Philip+Janis

Spring Semester Assignments

 * Four Lesson Plans **

__ Cooperative Learning Lesson Plan __ __ Simulation/Role-Play Lesson Plan __

__ Discussion/Debate Lesson Plan __ __ Student-Directed Project Lesson Plan __


 * Four Artifacts of Instructional Enhancement **

__ Humanities-Based Lesson __ __ Assessment Samples __ __ Classroom Procedures Plan __ __ Resume and Cover Letter __


 * Four Artifacts of Teaching All Learners **

__ Focus Student Portfolio: __ __ Special Education Artifact __ __ English Language Learner Artifact __ __ Differentiated Instruction Artifact __

**Spring Semester Reflections**
__**Week 15 Reflection**__

My micro teaching was interesting because I had to do the topic of Julius Caesar and I honestly was not all that familiar with the specific details of his life. I chose to do a jigsaw activity with my lesson because it meant that I could better convey this information and learn along with the students after going through all of that information myself. I would give myself a plus for being able to put this type of differentiated instruction into use. It provided a more interesting way to go through this lesson than a simple lecture. I was also happy with my ability to circulate and converse with each group so as to still be a part of the classroom.

The negative for my micro teaching would probably have to be how much information I had each group cover in such a short period of time. The language and presentation was a little dense for such a quick lesson and I needed additional time so that each group could read and then process their given packet. This meant that my micro teaching was not as efficient as I wanted it to be. I feel that I also could have gone through to possibly highlight either key terms or ideas in order for people to process the information more quickly.

Something that I could change from my lesson would be to maybe have a little more of a lecture on the front end. I think it might have been better to get some of the basic information about the early part of Julius Caesar's life out of the way so that the groups of students could focus more on his later life and events that involved more of the Roman Empire's history as a whole. I think it would have been better to explore his place in history than just his life specifically.

__**Week 13 Reflection**__

First of all, I think that teaching the terrible is based a lot on what audience you are presenting the information to. Age and maturity play an important role in how something is best presented. For example you can go more into depth and detail in explaining things such as the Holocaust to seniors in high school than you could to a sixth grade class. That gap of time allows for students overall to gain more perspective and life experience which would allow for the study and discussion on more complex themes. Age, maturity, and perspective play a key role in not only what can be taught but also to what depth something can be taught.

Second, I think that it is important to make the content real or, in other words, to really engage the students to the point that they actually feel something. I believe that if you can do this, you can really hammer your point home and pave the way for deep and critical thinking. Teaching the terrible means that you are attempting to teach something that should elicit some type of emotional response. The fact that the subject being taught is described as terrible means that you want the students to feel empathy for a group that suffered or you want them to understand why something is so terrible. The example of using a clip like the //Band of Brothers// one that we watched in this class was that it combines music, camera work, and acting to make you feel the angst of the situation. It transports people to that place at that moment and really opens door to true feeling.

There is also the realistic possibility that some students may simply just not care about any subject that you are teaching, even when that subject is something terrible. I have often wondered what exactly I would do in that situation because I feel like I would automatically be very astounded and angry at that person. It is hard for me to believe that some people actually do not believe events such as the Holocaust were legitimate or even real at all. I think that even if you do the most amazing job that you are capable of possibly doing, sometimes people are just going to believe what they want as sad as that might be. The goal for at least raising the question in their minds or starting them on the path to being more responsive to these types of subjects involves the point discussed in the previous paragraph, you have to attempt to make it real for them and implicate them in some way. Maybe that involves showing documentary clips, interviews from people that survived, or even bringing someone with personal experience in to talk to the class. The overall point is that you have to find someone way to go above and beyond just the text.

I think that it is also important to remember that teaching the terrible can be a touchy and personal thing and it is important to really have balance when presenting material. It is ok for you as a teacher to feel a certain way because you are a human being but you are also responsible for teaching students how to think for themselves, not indoctrinating them to think exactly like you. There are certain subjects such as the Holocaust where you can make that stand and say "genocide is wrong". There are also terrible situations that are not as black or white. There are countries where perhaps a brutal dictator was in power and very oppressive but civil war erupts and the opposing force kills people of another ethnic group, who in turn starts killing the previous group as retaliation. Instances become blurred and there can be many different terrible aspects happening in the same situation so it is important to explain the whole thing and not simply blame one side.

