Fall+Semester+Posts

__**Week 13**__

1. The map I chose to use is one of British and French dominions in North America. I chose this map because there is obvious distortion of Michigan and I think that students would really be able to understand the distortion when they see it. The date of the map is 1755, it was created by John Mitchell who was working for the British Crown. The full list of credits and background information, as well as the map itself, can be found at this website. The distortion is in the shape and scale of the landforms features on the map. Michigan is very distorted as is Lake Superior. In my opinion, the distortion in this map exists because the creators of the map did not have the proper technology and understanding of the land to map it out correctly. The map marginalizes the Native Americans living on the content and haphazardly labels the areas where the Europeans believe the various native groups to be living. The map is depicting borders created by European colonizers who have partitioned the land for their own benefit and liking. Not only is there obvious geographic discrepancies in the map, there is also discrepancies when it comes to the artificial borders that were drawn. [|http://hmap.libs.uga.edu/hmap/view?docId=hmap/hmap1755m52.xml;query=North%20America;brand=default]

2. I find the Molleweide Map the most accurate because it was the only map, in my opinion, without visible distortion. This maps depicts the curvature of the earth which is hard to do when creating a two dimensional projection. The map also gives a good representation of Greenland and Antarctica which are often two of the most distorted areas on other maps. Of the proposed lessons I find activity #4 the most helpful because it seeks to give students an understanding of how maps can be distorted based on who makes the maps. This lesson is great for teaching about how maps are all made by people, they are not something that naturally appears on earth, and that maps can be manipulated in many different ways for many different reasons.

__**Week 12**__ A. Vietnam Unit

Ba. Kinetic Activity: I would have my students create a timeline on the floor or walls of our classroom with some of the major/important events of the Vietnam War. I came up with the idea when I found a PBS website which has a great timeline for the war. I think this would be a good way not only for students to learn content relating to the war but also be able to spatially recognize which events came before and after others and it would allow them to get up and move around during class. [|PBS Vietnam Timeline]

Bb. Solo-Reading: I would use one of two documents as assigned reading for the students. The first is a New York Times article where a journalists describes visiting the tunnels under Vietnam today and is a good article to spark discussin on the affects of the war in Vietnam and what the remnants of the war mean to people today. The second is a State Department Memo from 1965 which talks about the war against the Communists in Vietnam. [|Underground in Vietnam] [|State Department Memo]

Bc. Music: I would play the sond Revolution by The Beatles which is a song that discusses protests and change during the 1960s, largely in response to Vietnam, and gives an interesting perspective on the protests. I would encourage the students to think about what message the song is trying to get accross and think about why The Beatles may have written the song. [|Revolution Video]

Bd. Interpersonal: For this, I like the idea of showing a documentary such as Dear America - Letters Home from Vietnam which highlights personal stories from the war and would help students understand those who were involved in the war. [|Documentary] __**Week 11**__

1a. Intrinsic motivation is motivation for something in order to receive satisfaction from completing the particular task or activity. This type of motivation is based on doing something for the pure satisfaction of doing it and nothing else. An example of intrinsic motivation used in a classroom would be students wanting to complete a task because they want to finish the task and will find reward in completing the task. For example, students may be assigned a reading and they will complete the task, and want to read the text, not for an external reward but because they are interested in the text and want to complete the assignment. Extrinsic motivation is motivation for something based on external factors that we want to receive. This type of motivation is focused on the external rewards we get when completing a particular task. For example, students may want to do well on a test so they can get a good grade which is an external reward. Students may also want to finish their homework so they get a sticker on their paper or some other reward. These are examples of students doing something in order to get a reward other than the joy of learning the content.

1b. In Mr. Pineda's class intrinsic motivation was the most pronounced form of motivation that he used. Throughout the class he kept emphasizing how important the concepts were for the students to be informed citizens of the United States. Mr. Pineda emphasized the importance of students knowing their constitutional rights by telling them real life stories and asking them to apply the amendments to the stories and think about how it could effect them as citizens. During the lesson he was trying to motivate his students, not by offering them rewards, but by telling them that the issues were important to their lives and hoping that they would become interested in learning the content for no other reason then to understand the content itself.

