First+Semester+Reflections


 * __Reflection #1__**


 * A.** My favorite memory of a social studies class occurred during eighth grade. During this year, our class completed several different, interactive projects which made history not only interesting, but accessible. My favorite of these projects was called the "Colonial Town Project," in which we went through the process of colonization (our colony was represented by a poster board). Our teacher became our King, and our poster board our life. Failure to complete the project would result in a failing grade, and our teacher made it impossible to complete the assignment as instructed.

Ultimately, the goal of the project was to provide the class with insight into the minds of the colonists prior to the American Revolution. Each class was egged on in different ways to rebel against the project (our class simply obeyed, apparently the threat of a failing grade proved too great for us to challenge the teacher's authority).


 * B.** My least favorite moment in social studies was the entirety of my seventh grade Latin American history course. Not only did my middle school decide to attempt a block schedule in that year, my teacher also decided to simply lecture about the topic at hand. It was dry, it was factual, and my twelve-year-old self found it hard to relate any purpose to the subject matter. History became a jumble of disconnected facts, dates, and people, all presented in a drawn-out fashion.


 * C.** I love social studies, and my passion for the subject matter plays a large role in my decision to teach it. I believe in social studies education as a tool for creating a more effective citizenry, especially as the world becomes more and more globalized. It is important to understand the past and the impact it has on the present, and well as understand the potential ramifications of the present on the future.

//REFLECTION PROMPT - What is a lesson plan? Why do teachers need lesson plans? Are lesson plans always useful?//
 * __Reflection #2__**

//Lesson plans are the intended schedule of activities, lectures, etc. for a particular period of time in a classroom. It acts as almost a road map, guiding the lessons towards a particular goal. Lesson plans make sure to keep the goal in line, however they are not set in stone. If the planned route isn't working out, an alternate route can also be chosen in order to reach the intended goal.//

__**Reflection #3**__ A. After a careful read of the //Planning, Managing, and Motivating// piece, what does it mean to speak of ‘Scope and Sequence?’ //B. Planning, Managing, and Motivating// asserts (p.53): “You might teach in a district in which you are expected to teach just these topics [referencing a list in the above text], and to teach them in this order. If that is the case, your yearlong scope and sequence is predetermined. You still have opportunities to determine how to promote student learning as you select instructional strategies, but the overall content of the course must meet these expectations. Just as likely, however, you might teach in a district that allows you to add to these topics, and does not specify the sequence in which students learn them. In this latter situation you will need to determine the instructional strategies and the overall topics for the school year.” C. What are some of the advantages/disadvantages of working in a district that has a predetermined scope and sequence for teaching content? D. What are some of the advantages/disadvantages of working in a district that does NOT have a predetermined scope and sequence for teaching content?


 * A.** //Planning, Managing, and Motivating// opens with a straight explanation of "Scope and Sequence," which is the topics to be covered and the timeline to which they will be covered in. This can be looked at on the macro level, or the areas of social studies covered in particular grade levels, or on a micro level, by looking at an individual grade. Depending on the school district and state standards, a teacher may or may not move outside of the prescribed scope and sequence for a particular grade level. The book suggests you write down your own yearlong scope and sequence, and compare your expectations with state and district.


 * C./D.** As a first year teacher, I might feel more comfortable in a district with a very strict scope and sequence acting as almost a safety net. While I might feel frustrated by the restriction of it, ultimately it will give me an overall direction to lead students towards/away from. As I become more experienced, and more confident, I can surmise I would feel just as comfortable without the "safety net" of a strict district prescribed scope and sequence. I cannot presume, however, if I would like to change to a district with less predetermined scope and sequence. The freedom to change curriculum might provide a means to better fit student needs, but would I be preparing my students for the upcoming year? Or setting them up for failure? I feel this is a tough question to really land on a particular stance, because I have never been employed as a teacher. Right now this is my best guess as to how I would feel in a situation, not the actual reaction to a situation. Practice is always different from the real thing, and you can never be sure how you will really react/feel until you experience something first hand.

//REFLECTION PROMPT - Due this week on MONDAY - Post on a) what you know & want to know about the 'Modern Middle East' (e.g. Histories, worldviews, economies, geography & etc.) b) what do the terms, "Modern" & "Middle East" mean? c) Why is this subject important for citizens of the United States to study?//
 * __Reflection #4__**

A) I fancy myself as someone who keeps generally up to date with world events, but I do recognize that my following of current affairs could leave something to be desired. In this effort to maintain a working knowledge on current events, I have managed to stay at least minimally informed of ongoing events in the Middle East. As for my current knowledge of the overall history of the Modern Middle East? It could use some work. If I were to teach a lesson on the Modern Middle East, I would first like to read more information from historical, economic, and geography perspectives. While keeping up with the news can be a helpful guide, the information is presented in a bias fashion. I would prefer to stick to the more academic forms, and present the material in such a manner to my students.

