Richie+Chester

Hello, I'm Richie born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan (the 616). Some things that I love would be: Jesus and his death on the cross, my fiancee Michelle, sports, music, and social studies stuff. Oh and that list is in order. The majority of my free time is spend trying to plan a wedding and with Spartan Christian Fellowship doing random things. I guess that's enough stuff about me, if you want to know more just ask!


 * ** CLASS: 10th grade US history ** || ** DATE: 4/1/2012 ** || ** UNIT: US Formation ** ||
 * ** ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: ** What will my students be able to do or understand by the end of class? ||
 * 1) SSU the importance of the creation of the constitution developing the political system we have today.

2) SSU the different roles of the branches of government. ||
 * ** ESSENTIAL QUESTION: ** What 1-2 major themes/ideas do I want to explore with students in this unit? ||
 * 1) What was the major way that the constitutional convention led to the 2 party system we have today? ||
 * ** MICHIGAN HSCE: ** Which three state standards does my plan address?

F1.2 Using the American Revolution, the creation and adoption of the Constitution, and the Civil War as touchstones, develop an argument/narrative about the changing character of American political society and the roles of key individuals across cultures in prompting/supporting the change by discussing: • the birth of republican government, including the rule of law, inalienable rights, equality, and limited government • the development of governmental roles in American life • and competing views of the responsibilities of governments (federal, state, and local) • changes in suffrage qualiﬁcations • the development of political parties • America’s political and economic role in the world (National Geography Standard 13, p. 210) ||


 * ** HOOK/INITIATION: ** What will you do to get the students invested in the lesson? ||
 * Start the class off by asking them what they knew about the political system, like who was the state representative, what party he was from, just basic questions that can be related to personal life. Then ask the whole class to raise their hand if they consider themselves affiliated with a political party, then after most of the hands are in the air ask them to put their hands down if they consider themselves a republican or democrat. After most of the class puts their hands down question them why there is only two major parties out there. Also during this time I’ll be sure to talk in a slow manner and explain what exactly I mean by political party as well as having students define vocab terms used. 10 minutes should be used. ||
 * ** TEACHER ACTIVITIES: ** How will I convey the knowledge/skills of the lesson to help my students understand? ||
 * I will number off students into groups and will assign each group a quick reading to do on the constitutional convention, then I will have the groups talk amongst themselves for a time allowing them to get familiar with the text. After a portion of time I will have the students break off so that they are paired with students from different groups, where each student will be responsible to share with their new group what the readings covered. I will then lead questioning about what the readings covered, picking names out of some form of apparatus to ensure that random people will have to answer. After questioning enough to assess understanding I’ll lead a short lecture in describing the outcome of the convention, going into detail about the battle over how much power the federal government should have, and how that was the beginning of the two party system. The lecture will include visuals, and whenever a vocab word is used I will ask students to define them in their own words. At the end of class I will assign a brief response to assess understanding. About 40 minutes will be needed.

List of Materials Needed:

articles, projector, and presentation || Students will take notes on lecture. Students will compare contemporary issues, to those of the past. ||
 * ** STUDENT ACTIVITIES ** What will the students do to demonstrate their understanding? ||
 * Students will work in groups to discern important issues from articles, along with working on group communication to understand the totality of an issue.
 * ** CLOSURE/SHARE BACK: ** How will the students share/interpret knowledge for others in the class? ||
 * Students will have to write a short two paragraph response comparing the current political state, with the Republicans and Democrats to that of the Federalists and Anti-federalists. 10 minutes will be given. ||

Students: High School 1 Ellie: needs encouragement to participate and small settings to help encourage communication ELL Student A: Explain questions out in more comprehendible way, ask more yes or no questions, speak slowly and use body language. ELL Student B: Ask questions about personal life that can be related to the topic, explain questions out, speak slowly. High School 2 ELL Student A: Use visuals, ask class to explain what vocab words and use vocab words to increase students understanding. ELL Student B: Use visuals, ask class to explain what vocab words mean and use vocab words to increase students understanding. So I started out this lesson with an Essential Question that I thought could be relevant to students of all sorts of backgrounds, it uses history to give context to a modern issue that is very important yet is easy to comprehend. In my hook I specifically used lots of questions that could be answered very easily (such as what party you like) to accommodate my ELL students from High school 1 who needed yes or no questions to help them understand, also to draw participation from Ellie who struggles with being involved in class. Along with that I plan on asking students in the class to define vocab words used in their own words so that all my ELL students hear vocab words described in a casual, more comfortable English. Speaking slowly is also employed to make it easier on my ELL students. The hook also makes the questions personal so that my five students can easily apply opinions from their life into the class and participate and understand what’s going on in the class. I decided to go with a jigsaw to enable participation from all of my five students, so that they could be more casual yet forced to work and speak up. Also it provides an opportunity for my ELLs to speak about historical terms with peers in a relaxed way and it too gives Ellie a chance to more easily participate and speak up. The questioning after the jigsaw is there to give me a chance to quickly assess what stuck with my class, and also gives me yet another opportunity to get class participation as well as defining the vocab terms used. I decided to go with a lecture because I would then be in control over how fast information was being presented, I want to go slow so that the ELLs have a easier time understanding what’s going on. The lecture also gives me a chance to accommodate my two ELLs from school 2 who can be aided by visuals. My final assessment for the lesson allows me to gage the understanding of the whole class, along with giving my five students a chance to write thoughts out and not be concerned about what classmates might think. The assessment is also personal because it allows my five students to compare historical events to modern more comprehendible events. I am happy that this lesson was able to let students work on several different skills, it gave students opportunities to share out in large groups, small groups, and personally. It let students work on team skill, such as communication and it also trained students in being able to pick out the important parts of documents. The lesson, through the assessment also had students work on their ability to create an argument using historical evidence as support.