2a. Multicultural education is a discipline that seeks to create equal educational opportunities for students from many different cultural, social, racial, ethnic, and economic groups. This form of education wants to enable all students to function in a democratic society with the very diverse set of people, customs, and interaction around them.

2b. In my future classroom I plan on creating a multicultural education by consciously emphasizing different cultures and groups of people, especially those that are not traditionally represented in textbooks. For example, when teaching about World War II I will talk about the thousands of African American soldiers who fought, and died, for the United States in segregated and prejudiced units and divisions within the military. By talking about this I will be able to emphasize different cultures and also shed light on a part of history that is often overlooked in traditional textbooks. I will also encourage and find ways for students to exhibit their own unique cultural identities in the classroom. This could be done by enabling students to do projects, assignments, activities, etc. that allows them to demonstrate and take pride in their own unique cultures and backgrounds.

3a. Differentiated instruction is a when a teacher gets to know each individual student's interests, abilities, and learning preferences and is then able to format instruction that will best help that student learn and understand content. Differentiated instruction focuses on the teacher being able to adjust lessons to the students rather than making the students adjust to your lessons. In the classroom differentiated instruction serves to promote a learning environment that is conducive to all students' particular skills and needs. It is a method to teaching a diverse group of students in a way that will maximize each student's growth and success.

3b. In my own practice, I need to most consider the student portion of the chart and the content portion. I still need to find ways to get to know all my students in the very short amount of time I have with them and I need to learn how to cater the content to each student's particular needs and skills without straying too far from state standards.

4a. I feel that the intelligences that are most pronounced in myself are linguistic/verbal intelligence and interpersonal intelligence. I have always thought of myself as being a good writer and I have always preferred to express my thoughts and skills in writing. I would much rather write an essay than take a multiple choice exam and I often write things down to remember them and understand them. I have also always thought of myself as a person who works well in groups with others and is able to mediate situations for the good of the whole. I think that I have well defined interpersonal skills and therefore identify with that type of intelligence.

4b. In Secondary Education I believe that bodily kinesthetic intelligence, as well as, naturalistic intelligence are underrepresented. These two types of intelligences are almost never discussed in my opinion. Often, it is hard for students who define themselves as having bodily intelligence to learn in traditional Secondary Education classrooms because of the emphasis put on listening and sitting still in order to learn. Likewise, naturalistic intelligence is often seen as something that only applies to the sciences and not to social studies. We need to find ways to affirm these types of intelligences in Secondary Education in order to ensure that students who identify with them do not get brushed over and forgotten.

__**Week 10**__ 1. As we know from class discussion, there is a big difference between objectively and subjectively talking about controversy. In order to be objective you have to distance yourself from the issue and focus on describing its characteristics as they are presented to you. I like to think of objectivity as presenting the source's argument in an impartial way. When you are subjective you are not so much describing an argument but you are either affirming or denying the claim. Subjectivity is your own opinion and how it relates to the controversial issue. Lastly, tone plays a major role in distinguishing between the two. The way you speak is very important and in order to be objective you need to use language that is objective and not subjective.

2. A teacher's ability to maintain an impartial tone is crucial to helping students engage in critical thinking and productive interaction. When the teacher can be impartial and teach the difference between being subjective and objective the class will be able to engage in controversial discussions effectively. When a teacher is impartial the students will not be put into a situation where they might have conflicting ideas as the teacher. This helps to not alienate students and puts the teacher in the place of a mediator and manager of the discussion. Loaded language prevents social and educational progress because it leads to the breakdown of critical thinking and to the introduction of fighting and subjectivity. Language choice during controversial discussions is key and the use of language in that situation is a skill that must be learned just like critical thinking.

3a. It is imperative that educators are able to maintain impartial tones and objective dispositions in the classroom because they serve as the point of reference and model for the students. It is impossible to teach objectivity, critical thinking, and impartial language use without the teacher supporting the content with their own example. When students have someone to took to as an example of objectivity then they will better be able to understand an otherwise pretty complicated skill. When teachers remain impartial and objective they can better teach critical thinking because they will not be butting heads with their students or alienating them during discussion.

b. When teaching in an election year I think that I would handle the controversy by explianing and teaching about both the the major party candidates. I would do my best to be impartial and I would model objectivity to my students. I think that an election year would be a good time to teach critical thinking and controversy because we need to be able to think objectively about candidates and weed through the controversy. I would emphasize the imprtance of critical thinking to being a citizen and voter. I would use the presidential election as a platform to teach about voting and what goes into voting. If students act out of emotion and become subjective I would abruptly stop the discussion and reiterate the difference between objectivity and subjectivity and if students claimed that studying politics is a waste of time I would push back on them and have them explain to me how politics is not involved in their life.