B) Modern just refers to a specific period of time, from a major event to current. Middle East simply refers to a region of the world.

C) I think it is important to study all histories of the world, because we live in such a global economy. With the current times, however, being familiar with Modern Middle Eastern history, etc. is particularly important. Post-9/11, stereotypes abounded and misinformation was a contributing factor to the current War on Terror. If we are to successfully end this conflict, we must first understand why we are there in the first place as well as exactly who we are fighting against.

__**Reflection #5**__ //1) Give an example of each type of curriculum discussed in the reading. You can do just give a heading and a written example, don't worry about paragraphs.// //2) Answer this question in paragraph form: What does figure 1.2 (Curriculum and the Stake Holder diagram) tell you about a teacher's position in the "Hierarchy of Curriculum Influence?" - what roles does the teacher really play with curriculum?//

__The Formal Curriculum__: If teaching a geography lesson, students are to learn a map of a specific region, including the country names, capitals, and major geographic areas of interest would be a part of the formal curriculum.

__The Delivered Curriculum:__ In the same geography lesson, discussing relative issues to the region being covered as they relate to geography.

__The Learned Curriculum__: A student in the geography class becomes involved with an organization aimed at helping resolve whatever issue was/were presented in the lesson.

__The Hidden Curriculum:__ The geography teacher presents a biased view point of the current affairs in the studied region in order to persuade students to think one way about the issue(s).

__The Null Cirriculum__: The point(s) of view not covered by the geography teacher.

__The Societal Cirriculum__: What is presented in the media about the issue presented in the class setting.

Figure 1.2 presents a very bleak image in terms of teacher influence on curriculum. Before a teacher can plan a lesson plan, many other facts must first be considered. First, what are the national standards? After ensuring those are met, the teacher must then look to filling the state standards. Then the district plans, the department plans, the course plans, then the unit plans, and finally an individual lesson plan. A singular teacher may have influence within the school setting, and therefore is involved in creating department plans on downward, but not all teachers are involved with this process. These standards, in turn, are subject to scrutiny by stakeholders such as political interest groups and parents and community leaders. A teacher is just one small piece of the outside influence in making a curriculum.

__**Reflection #6**__

__**PERSONAL Q's:**__
a. What is your temperament type, what are the specific letters associated with it, e.g. INTP? b. In your own words, summarize the personality type in a paragraph or so. c. Give some famous examples of your personality type according to the test ... how do you relate? d. Searching the page, locate where the Keirsey site suggests ideal jobs for you; how well does education match these suggestions - if not at all, what job(s) fit best?

a. Take the test, then (if you feel comfortable) post the coordinates of your location. b. Considering the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election, who are you closest to - if this is surprising, how so? c. Click [|this link]to find the analysis of the vertical and horizontal spectrum test ... who historically and internationally do you best identify with? d. In a paragraph, how does this relatively simple (but better than most other tests) exercise illustrate the diversity of belief and reality of compromise in our political system? Further, how can our (essentially) 2-party system function in a healthy manner.
 * __POLITICAL Q's:__** *(This can be kept to yourself, but be sure to answer these in electronic writing to show your instructor that you have done this.)

a. Idealist and NF b. According to the Keirsey Temperament test, an idealist is someone who is concerned both with personal growth as well as helping others. The idealist looks to cooperation as a means of solving a problem between individuals, and believe that conflict creates unnecessary barriers between people. Idealists are particularly strong in building interpersonal relationships, are friendly both in social situations and in the workplace, and have vivid imaginations. c. Princess Diana was pictured in the idealist space, representing the concept of a warm, giving person. Princess Diana has a reputation that follows her even in death of immense kindness for her exemplary charity work. d. Education fits very well, it was a suggested career path for an idealist. Idealists have compassion, are drawn towards working with people, are comfortable in a leadership role, and an ideal job would push idealists to use their imagination in new, creative ways.

a. -6.00, -6.00 b. Considering my standings in the 2008 Presidential election, I fall surprisingly close to one of the candidates I did not widely support for a variety of reasons. I do find this slightly surprising, because I think of myself as slightly more conservative in some respects than this survey reflects. c. I fall in line with the Dalai Lama, which is someone who is never horrible to be compared to! d. The test illustrates the diversity of belief by the divide between "strongly agree" to "agree" and "strongly disagree" to "disagree." By breaking down each response to four different levels of agreement or disagreement, the test reflects the variety of feelings people can have about different political issues. For example, I can feel strongly about one issue while not as strongly about another. Compromise can be challenging in our system, especially on the issues that people feel strongly in opposite ways regarding. For the issues that people feel only slightly one way or another, agreement can be more easily obtained.