__**Week 12 Reflection**__

A) On an emotional level, I felt a little reassured that although each individual's path was not the same they all found employment. It seems to be a little tough to get experience and it was nice to see that you can actually get a teaching job. The other thing that made me feel emotionally better was that most of them mentioned or alluded to relationships and personal lives. It always makes me feel a little better to hear real examples that it is possible to have some balance. They made it seem more believable and realistic and helped to put some things at ease.

B) On a professional level, it just became really apparent how easily all of the panelists could speak off of the cuff and give detailed and well put together responses. It gave me a chance to see how much a few years of experience and practice can really polish someone greatly compared to just starting out. I liked seeing how each used the skills of relating to different people to kind of feed off of each other's responses and really convey information in a relatable way.

C) One of the things that I absolutely loved about this panel was that each person seemed to have a different type of personality and teaching style. As mentioned earlier, they all seemed to have excellent public speaking skills and could all convey information to an audience well but in different ways. You could relate to something in that question and answer session because there was just so much to choose from. There was quirkiness, humor, athletics, and even some business angles that were all thrown in.

F) This panel did make me think about how I want to present myself as a teacher and it reaffirmed that I want to be able to combine humorous elements with the information I present. It also made me think about how to combine some of my other interests with the material so I can make the learning experience more fun for the students. The other thing this panel made me want to do is possibly find a way to come back and get to do something like this with future teachers after I have some experience, just so they can hear from someone in the field that it is going to be alright and there are so many positives to choosing this profession.

__**Week 11 Reflection**__

A) Cultural relativism is the belief that an individual's ideology is understood in terms of their own culture. An example of this would be how insects are delicacies to eat in certain countries but in the United States they are seen as unwanted pests. Ethical relativism attempts to apply the same philosophy to more complex ethical issues such as how women are treated in various cultures.

B) In a society such as ours there is a mix of many different cultures. Even so, ethical relativism does not seem to be a very realistic way to think about ethical issues as they relate to different people in our country. I think a main reason for this is the simple fact that we have a central government along with laws that are uniformly laid out to set a precedent of ethics across the United States. So even though a certain culture may find striking women or children as an appropriate response, it is seen as unethical enough to be deemed illegal in this country. I think it would be very hard to to try and go against that claim because of our own system and its precedents that are in place. With that being said I do think that there is a very big grey area when we start to think about issues that exist outside our own country. If the same situation about striking women or children exists in a country where it is legal, does that also mean it is ethical for them to do? I tend to think most people would obviously say that it is not, and I would include myself in that group as well. The problem is that other things in different societies can be seen as unethical by us because we see them out of their context. With that being said, I do think that there are certain things that are either right or wrong and the system of ethical relativism can easily turn into the line of thinking of: "Well that is what they are doing over there, not here, so it's not our business/not our problem". As a result it can lead people to ignore certain atrocities that take place in different places.

C) Ethical relativism makes things such as charging the Nazi Regime of their war crimes practically impossible. WIth that line of thinking, basically you would say that in the culture of Nazi Germany it was ethically acceptable to persecute and later kill anyone who was Jewish, Gypsy, Catholic, Non-Aryan, Etc. That line of thinking is obviously very flawed and, I with admitted bias will say, insane. Situations such as this one are what really destroy the argument of ethical relativism because although it may not be common, there are certain things are considered to be universally good or bad. I would dare say that genocide is widely regarded as being something as universally bad even sometimes by the actual members of the group helping to carry that plan out. I do understand that a person can not simply say that all of what they believe in is the absolute right way for everyone but I think that ethical relativism is the exact opposite extreme.

__**Week 8 Reflection**__

Mr. Janis brings a lot of energy and enthusiasm to the class. He also tries to incorporate humor as well as interesting information to relate the material to us. I like how he has taken the time to get to know everyone in class and seems to care about his students as people. His lessons are well planned and there are always new ways to do things. He always tries to make everyone's day better.

There are some areas that Mr. Janis can improve in. He still seems to be nervous when presenting information and this can make everything seem a little uneasy. If this starts to happen he tends to rely more heavily on lecture and note-taking. This tends to make the class more dry. He just needs to learn to trust himself and his preparation more and that will help him become more loose.

Overall, you can see that Mr. Janis is a great teacher. He takes time to explain directions clearly and it is clear that he has control of the classroom. He is pretty good at knowing what is going on around him. Being a student in his class is great because he tries to make everything interesting and relevant. It is clear that he enjoys what he is doing.