__**Week 9**__ A. There are many different obstacles and excuses listed in the article to teaching about controversial topics. First, the article discusses how teachers face obstacles because they have to take an enormous amount of time to thoughtfully plan out how to teach controversial topics. It takes teachers a lot of planning time in order to portray both sides of a controversial issue. The teacher also faces obstacles when it comes to fitting the controversial issue into the content of socail studies and then being able to justify the issue's place within the curriculum and content to administrators and members of the school community. Next, obstacles arise when you take into account the school cultures and how the controversial issue being discussed fits in with the culture and students at the school. The issue of bias also comes up when teaching controversial content and teachers need to take time to address this when figuring out wether to teach an issue or not. All of these obstacles are often used as excuses and reasons why not to teach controversial topics in classrooms.

B. According to Werner, controversy is absolutely worth addressing and should be a key part of learning and education. Werner argues that teaching controversial issues helps foster critical thinking skills and is crucial to the development of good, knowledgable citizens. He argues that teaching controversial issues in social studies should be part of the content because, in reality, it is part of the content. Werner believes, rightfullly so, that social studies is full of examples of conflict and controversy and too avoid teaching about them in class is glossing of the content and ignoring parts of history. Lastly, Werner argues that teaching controversial topics can engage students in something they might otherwise think is boring and can help perk their interest in topics and discussions.

C. When I am a teacher I want to be able to teach controversial topics and I want to be able to have discussions that foster critical thinking and force my students to form opinions and arguments using the content knowledge that they have. I think that controversial topics can fit wonderfully into teaching social studies and they should not be avoided. When teaching controversial topics I want to plan extensively and approach the situation with care. I want to make sure that I am not going to offend any of my students or push any of them too far in taking a stand and forming an opinion. I want to make sure that I take care in planning what setting and forum to use when teaching controversial issues that will help my students to not only understand the content but will also make students comfortable to share thier opinions and thoughts. __**Week 8**__

Personal Q's:

a. Idealist: NFs b. Concerned with personal growth and development. Drawn to working with other people and think friendly cooperation is the best way to handle situations. Idealists do not like conflict and confrontation and they believe in working together for the good of all. They are good at motivating people and helping others to be their best selves. Idealists believe that life is full of possibilities and they have very vivid imaginations. They are moved by ethics and often have very strong opinions about what is "right" and "wrong" and they must be true to themselves and others. c.Eleanor Roosevelt, Gandhi, Thomas Paine, Princess Diana, and Charlotte Bronte are all famous Idealists. I think I am in good company when it comes to these people. Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books so I can relate to that very well. d. Idealists are gifted when it comes to working with people and have a way with inspiring others. Education is a good fit for idealists according to this site because they are so good with people and so caring when it comes to others.

Political Q's:

a. Pretty much where I thought I would be although slightly more moderate than I had imagined. b. It is not really surprising who I am closest to. c. I do not really identify with any of the historical or international figures. None are that close in relation to me. d. To me this test tells us that the political spectrum is not really as big and wide ranging as we think it is. It tells me that most of the people we hear and know about are in the same general area. It also shows me that our two party system can work because the parties are really not as different as we may think they are.

__**Week 7**__

Columbus Unit Plani

__**Week 6**__

There is a big difference between celebrating Columbus Day and learning about Columbus. In my opinion, I do not think that we should celebrate Columbus Day. I do not see the importance of having Columbus Day as a national holiday. Our lives do not drastically change on this day and most of us do not attend any type of ceremony or other events to celebrate the day. We often look at Columbus as a hero who discovered America but he was really just an Italian explorer, working for the Spanish, who was looking for Asia but accidently found Hispaniola instead. In my opinion, Columbus Day as a holiday does not have that much importance in the lives of Americans today and is outdated. However, these are very personnel opinions that many people would disagree with. When deciding if Columbus Day should be celebrated we each need to, and have the right to, make our own decisions.