A. What obstacles and excuses exist to teaching about controversial topics? B. According to Werner, is controversy worth addressing? Why or why not? C. Interact with the text: how do you envision your future practice as a teacher relating to controversy?
 * __Reflection #7__**

A. There are several obstacles and excuses for teaching about controversial topics, including political bias, teacher costs, personal teacher preferences in terms of teaching style and subject matter preference, and differences between various school cultures. These obstacles are not impossible to overcome, but can be quite challenge in today's educational system. Werner pushes for educators to take a more active approach in invoking these types of lesson plans which teach students not only controversial subjects, but more specifically how to analyze current events in order to draw a conclusion. He believes that the source of solution is in something as simple as sharing. Some teachers have found ways of including controversial topics in their teaching practice, and Werner urges educators to discuss and share successful implementations of these lessons in order to create a fuller social studies education.

B. Werner does believe that controversy is worth addressing, however he does understand the obstacles are particularly challenging to overcome, especially teacher cost. Should a controversial lesson be implemented unsuccessfully, the ramifications towards the individual instructor can be huge. This is why Werner pushes for a dialogue between educators about successful means of controversial topic inclusion in the classroom. Finding the ways to include these topics in an affective manner for an individual classroom, with consideration of the school culture and other factors, is a challenge, Werner does not disagree with this point. He does, however, argue for the importance of fostering critical thinking skills and understanding within social studies. Currently, many news sources do not go in depth to analyze particular topics, but rather present a brief, often biased news story. Students should learn about current events from an unbiased source, then must learn how to apply critical thinking skills in order to draw a conclusion.

C. Personally, I do not know how much I would cover controversial subjects in my future teaching practice. I do believe it is important to teach students to analyze information and form individual opinions based on a full understanding of an issue, however, the teacher cost is much too high for me to risk teaching controversial topics. Also, it is probably worth nothing that I do envision myself more at a middle school level instead of high school. High school students might be more equipped to understand and hold a critical discussion of controversial topics, while middle school students are more impressionable and do not have much experience implementing critical thinking skills. Should I teach in a high school setting, I'm not sure what my stance would be on teaching controversial topics. Multiple factors would influence my decision, such as the atmosphere of the classroom, or the students exposure to critical thinking skills in the past. In both situations, however, if I did decide to implement a lesson which included a controversial topic, I would first confer with other teachers in order to make sure I am creating the best atmosphere to introduce and educate students on these topics.

__**Missed Reflections**__**:** // 1. a. What is intrinsic and extrinsic motivation? Give an example of each motivation that you have seen used in classrooms. // //b. Explain what type of motivation was most pronounced in Ben Pineda’s teaching at Haslett Middle School on 11/16/11; be specific and justify your answer.//

// 2. a. What is a multicultural education? // // b. How do you plan to employ a multicultural education in your future practice … even if you don’t have a “diverse” classroom? //

// 3. We don’t teach Social Studies, we teach (diverse) people Social Studies. // // a. So, what is differentiated instruction and what function does it serve in the classroom? // // b. Also, consider figure 4.1 in the text – what component(s) of the Learning Cycle In Differentiated Instruction do you feel needs the most consideration in your own practice? (This answer can be short) //

// 4. a. According to the multiple intelligence theory, what intelligences do you feel are most pronounced in yourself? // // b. What intelligences, in your opinion, are underrepresented and thus in need affirmation in Secondary Education? //

1.(a) In the classroom setting, extrinsic motivation is the outside force(s) pushing a student to a desired outcome. This can be achieved through a variety of means, including points for assignments, letter grades, allowing a student to repeat an assignment in order to earn a higher score, or simply through praise. Intrinsic motivation in the classroom, however, is the student's interest to complete an assigned task in order to gain satisfaction. It is more challenging to promote intrinsic motivation in the classroom, but it is not impossible. Incorporating tasks which peak student's interest or evoke emotions often result in intrinsic motivation for students.

