions, we will have a lecture about the effect that the Enlightenment had on the current US government. Also we will get in to the political ramifications of these events to the class in a short lecture, wrapping up the unit about the Enlightenment.
 * Day Five -** Presentation and Wrap-Up

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 18.6667px; text-align: center;">Reflection 5 - Elective Course Plan - Geography of Michigan <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> This will be a class where we will discuss and learn about the economics, geography, and history of Michigan and the Great Lakes region. We would go over the geographical and agricultural features of three major regions in Michigan. Most of the class would be dedicated to defining what makes the different regions of Michigan so unlike. The differences we will look at will involve the population densities of the southeast corner of Michigan and the more rural area of Michigan that is north of a line that goes from Muskegon to Bay City. We will also look at the physical resources of each region, and what they bring to the state from an economic standpoint. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">My main reason for presenting this class is that I think the students would really enjoy learning about the various regions of Michigan, areas that they may or may not have visited before. The class will cover everything from the geology of different regions to the different parts of the state with strong industrial roots. Another large portion of the class will be studying the different shipping routes that go through the Great Lakes. Depending on where I am teaching this class, I will have an extra lesson in place to discuss their particular location and its contributions to Michigan. Agriculture will also be a focal point in the class when discussing the West and the thumb region. Also we will discuss mountains and ore in the Upper Peninsula and the car industry in the Lansing, Saginaw and Detroit area of the state.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Unit 1 - The Upper Peninsula and the Great Lakes will be the first unit we discuss. We will start by primarily discussing the western mountains and the economic importance of iron ore in the region. Mining and shipping are still very important in the Upper Peninsula, with it being a very important part of the economy. Also we will get into the tourism that is involved in northern Michigan, with the Pictured Rocks, Soo Locks, and many other places. We will also discuss the agriculture in the Upper Peninsula and northern Michigan.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Unit 2 - Southeast Michigan is the most densely populated region in the state. Including are Metropolitan Detroit, Lansing, Saginaw and Flint. A main point of discussion we will go over will be the history of the motor industry in Detroit. As this is a major region why these areas are population hubs in the state, I think they will be the most important to discuss. We will also discuss a bit about the history of the region during the western expansion of the United States, and the significance of place names in the region, such as Pontiac.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Unit 3 - This unit will be a discussion of West Michigan and some of “Mid-Michigan” or central Michigan. A large portion of this unit will cover the fruit belt, as it is one of the most instrumental fruit belts in the entire United States. Another thing we will discuss is the importance of other kinds of agriculture in this region, with potatoes, beans, corn and wheat also being prevalent. We will also go into some of the history of the region, and the furniture industry boom in the Grand Rapids area. Another thing we will discuss in all units, but primarily in this, is moraines and other glacial features that are all over Michigan. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">My main choice for text is a textbook I used in my Geography of the Great Lakes Region class here at Michigan State. It was very detailed and had a lot of information about all the different counties about Michigan. It focused a lot on the agriculture of Michigan, but also had a lot of detail in regards to the geology of the different regions. I think it would be very good for background details as the students went on through the course.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">We will use quizzes of the counties to help students get a background of the different regions. Also we will have unit tests at the end each unit. Instead of a final exam at the end of the class, we will do a final project. Each student will pick one county, and they will make a power point demonstration about it. The power point will need to include population of the county, land use, resources, and other facts about the county. These will be presented in front of the entire class at the end of the semester.

Chapter 3 Guided Notes

1) What are the 8 components of a good lesson plan? What makes each a good component? a) b) c) d) e) f) g) h)

2) Are lesson plans required for all teachers? Why?

3) Define: a) Reflection-in-Action - b) Reflection-on-Action - c) Reflection-for-Action - d) Why are each of these reflections important? 4) What is the peer coach model? Who does it help?

5) What is the point of action research?

6) Define: a) Extrinsic Motivation - b) Intrinsic Motivation - c) Compare/Contrast the two -

7) Define, for a classroom, with examples: a) Boredom - b) Apathy - c) Anxiety - d) Flow -

8) What is self-efficacy? What is the lotus of control?