 * __Week 7 Reflection__**

A) Cuong's Vietnam lesson employed a couple of different styles. The ones that I noticed to be the most prevalent were cooperative learning and classroom discussion/debate. For the cooperative learning style, Cuong broke the class up into partners to discuss various important figures connected with the situation in Vietnam. The class was also later broken into bigger groups in order to critically observe a lesson with an assigned role. Between these group activities there were opportunities for the class as a whole to debate and discuss the various aspects of the information presented on Vietnam.

B) Group work and classroom discussion are particularly effective for my type of learning. I like to be able to have the chance to analyze information after it is presented and I do think many students would find that opportunity helpful also. I also thought it was effective how the class was broken up with the various activities and having that change of pace usually helps to keep the class more engaged. There are many types of learners in any given class and I like the idea of using multiple strategies in order to engage the students. Cuong seemed to really put in the extra effort in order to present the information in as many different ways as possible without being overly redundant.

C) I think that this lesson really seemed to fit for a college type of knowledge base and atmosphere. If I were to try and adapt this to a high school level I would probably try to add a little bit more of a lecture into the beginning and maybe only do one of the group activities. It helps to provide more structure in that age range but that way they still would have time to think critically and draw assumptions based on their work as well as the work of their peers. For a middle school lesson, I would maybe have them spend the class working in slightly bigger groups than just partners on the first activity we did where we looked up key players and their involvement or connection to Vietnam. Giving all of the information in this lesson to middle school kids in one day would completely overwhelm them and not be very productive.


 * __Week 6 Reflection__**

A) The authors mention things such as multiple perspectives, interconnectedness, complexity, and cross-cultural experiences. These main points all work together to help students better understand the world as a whole. These themes help to show the intricacies of different cultures than our own by looking at various customs and lifestyles. They also serve to educate students on what various other places base their economies off of, such as important resources, why those resources are important to that country, and finally how those items connect their country with our own. It is important for students to get these various aspects to truly begin to understand how the world works and why what happens in other countries can make a huge difference in what happens in the United States.

B) The thing I found most troubling was at the end of the piece when the authors were talking about how this point of view can be seen as "subverting unity" by some people. It is amazing to think that some people would not want to know more about other areas of the world, even if they did not necessarily agree with those cultures, simply to at know what they are talking about. Cultural differences are not a myth and I really don't understand how learning about different areas could ever be considered a bad thing. If anything it is a great opportunity to look at an example of an area you don not necessarily know and try to objectively see what positives and negatives you could draw from that place. In doing, so you could apply further knowledge to try and make a better situation related to your own area.


 * __Week 3 Reflection__**

The idea of dividing each of our groups up into individual candidates was a great idea to promote accountability for each person in the group. This way each person has to report on a candidate in order for all them to be covered. So my idea is to obviously keep each person accountable for their own candidate but to make a quicker and more definitive task then that. I that each person writes down the quick basic information for their candidate which would include their: name, party affiliation, and three main stances/promises that they have on the issues. This way there are concrete items to present and it is in a clear and concise format. I also would keep the idea of having a person to report all of these findings so the final requirement would be for each person to write down their candidates information and give that information to the person who will speak. This also provides a tangible piece of proof that the work has been done by each member as well.


 * __Week 2 Reflection__**

1) The purpose of media, in this case film, to social studies is to provide enhancement to the knowledge gained in the classroom. In this day and age students are more accustomed to viewing information and may be able to process more unfamiliar items to them better by using this medium. Films also allow history to come alive and offer a comprehensive background to make information not only more easily understood but also to provide the context to which it is set.

2) My idea to explain the time period of Ancient Rome would be to do a lesson that included the movie "Gladiator". The cgi used in the movie in the scenes depicting the actual city of Rome are great and it really brings the whole idea to life by allowing the students an idea of how the city looked when it was functioning at the height of its power. The movie also does a great job with the overall wardrobe and many main themes that one would want to teach along with a lesson on Rome such as its military, slavery, and obviously the coliseum and gladiatorial events.

Fall Semester
__**Week 13 Reflection**__

1) http://ancientworldmaps.blogspot.com/search/label/17th%20century

a. I chose the map of the world done by French cartographers Nicholas Sanson and Alexis Hubert Jaillot published 1691.

b. The overall map looks to be a conical projection which means that the distortion comes around the outside of the sphere. However I feel that the most distortion comes from the knowledge of the time. The continents are not in their correct shapes and there are parts of the world that are simply not even on the map.