(b) In his classroom, Ben Pineda was able to utilize the more difficult intrinsic motivation for his students through his use of storytelling in order to get students engaged with the Bill of Rights. His lively storytelling skills peaked the interest of the students, and as a result the students worked in groups in order to figure out which amendments were violated in Ben's real-life example.

2.(a) A multicultural classroom is one that seeks to "create equal educational opportunities for students from diverse racial, ethnic, social-class, and cultural groups" (97) so that students will be better served in the future functioning in a diverse society.

(b) I believe it is extremely important to incorporate content knowledge from a wide array of sources, even if your classroom is not a particularly diverse environment. I firmly believe that a large component of social studies education is learning the skills necessary to operate in today's society, which happens to be a global one. Also, using a wide breath of sources, histories, contexts, and cultures in the classroom fosters a better understanding of social studies and provides a better context for which students to understand the world today.

3. (a) Differentiated instruction focused on the idea of students as individual learners, and creating/changing instruction based on student learning needs. This requires a teacher to be flexible as well as very aware of student interests, learning styles, and learning preferences.

(b) I believe the most important consideration is the "student" factor. Who are your students? How do your students learn? Will your students be able to handle this project/lesson/concept? A teacher can make all the lesson plans he/she wants, meet every single state standard, and be thoroughly prepared, but if the lesson(s) is/are taught in such a manner as to not meet student needs/maturity, then the lesson will be a failure. If the lesson is a failure, then nothing is learned, and time is simply wasted.

4. (a) I identify most with the bodily kinesthetic intelligence in terms of classroom learning. (b) In the social studies especially, naturalists are overwhelmingly under-represented, but often times in many subjects intrapersonal intelligence is over looked in favor of interpersonal intelligence.

**__ Monday 11/28 __** //This post isn’t intended to be intensive but rather a helpful way to practice what you’re learning in a convenient way (that you might use in the future). Using what you have read and experienced in instruction as a model/food for thought write short summaries for procedures for A-D. Feel free to use hyperlinks to direct us (as applicable) to articles, songs, lyrics, videos, and etc. //

//A. Pick one of the following units: **Vietnam **, **Prohibition**, or **Civil Rights** and … //

//B. Propose a lesson, activity, or what-have-you that addresses the following mode of learning: //

//a. Kinetic Activity //

//b. Solo-Reading: A non-textbook article or relevant current event // //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">(Use something like the NY Times/NPR/PBS/Hippocampus) //

<span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">c. Music: song or musical activity // <span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">(Either from the Era or relating to the era/sentiments of subject; must be **__relevant__**) //

<span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">d. Interpersonal: Design something that will get students “in the head of” of someone (generally like a Prohibitionist or specifically like LBJ or MLK) from your unit. //

(D)

(B)

(C, A)

//<span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">1. Locate and link to an “old” map (define that however you want) that you consider clearly distorted … but this is more complex than a simple exercise in googling images or copying anyone else from class: // //<span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">a. Try to locate the map’s date, authorship, nationality, language, and other background information. // //<span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">b. Explain the distortion that you see AND explain WHY the distortion exists according to the question on the top of page 23 in Segall’s piece Maps As Stories About The World. // //<span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">2. a. Of the following maps, which one do you find most accurate and why // //b. The proposed lesson were said to be for upper elementary, yet they could work well in a graduate school; they have great utility. What of the proposed lessons do you find most helpful in teaching the constructed nature of maps and WHY?//
 * __Monday 12/5__**

<span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">1.

a. Italian map from 1565 (date according to [|website]where image is located) by Paolo Forlani b. The map's distortion is exactly what you would expect to see from a map created in the 1500's: The Continents. As the era of exploration progressed, maps became increasingly more accurate, but there were still some problems, as illustrated by this map. The map's title: "Universale descrittione di tutta la terra conosciuta fin qui" (should my Italian skills be accurate--they're a bit rusty!) reflects the nature of the era: "Universal Description of the Entire World as Known Here." The key world, "conosciuta" (known) demonstrates the growing knowledge and understanding that there could still be unknown information.

2. a. I find the most accurate map to be the Mercator Projection Map because it seems to reflect the cylindrical, continuing nature of the world more than other maps. b. I like the first activity, constructing maps, because it can led to an interesting discussion on choice and the influence of the mapmaker on the map itself. What does the mapmaker view as important? Unimportant? In the map drawn by Paolo Forlani pictured above, a clear emphasis on exploration is depicted with the sailing ships. What students choose to include, and more importantly not to include reflect their individual opinions.