 * **CLASS: 12th Grade Government ** || **DATE: Monday, March 20 ** || **UNIT: Legislature process ** ||
 * **ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: **What will my students be able to do or understand by the end of class? ||
 * 1) SSU the process that bills are formed and progress through congress in depth

2) SSU the politics behind the passing of bills ||
 * **ESSENTIAL QUESTION: **What 1-2 major themes/ideas do I want to explore with students in this unit? ||
 * 1) What is the most important factor in the bill creation process? ||
 * **MICHIGAN HSCE: **Which three state standards does my plan address?

1) 3.1.1 Analyze the purposes, organization, functions, and processes of the legislative branch as enumerated in Article I of the Constitution. ||


 * **HOOK/INITIATION: **What will you do to get the students invested in the lesson? ||
 * Start the class by telling the students that they will be able to look identify issues that they think are important and research and see what the government is doing about the issue, and that also the students will be getting to play the parts of the policy makers in Washington in class over the next few days. ||
 * **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">TEACHER ACTIVITIES: **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">How will I convey the knowledge/skills of the lesson to help my students understand? ||
 * <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Tell the class that they will be given roles to play by randomly drawing a piece of paper out of a cap to determine whether they are going to be Republican or Democrat, there will not be an equal number of both. After the minority has been determined those students will again draw randomly to assign a president (I do it from the majority to create a little more tension later in the lesson). Each student will then be tasked with spending the next 2-3 class periods researching an issue they are interested in and then looking up what legislature is being pushed through by the party that they had been assigned. After finding a bill that is pending a decision, the students will assume the role of one of the prospective bill sponsors. The students will familiarize themselves with the legislature and prepare a case for why the bill should be passed which should include visuals and be no shorter than five minute. After sufficient time has been given the class will meet as a mock Senate where each student presents their case in front of the class, where they can be asked questions about the bill by the teacher as well as the students. After the students case has been made the class will vote, if passed the president will choose to veto or sign and defend why they did. If vetoed the student can rebuttal, and challenge the veto, where again the bill would be put up for a vote, this time needing the 2/3 vote to pass.

<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">List of Materials Needed:

<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">computer lab, paper, markers for poster, poster board ||
 * **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">STUDENT ACTIVITIES **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">What will the students do to demonstrate their understanding? ||
 * <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Students will make a presentation and present them in class.

<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Students will work on their own to research an issue and create an argument using evidence. ||
 * **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">CLOSURE/SHARE BACK: **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">How will the students share/interpret knowledge for others in the class? ||
 * <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">The class will examine the results of the class session of congress. ||


 * **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">CLASS: 7th grade current issues ** || **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">DATE: Monday February 27 ** || **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">UNIT: Current Issues ** ||
 * **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">What will my students be able to do or understand by the end of class? ||
 * <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">1) SSU complexities that are involved while trying to solve major problems

<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">2) SSU the basic components behind the gas crisis ||
 * **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">ESSENTIAL QUESTION: **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">What 1-2 major themes/ideas do I want to explore with students in this unit? ||
 * <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">1) Why should we, or shouldn’t we drill for more oil in the United States? ||
 * **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">MICHIGAN GLCES: **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">Which three state standards does my plan address?