2) a. No map projection in perfect because you are putting a shape onto a flat surface. Out of these choices I would go with the Mollewide Map because it looks like a hybrid of a couple of different projections. It attempts to cut down on some distortion by making the middle the biggest point, traditionally where Africa is shown. By doing this and curving the outsides of the map it serves to not stretch other areas such as Greenland that usually get greatly misrepresented.

b. I think it is important to show the distortion of maps in order for students to understand that these aides don't necessarily reflect the true shapes of the earth. Looking at the various kinds of projections would be the most helpful because they can see how different projections mess with different aspects of continents and areas.

__**Week 12 Reflection**__

Prohibition

A) Kinetic: I would do a quick activity where I select three students out of around thirty and make them the "police". Then the rest of the class would represent the majority of the public that participated in smuggling activities. The rest of the class would have bottles of pop that I would give to them and they would be allowed to hide them while I made the police go out in the hall. The police students could come back in and try to find them without illegally searching anything, the whole process would be to simulate how hard it would be to shut down the flow of alcohol during this time.

B) Solo Reading: http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/prohibition/ Not only does this website have articles but there is a whole page devoted to the prohibition era itself.

C) Music: http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdetails.aspx?itemid=952 Once again this website not only features one song but rather many from the actual era of prohibition. Many of these songs have clear lyrics that can be easily related to actual events.

D) Interpersonal: I think the students would really enjoy watching a biography and doing some activities on the gangsters of the prohibition era, specifically like Al Capone. This material would obviously include some violence to properly explain and set the background for the events that happened. One cool thing to do might be to make some sort of "monopoly" type of activity where there is one person in charge of the actions that take place in the kinetic activity with the police versus the public.

__**Week 11 Reflection**__

1) a: Intrinsic motivation comes from within, for example if you are interested in a subject and want to learn like a student willingly wanting to read for an assignment. Extrinsic motivation is when something outside of yourself is required to get you motivated like when a teacher offers a student some sort of reward or incentive for doing their work.

b: I think that Ben did a good job to try and shift the motivation to being intrinsic for his students. It seems like it can be really hard for students that are the ages in middle school to be intrinsically motivated on their own but he was trying to develop tools that will help them to do so. He did this by giving them reasons on why they should be interested in the things they are learning and also how those things relate to them with his stories. It was a fun way to get them to think and did not necessarily involve any sort of actual reward that is seen with extrinsic motivation.

2) a: Multicultural education tries to take curriculum and apply different viewpoints to it in order to give a more balanced perspective. It allows for different voices or opinions on the same topic to be heard and/or considered together. It also allows for the consideration of cultural differences in regards to the students that you are teaching.

b: I think I will try to include some of the different perspectives on historical events such as Native American responses and opinions to the westward expansion that occurred in the United States. It is important to include these things because they are often left out and without them it is impossible to get a balanced picture of an event.

3) a: Differentiated instruction allows for students with different learning styles to all be more successful at learning a lesson. It serves to combine the curriculum and delivery of the content in a way that is best suited for the students in the classroom. It attempts to use multiple strategies to adapt to as many students as possible in the ways that they learn best.

b: Content/Process: I think this is the most important step because you need to know what you are going to teach but also come up with the strategies to best deliver that content to your students.

4) a: Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, and Spatial

b: I think that some of the most underrepresented intelligences that need to be affirmed in Secondary Education are some of the ones that are pronounced in myself. There are not enough people that truly know how to be intrapersonal and reflect on their actions whether they are good or bad. I think that is essential for personal growth. Also the abilities of interpersonal intelligence are extremely important because they deal with how you interact with others. More often than not you need to know how you affect people as a person in order to accomplish things, people that unknowingly offend others have a very difficult time not only getting things done but also tend to not have very strong relationships with others as well.

__**Week 11 Reflection**__

1) The main difference between objectively describing a controversy and subjectively engaging in one is in inclusion on one's personal opinion. To objectively go over a controversy you have to be able to take a step back and look at the facts while trying not to react to those same facts. If you are trying to look at the information presented for each side and trying to process the pros and cons of what is presented, then you are being objective. If you insert your own opinion or completely reject a set of information based solely on how you feel with nothing else brought into the equation, then you are being subjective.