However, I think it is very important for students to learn about Columbus and his discoveries. Columbus’s discovery of America is an important part of history and also has very important economic, geographical, and political ramifications. Columbus and his discoveries are something you can teach that encompasses all of the social studies and, therefore, is a very important subject to learn about. It is important for students to understand Columbus and it is very important for them to understand why what he did is such a big deal.

It is crucial that we, as future teachers, understand Columbus and his discoveries from various perspectives and are able to teach these different perspectives to our students. It is important to teach Columbus Day so we can highlight the bad along with the good. We need to teach students about the discovery of America and all the good things that come with that such as increased economic markets and the settling of Europeans in North America. However, we also need to teach student about the disease and violence that the Europeans brought with them. We need to teach about the genocide of the Native Americans and we need students to understand the complete desolation the Europeans left on Native populations in the areas they discovered.

__**Week 5**__

1. Formal Curriculum: an example would be a unit plan. In the Unit plan (say for a unit on the Civil War) you would have state standards explicitly listed along with other core standards and goals to be reached. It could be a unit plan that is distributed by the school board or one that is mandated by the state.

Delivered Curriculum: using the Civil War topic, an example would be the instructional strategies you will use to end up teaching about the Civil War. This type of curriculum also includes "teachable moments" which happened, often unplanned, in the delivery of a topic.

Learned Curriculum: an example would be what the students actually learn relating to the Civil War. You may teach them in a way that tries to incorporate many different perspectives and viewpoints but they may only learn it from one. As a teacher, you can intend to teach something one way but the students could learn something from it in a way that was completely unintended.

Hidden Curriculum: when students learn to ask to go to the bathroom or when they learn that learning should be separated by subject matter and grade level.

Null Curriculum: an example would be not learning about the role of Japanese-American soldiers during World War II or not learning about women's roles during a discussion of Westward expansion.

2. Figure 1.2 tells me that teachers may only be able to directly effect half of the curriculum process and are only a small part of the stakeholders in developing curriculum. The curriculum process starts way above the teachers with political interest groups and elected officials mandating national and state standards. Then curriculum moves to the districts where teachers may have some input but the control is largely within the hands of state school boards and curriculum leaders. Teachers really play a role in curriculum when it reaches departmental, course, unit, and lesson plans. Teachers work with administrators, other teachers, local school boards, parents, and students to develop curriculum based on whatever the state has not already mandated. The teachers role with curriculum obviously varies depending on where you are and what your involvement is, however, it is probably safe to say that in many cases teachers have little role in curriculum planning aside from unit and lesson plans that they handle themselves.

__**Week 4**__

A. Unfortunately, as far as concrete facts go, I do not feel as if I know very much about the 'Modern Middle East.' I learned a little about the history of the Middle East when I took and AP World History class in high school but since then most of what I learn or hear about the Middle East is in the news. I know some information from hearing about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. I know there is a lot of political tension in that area and recently there has been a lot of political change and uprisings, such as the one in Libya. I am very interested in learning more about the Middle East. I am very curious to learn about the history of the region more in depth so I can better understand what is going on in the region today. I also want to learn more about the political structures of the countries in that region and why there is so much political instability and controversy.

B. According to dictionary.com 'Modern' means "pertaining to present or recent time; not ancient or remote" and 'Middle East' means "the area from Libya East to Afghanistan." If you put it all together I believe that 'Modern Middle East' pertains to the present area from Libya to Afghanistan. I believe that the term refers not to the ancient Middle East and its history but more to what is going on in the Middle East today and the changes that are happening in that region.

C. This subject is extremely important for citizens of the United States to study because of the United States' direct involvement in the 'Modern Middle East.' We are currently involved in two wars and have substantial personnel interest in what happens in the Middle East. It is important for everyone to be well informed so we can better understand our involvement in that area and the repercussions of everything that happens in the Middle East. In my opinion, many Americans are poorly informed about the history of the Middle East and the issues surrounding the 'Modern Middle East.' We need to learn as much as we can in order to understand why there is so much turmoil and tension surrounding that area and why the U.S. has so much interest in shaping the future of that area. We need to learn why the 'Modern Middle East' is so controversial and why is is always at the forefront of new and debates.