<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">1)7 – P4.2.2 Engage in activities intended to contribute to solving a national or international problem studied. ||


 * **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">HOOK/INITIATION: **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">What will you do to get the students invested in the lesson? ||
 * <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Start the class questioning them about how much their parents pay for gas from the pump, and then show them the amount that people paid for gas from past until present, and ask them why they think it has gone up so much over the years. Then ask the class what they think is a solution to lowering the cost of gas in the country, with the purpose of getting them to say find new oil, or drill in the US. If they don’t give me that answer bait it out of them through a more direct line of questioning. ||
 * **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">TEACHER ACTIVITIES: **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">How will I convey the knowledge/skills of the lesson to help my students understand? ||
 * <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">To start the class I will present them with facts and opinions of both sides to the argument and after giving them time to read I will separate all the students in to whether they think they should drill, shouldn’t drill, or are indifferent to drilling. After giving the students about 5 minutes to prepare an argument for the side that they have been assigned they will share out their group’s opinion with the class. After each opinion has been shared I will then ask the students to pick for themselves whether they want to drill, not drill, or undecided. I will then question students around the room why they picked the side that they did. After I’ve questioned a decent amount of students I will open the floor one more time to let students change their minds. After we’ve done that and examined how many students are in each group and talk about the difficulty of solving a problem, I will assign the students an essay on why they voted the way they did, length will depend on time left in class and the students will turn in the their writing as the class ends

<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">List of Materials Needed:

<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Gas pricing information, paper, arguments for both drilling domestically and not || <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Students will be forced to look at views outside of what their own might be. <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Students will practice literacy skills by crafting an essay <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Students will demonstrate critical thinking skill as they form an opinion and defend it with evidence ||
 * **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">STUDENT ACTIVITIES **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">What will the students do to demonstrate their understanding? ||
 * <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Students will make analyze material and present them in class in a form of an agrument.
 * **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">CLOSURE/SHARE BACK: **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">How will the students share/interpret knowledge for others in the class? ||
 * <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Students will turn in Essay as they leave the room. ||

**<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Sample Lesson Template **

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">TOPIC FOR LESSON: Constitutional Convention Date: Whenevs <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Grade Level/Course: HS US History <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Unit: Birth of a Nation

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Lesson Objectives (information, disposition, and skill objectives):

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> 1) Students will learn about the formation of the constitution <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> 2) Students will develop communication skills <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> 3) Students will be simulating creating a class constitution

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Assessment Tools:

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Activities: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">2ish mins. || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Start of by explaining the simulation for the day. Students will be divided into 3 groups, with the majority of students falling into two of the groups whereas a significant amount of fewer students will form a third group. Each group must then draft a constitution for the classroom. The teacher will represent the central government in the classroom, and the principle will represent a foreign power. Explain that only with the teacher’s help will the principle not be able to come in the room and take over, however there is no guarantee that he will come. After each group comes up with a plan that they believe represents themselves, and the room they will present their ideas to the class. After each idea has been presented the class will discuss which would be the best course of action to take. Remind them that the steps that they take may end up having the principle enact a classroom takeover. Eventually, some form of constitution must be passed for the classroom, by a vote of all the students. || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Students’ Activities <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Students will be trying to figure out the best course of action for their class || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Time
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Initiation/Opening/Hook || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Entice the students with being able to make a constitution for the classroom, allowing them to make the rules for the day || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Time
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Teacher’s Activities

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">45 mins || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Question students about the difficulty of coming together in even a small setting. Draw comparisons with US. Assign a short 3 paragraph paper detailing the difficulty to mingling a distinctly different set of people together to form a government based on experiences during simulation. || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Do the stuff I talked about || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Time <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">10ish ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Closure

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">F1.2 Using the American Revolution, the creation and adoption of the Constitution, and the Civil War <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">as touchstones, develop an argument/narrative about the changing character of American political <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">society and the roles of key individuals across cultures in prompting/supporting the change <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">by discussing <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">• the birth of republican government, including the rule of law, inalienable rights, equality, <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">and limited government <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">• the development of governmental roles in American life <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">• and competing views of the responsibilities of governments (federal, state, and local) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">• changes in suffrage qualiﬁcations <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">• the development of political parties <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">• America’s political and economic role in the world (National Geography Standard 13, p. 210)

<span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Larson & Keiper (2011). Adapted from Instructional Strategies for Middle and Secondary Social Studies: Methods, Assessment, and Classroom Management.
 * **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">CLASS: 8th Grade History ** || **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">DATE: Sunday, January 29 ** || **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">UNIT: Civil War in America ** ||
 * **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">What will my students be able to do or understand by the end of class? ||
 * <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">1) SSU what roles major generals played in the Civil War

<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">2) SSU and identify the major generals for the Confederacy and Union ||
 * **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">ESSENTIAL QUESTION: **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">What 1-2 major themes/ideas do I want to explore with students in this unit? ||
 * <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">1) What is the most important function of the major generals in the Civil War? ||
 * **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">MICHIGAN GLCES: **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">Which three state standards does my plan address?