9) List some differences between management and discipline:

10) Define: a) Relatonal Teaching - b) With-It-Ness -

11) List 10 current truths about effective schools: - - - - - - - - - - 12) List the 7 different approaches to classroom management: - - - - - - -

13) What are the three tasks associated with making these ideas work in your classroom? - - -

14) Write a summary of the Chapter Review:

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> Colleague Correspondent Unit Plan
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">When I talked to my colleague correspondent about how to design a unit plan, he had a very specific process that he laid out for me. He said the first step was to figure out what you want to assess. The next step in the process is to come up with the assessments for the unit. After this he said you should explore the relationships between the different ideas you want to present to your students in the unit. The next thing you need to do is generate unit level objectives. The last step he said was to create schedules of lessons. I did not find his answers very surprising, as he is a relatively young teacher. These answers seemed rather similar to some we might define in our classes. I think because he is this early in his teaching career he is trying to stick to exactly what he learned in his college TE classes, which I think is really advisable for a young teacher to do, especially coming out of a teaching program like Michigan State’s. I think these ideas tie in well with the lesson and unit plans we have created in our classes this semester, and it gives me a little more confidence knowing that he has taken what he learned here at Michigan State and applied it directly into his classroom right away.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">**October 17th, 2011 - 7th Grade Lesson Plan** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">**Class -** World History and Geography <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">**Lesson -** World Religions
 * GLCEs -** G.1.2
 * Bellringer -** What are the 5 major religions in the world today?
 * Hook (10 mins)-** "Intro to World Relgions HD" - A YouTube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lFpsAz5BPk) that gives a small, relatively unbiased introduction to the different major world religions. It does not cover any major conflicts between them, it just shows the background and gives the fundamental beliefs of each religion.
 * Teaching (10-15 mins) -** I will give another lesson developing further the differences between world religions. I will give more background information on each of them and also talk about their differences historically and today. This will be in a lecture format.
 * Student (20-25 mins) -** The students will be split up into 6 different groups, one for each major religion in the world, and an extra group for other religions, such as Sikhism, Shinto, etc. The students will then receive a poster board for each group, and each group will get markers. Their task will be to use books from the library (which I will have checked out before class), their textbook, their notes from lecture and their notes from the video to make a poster about their groups' particular religion. The poster will need to include, if available: the name of the religion's founder, a description of the religion's beliefs, a picture or symbol to identify with each religion, and the number of followers the religion has in the world today.
 * Closing (10-15 mins) -** Each group will send up two people to show and present their poster to the class. They will show their poster and read off the information they put on it. Students should take notes, as tomorrow's class is going to begin with a world religions quiz, for which they will be allowed to use any notes they take during the presentations today.
 * Ticket Out of the Door** - What are the two largest religions, in order of numbers of followers, in the world today?
 * Homework -** Study for the quiz on world religions tomorrow.

=Teaching Halloween - 10/31 Lecture - History of Witchcraft=






 * __Teaching Geography - 11/13/11__**

I am really looking forward to teaching Geography, and I hope I can get the chance. Geography is my favorite school subject, but I had never taken a geography course until I got to MSU. I think Geography is a very important aspect of Social Studies, and it often goes overlooked in high schools and middle schools. Using maps is a very important thing for many Americans, and I think knowledge about using maps can help the citizens of the United States understand everything around them better. Maps are used in everyday life with regularity. If you look at the prevalence of GPS and google maps in travel, it is almost unheard of for people to travel anywhere without using these. These devices came to fruition because people no longer wanted to deal with maps, and were just looking for an easier way. For a lesson involving maps, I think it would be good to have the students get a background of how to use maps, as Segall said in his essay. You could start the lesson out by teaching students about legends, keys, scales, and titles, so that they will be able to navigate and understand the maps with ease. The next thing you could have the students do is plot a trip to a favorite place in another state, or somewhere they would like to go in another state. The catch is that they will only be allowed to use road maps, and no GPS or computers. This can help them learn how to manipulate maps, and analyze fastest ways to places, and help them analyze scale. After you finish the lesson, it could be possible to go more in depth about map bias, such as discussed in the Schmidt essay. You should only do this if you feel the students are competent in maps enough to go on to the differences between projections, and the difficulties involving projecting curved surfaces on to flat surfaces. For homework, you can assign a homework assignment like Wasserman that deals with something more advanced in maps, such as population density.