2) The ability of a teacher to be objective and present information to the students in that manner is critical to the students forming their own opinions about a topic. Loaded language and biases can prevent critical thinking by discounting something before it can even be thought about or processed in any real way. By presenting information in an objective way you force the students to actively process what they have learned, to critically think about those things (what could be good or bad), and to form their opinion based on that process and not by going along with what the teacher believes.

3) a: In going along with my last point, it is important for educators to maintain an impartial tone so that the whole story on a topic is presented to the students. It is important for them to be able to engage with multiple viewpoints on the same topic so that they can learn about perception and how to decipher what is fact and what is opinion.

b: If a student were to question or insult another student about their political beliefs as a whole or in regard to the upcoming 2012 election, a teacher could work to make that part of the lesson. They could take the time to ask the student who made the comment why they are so hostile about the process or the other student's beliefs. They could then take some more time to fit in a discussion about some of the historical reasons that the two parties do not agree, why there is a difference of opinion, and ultimately why both students should be allowed to have those opinions without being attacked for them.

__**Week 10 Reflection**__

A) The first reason mentioned is the actual cost of the materials to the teachers. I think this is a valid point because the materials that are needed to do a fair job of conveying controversial topics in an understandable way often need to be purchased outside of the materials readily available to the teachers. The other main reason I think that is even more important in the end is the school culture. This is something that is really not easily changed. It can be difficult to come into a situation and try to change everything as people get used to their school being a certain way, learning certain things, and learning those things in a certain way. It can be hard to go against that inertia.

B) Werner states that controversy is indeed worth addressing and I tend to agree with him. A main point he brings up is the idea of being an informed citizen and in order to do that you have to know what is going on. There are a lot of things going on in the world that are not without controversy. You are not able to be truly well rounded enough in order to make informed opinions and decisions if you willingly refuse to look at some of the issues. It is most important because by actually bringing up tough topics, it gets the students to learn more critical thinking skills as well as to evaluate information when making a decision.

C) I think that Werner brings up some solid points and it should be understood going into this profession that there are some obstacles to teaching controversy. I want to strive to be that teacher that is not afraid to bring up controversial topics and I think the main thing I got out of this article is to really be prepared when you do. In looking at a lot of these issues I think that by making sure to plan out your moves ahead of time as well as having a lot of extra information could go a long way to preventing problems. Also I think it is important to not give yourself away and present both sides of something so the students can really decide for themselves.

__**Week 9 Relfection**__

Personality Test
 * I came in as an Idealist and ENFP or champion as my type of one of those. I greatly value some of my intense emotional experiences such as chemotherapy and the battles that I have had in everything in life. Those have shaped me to who I am today and I want to guide others to their potential.
 * This personality type is kind of rare and it is mainly characterized by placing emphasis on personal relationships, trusting their intuition, being enthusiastic, seeking wisdom, and valuing romance. An idealist also prides themselves on being loving and authentic. It also mentions spirituality and focused on personal journeys. Once I saw all of these things combined it was shocking how well I feel this relates to me from just 70 questions.
 * Thomas Paine, Nelson Mandela, and Oliver Stone are some examples of my personality type. I find that very interesting as they are truly people who looked around at a situation, refused to accept the norm, and only sought to make it better in different ways. I find it very very humbling to be in the same category as these people and I like to think that deep down I do think in a similar way. I can only hope to make even a fraction of the difference that some of these people have made.
 * Education is one of the professions listed as something Idealists, specifically champions, can be really good at because people confide in them. I have always been told that I have a knack for just being able to be talked to, people can share things with me and they are not afraid to confide in me. I have always loved hearing that and I take pride in being able to be that person that people can come to.

Political Spectrum Test
 * Economic Left/Right: -4.50 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.56
 * I am closer to Ralph Nader/Dennis Kucinich. It's kind of surprising to see myself on that far of the left side, I have always thought of myself as having some liberal tendencies but being mostly in the middle. I am more over to the left than I thought but at the same time, not too far to any one end of the spectrum.
 * Nelson Mandela and the Dali Lama, which is very interesting. Mandela also showed up in the results of my personality test so there is some major correlation there. I like the idea of their overall views of going for something higher and more important than political regards and really trying to bridge some major divides in the world.
 * There are so many different ways that a person's beliefs can combine in ways that make their opinions different from one another. I think too often people are only focused on left vs. right and don't necessarily consider the up vs. down views illustrated in this graph which can lend more separation between party members and connections between the two parties. Also in the grand scheme of things it appears that most major players for our system all appear in the same quadrant. This can definitely help to put their differences in perspective and bring the two sides closer together. From my perspective, that really hits home as to why it always seems that the same things happen no matter who is in office even if it is reported differently. How is there supposed to be any change if the two parties are basically the same anyways when it comes down to it? It's funny how this chart can make those differences seem so trivial in the grand scheme of things, and it is encouraging to see that maybe one day if that point can be finally accepted then our two parties can work better together to really make a difference in the world.