 * __Week 3__**

A. Scope is the range of content and skills students should learn throughout a course and Sequence is the order in which students will learn particular content. Together Scope and Sequence work to create a outline for every aspect of teaching. Scope and Sequence can be applied for the entire year, a particular unit, and even a daily lesson.

C. There are many advantages and disadvantages of working in a district with a predetermined scope and sequence.

One advantage would be that you already have a basic outline for what students must learn and the order for which they must learn the content. This would be particularly helpful for new teachers who are not as familiar with what they should be teaching their students at particular times. Predetermined scope and sequence also give teachers an idea of what students should already know and what they will have to be ready to know when they leave your classroom. With this in mind teachers should be able to better teach and prepare their students.

One disadvantage would be that you do not get much freedom in deciding what to teach and when to teach it. As an instructor, you may feel that certain things should be taught together but the school's scope and sequence may not agree. In this situation you would have to adjust your ideas to that of the school's. Also, with predetermined scope and sequence it could possibly be very hard to deviate from the course when your student become particularly interested in one topic and want to spend more time learning it. A predetermined scope and sequence does not leave much wiggle room and space for teacher input and ideas.

D. There are also many advantages and disadvantages of working in a district with no predetermined scope and sequence.

One advantage would be that you as the teacher have a lot of room to decide and plan your class around the way that you see fit. You are able to choose what you will teach and when. This allows for more deviation from the plan if students interests change and they become interested in other topics that may not be listed in a predetermined scope and sequence.

One disadvantage, especially for a new teacher, would be you run the risk of not preparing your students for future classes or standardized tests because of the flexibility of scope and sequence. Having no predetermined scope and sequence could create problems where students in one school may be learning something totally different from students in another school and they may both be learning something totally different then what they are expected to know for a state test.


 * __Reflection 1__**

A. My favorite memory from a social studies class comes from High School U.S. History. We were learning about immigration in the early 1900's and our teacher had us recreate what it would have been like to pass through Ellis Island. We all got cards with our new identities and he set up stations throughout the classroom that reflected the different kinds of hoops that people would have had to go through to get into America. It was very hands on and became a lot of fun.

B. My worst memory from a social studies class comes from a High School Government class where we just sat in rows and listened to our teacher teach straight from the book everyday. I was very bored the whole time and kept thinking the teacher was not having any fun either. I honestly am not sure if I retained any of the information I learned in that class.

C. I want to teach Social Studies because I love Social Studies. I really enjoy History especially and have always wanted to learn more about it and teach it to others. I find Social Studies to be so much more important than most people think and that is why I want to teach students and why I think it is important for students to learn Social Studies. It would be impossible to understand any of the issues going on in our world without a knowledge of Social Studies.

__**Week 2**__

A lesson plan is a layout of what the teacher wants the class to do and what goals they have for a particular class. A lesson plan should highlight what the overall objective that the teacher wants to achieve is and should cohesively lay out the steps the teacher intends to take to achieve the overall objective. When creating a lesson plan the teacher should include what curriculum expectations the lesson is planning on meeting which ensures that the lesson is tied back into the state-wide expectations for learning. The lesson plan should create a layout for the class including descriptions of activities and length of time spent on each part of the lesson. Finally, a lesson plan should outline the different plans for assessment that will enable the teacher to evaluate the lesson and understand how much the students were able to comprehend and learn. Teachers need lesson plans so that they have a clear idea of what they want to teach and how they are going to go about teaching it. Having a lesson plan helps the teacher to stay on track when presenting the lesson and it helps them to be prepared for class everyday. In my opinion lesson plans can be both good and bad in reference to how useful they are. Most of the time lesson plans are very useful. Personally, I feel much more prepared when I have a clear plan of what I want to do and how I want to do it. Sometimes, however, lesson plans may not be so useful. For example, if you think of something last minute that you think may work really well in your class you can forget the lesson plan of the day. It all depends on personal preference and how much preparation the individual teacher needs in order to present a clear, cohesive lesson.