__**Reflection #6**__

Should Columbus Day be celebrated? This is an interesting and thought provoking question. On the surface the holiday seems harmless enough, I mean we are just paying respects to an explorer who discovered the new world for Europe. It turns out even his "discovery" can be questioned as that found their way to the Americas before him, yet I think it is safe to say that his trip really opened the new lands up for other Europeans on a more consistent basis. So for the point of really making the Americas a known quantity to the people of Europe, I think it is alright to give Christopher Columbus credit for his trip in this regard.

While Columbus' discovery can be seen as leading to many more innovations in things such as cartography and the physical knowledge of the world, we should not ignore what else came from it. There are many instances from the reading where he goes out of his way to describe how naive and gullible the Native Americans that he interacts with are. It is this attitude that lead to some real and serious persecution of the Native Americans. Columbus' exploration is definitely nothing to celebrate when looking from their point of view. His trip would bring a wave of new exploration bringing along with it mistreatment, misfortune, and disease for them. Some examples of this are the quests by Pizarro for riches and fame and the uneasy truces that existed between the Native Americans in North America and the early Puritan settlers and eventually colonists.

All of this should be factored in when considering if Columbus Day should be celebrated but the history alone is missing one further ingredient, tradition. Good or bad this holiday has now been celebrated in the United States as a federal holiday since 1937. Something that has been around for a couple of generations now can be hard to change and there would definitely be many people that would be strictly opposed to doing so. Unfortunately this issue like many others is not black and white and there are many other circumstances to consider such as that. Both good and bad can be seen coming from the exploration of Christopher Columbus. In the end I think there can be a strong argument that the bad things are enough of a case to not celebrate it as a holiday anymore but not enough for that to actually happen.

__**Reflection #5**__

1) __Formal Curriculum:__ This would be like a formal outline from the school district displaying topics and information to cover as well as what day or timeframe to cover the information in. __Delivered Curriculum:__ This is the information that is actually taught to the students and it can vary from the formal curriculum, an example is teaching a lesson about US geography and a student asks a question that steers the class more towards why the Rocky Mountains are so big. __Learned Curriculum:__ This is what the students actually learn, an example of seeing what this is would be to teach a lesson and give an assessment in order to see what information was actually absorbed. __Hidden Curriculum:__ This is the information that is learned but not part of the formal curriculum, an example would be everyone starting to wear school gear for fridays because there is a football game. __Null Curriculum:__ The content that students don't learn, an example would be teaching a lesson on the five themes of geography but on the test the students only remember 3 or 4 themes so that remaining information that was not learned is the null curriculum.

2) Unfortunately, this diagram paints the picture of how there are many standards and people that determine curriculum ahead of teachers. Everything has to sync up with the standards that are set above it and when you go down and look where teachers finally have a say in the curriculum compared to the whole process, there is only so much that we can decide. With that being said I do think that while there might not be much we can do with the actual curriculum, there can be a million different ways to deliver something. The key to looking at this chart is to understand that we do not always have control in what we have to teach overall but we do have the ability to use our own various skills and talents to deliver the information. When I first looked at this chart it seemed a little discouraging but after further thought it is nice to understand what the reality is, accept that, and make the best version of it that you possibly can.

__**Reflection #4**__

A) The Modern Middle East is a place that has much history behind it, people have been living in that area for thousands of years and it has been shaped by some of those experiences. One of the first civilizations developed between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, there are many different religions such as Islam, Christianity, and Judaism that all trace important roots back to places within the region. As far as for modern times the area is rich with the important resource of oil used to drive various aspects of the world's economy. The region itself is an arid climate consistent with the what one might think of as a desert but also with fertile areas and rivers mixed in. I would say that I feel that I know a good overview of the area and it's history but what I would want to learn would probably just be some more depth in all areas of the Modern Middle East.

B) I think of the term modern to mean something that is in the present or contemporary. Middle East is a term that is used to describe the area that encompasses northeast Africa, some of the southwest of the Mediterranean and into east Asia. It is the part of the world that was really the crossroads for much interaction and sharing between different cultures and that is where I think the term "middle" comes from as it was between the east and west. The whole term of "Modern Middle East" means we are looking at the current situations over in that area of the world.

C) There are numerous reasons why we should study the Modern Middle East. One being that it is important to further understand why we are currently the target of terrorist attacks as a country. There is much history behind that and current viewpoints of some people in the Middle East have been shaped by thousands of years of history. Also as I mentioned earlier, there is the important resource of oil that we ship into our country from there. We depend on this region for a lot of the activities we do everyday that involve some sort of product deprived from that oil whether it be gas for our cars or other things. It is also important to just learn about this area because it was one of the early cradles of civilization and there is much that can be learned from a purely historical perspective as well.

__**Reflection #3**__

A) The units should be developed around essential questions that bring up the main ideas or concepts that you as a teacher would want your students to be thinking about during the lesson. By using questions about important themes the purpose is not to make these questions basic ones that can be answered by simple facts but rather comprehensive ones that require the students to infer and make connections between the presented information.

B) It's important to put the time and preparation into a lesson just like anything else you plan to be good at. This also serves to make sure that you as a teacher take the time to really think if the lesson makes sense or that you are actually hitting all of the most important information to learn. This is also the time to think about the students' different learning styles and how a lesson can be tailored to multiple types not to mention if there are any other special circumstances with students that might have any learning disabilities or might not know English as a first language. All of these reasons combined form into the start of a good argument of why teachers need to think about what and how they teach.

C) Much like we wrote about in the last reflection with lesson plans, there are definitely benefits to having a thoughtfully planned out unit. It kind of takes the lesson planning process one step further in that a unit plan now can cover many different lessons and how they fit together. In fact by planning out the whole thing before going into each individual lesson it allows the teacher to make sure that all of the lessons themselves fit together and their concepts connect in a way that makes sense. This allows the teacher the ability to present the concepts to the students in the order that they believe will make the most sense. It also allows for the students to have the advantage of knowing what is coming and with that they also can have a better idea of how all of the different lessons will fit together.

D) I believe that a teaching philosophy and unit planning can compliment each other quite well with one other key mix of ingredients, experience and time. There is no substitute for actually getting out there and being in front of a classroom in order to actually develop your true teaching philosophy. You might have an idea before but that is when you truly start to get into your element. However, by starting with a plan such as planning out your units you give yourself a framework to work off of much like what comes with the day to day of lesson planning. This preparation can kind of serve as at least something to go off of when you don't necessarily have much experience yet. Then in time I think the cool thing is that your unit planning can grow and change as you begin to develop and strengthen your teaching philosophy as well as learn what sorts of things actually work and don't work in a classroom setting.

__**Reflection #2**__

A) A lesson plan is a guide, an outline of your thoughts to set up an order of events and activities that you want to do in your lesson.

B) Teachers need lesson plans because you can't just go off the top of your head every single day and expect things to run smoothly and your students to learn as well as they could. I think it is important to remember that these outlines help to establish order in a way and allow the teacher to gain the confidence of being able to better know what is coming next and how everything fits together.

C) I would say that lessons plans are useful most of the time but there will inevitably be times when it just doesn't make sense to use them like our examples in class of how school was during September 11th. It doesn't even have to be something that serious to make you deviate or scrap a lesson plan. It could be that the students are not responding to it or you hear or see something that makes you want to go in a different direction that day.

__**Reflection #1**__

A) My favorite memory was from a World History class that I took my senior year of high school. We formed teams and got to play a game similar to risk in which we could be a country and make moves against each other. The timeframe represented for the game was the age of Imperialism so it was all about making colonies and building an empire. It was really interesting that a lot of our moves ended up being similar to what happened historically.

B) I don't have any particular experience that stands out as a bad one for the social studies classes that I took. I always really looked forward to those subjects and they were my favorite classes to go to. I will say that something I did not like, but isn't necessarily particular to only social studies, was when we would do something like a worksheet or definitions and it was just basically copying things out of the book.

C) The reason that I want to teach social studies is that I have always had an interest in areas such as history, geography, government, etc. It always seemed to me that it was just all such practical information to know and I like learned about how things happen and why they are that way in relation to people. I think that some of the skills in social studies are being overlooked today and I think it is important for students to understand the past in order to learn from it and keep progressing.