<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">1)8 – U5.2.2 Make an argument to explain the reasons why the North won the Civil War by considering the <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">• critical events and battles in the war <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">• the political and military leadership of the North and South <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">• the respective advantages and disadvantages, including geographic, demographic, economic <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">and technological (E1.4) (National Geography Standard 15, p. 173) ||


 * **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">HOOK/INITIATION: **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">What will you do to get the students invested in the lesson? ||
 * <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Start the class by baiting them into excitement with the lure of allowing them to make their own test, and therefore be in control of what they are graded on. ||
 * **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">TEACHER ACTIVITIES: **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">How will I convey the knowledge/skills of the lesson to help my students understand? ||
 * <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">To start the class off I will break the class up into six groups by having the students number off through four (or however many students are in the class to make it work for six groups). Then have the groups come together and assign each of the groups a General from the Civil War out of the list of: Mcclellan, Grant, Sherman, Lee, Jackson, Beauregard (add other generals if you have a larger class, but make sure you have the same amount of CSA and USA generals). Tell the class that the students need to pick roles between: 1. Recorder, 2. Researcher, 3.Sharer, 4.Image Hunter/general assistant. Then Explain that the students will research their general and prepare a presentation about that general, mainly focusing on their experience in the Civil War that they will share out with the class. Along with that explain to the students that they will be also creating 4 questions and presenting them to me and those questions will be what makes up quiz for the next class and that the questions also must be incorporated into the presentations and not made overly obvious (each question must be approved by the teacher). Students will be given the whole class period to put together a presentation, through some medium (PowerPoint, poster, ext.) and then present and take the quiz the next class period.

<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">List of Materials Needed:

<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Poster board, computer lab, paper, markers for poster ||
 * **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">STUDENT ACTIVITIES **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">What will the students do to demonstrate their understanding? ||
 * <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Students will make a presentation and present them in class.

<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Students will work in a team to collect information and form a suitable way to present information in a clear way. ||
 * **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">CLOSURE/SHARE BACK: **<span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 8pt;">How will the students share/interpret knowledge for others in the class? ||
 * <span style="font-family: Garamond,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Students will present their findings and also take a quiz that was made by them. ||

Reflection 12- I’m not sure how well that test really was able to tell me what type of learner that I was, it said that I should like to write poetry and things like that which is something that I cannot dislike more. Also it said that I wasn’t very strong in logic, which is not the case. I’m a very logical person and that has helped me throughout schooling and I doubt that logic isn’t my number one skill. However I do suppose that it was kind of close to some stuff and was sort of a neat thing to do. I’m not sure this test really helped me learn anymore about how I learn, perhaps that’s because I’m already pretty old and almost done with college so I’ve been baptized by fire in figuring out what type of learner I am. This could be helpful for some younger students or perhaps people who didn’t have to go through testing as a child for learning disabilities. I think it would be cool though to perhaps try one or two of the suggested ideas to try to better my learning, so perhaps I will do just that.

Reflection 11- The teacher that I had the best relationship with was my seminar teacher, who also happened to be my Math teacher for one year as well. Seminar, in my school was a class that we’d have for an hour and a half every other day and we would be in the same Seminar throughout our high school experience. That made it really easy to get to know my teacher. I really like him because he would talk to me as a person and not just a little kid, which a lot of teachers tend to do (though I can’t blame them, high schoolers often act as though they are five). Although I could often earn the ire of him for my ruckus behavior, he still seemed to understand that it was hard to always be working and silent. I also think I really liked him because I didn’t have to turn anything into him, which allowed me to not get annoyed by assignments that I thought were less than helpful. Another thing that really made him fun to be around is that he wouldn’t mind joking around and having a good time with his students and he didn’t take things too seriously. Although I am really happy with the relationship that we had, I now question whether I would want to be that way with students, because it was much harder to get me to listen and respect him the way a student should respect a teacher because I viewed him more as a friend. On one hand it would be great to have that real of a relationship with students and it could help make deep meaningful impacts on that students life. However it could work the other way as well and make the student feel no need to do work for you and neglect the learning that would have otherwise happened. I wish I knew what was the right way to handle this situation, but it’s probably just one of those things that I’m never going to fully understand until I’m actually in a classroom teaching.

Reflection 10- What really stood out to me from our visit to Haslett Middle School was the way that Ben commanded his class with comfort and ease. It was so cool to watch how he calmly handled his own classroom even while they were talking and acting up. He managed to not let the class get out of control but also not let the chatting disrupt where he was going in his lesson. That is the type of classroom management that I would like to display during my time as an educator. He also made it clear that he had been in the profession for a long time; he seemed so comfortable up leading discussion and crafting the assignments and going with the flow. That showed me that it takes time for a teacher to really develop the skills and become a great teacher. One thing that really was interesting was the retake test policy that he had for his class. Allowing the students to get a second chance seems like a great idea, however I wonder if that should/could work in a high school building? It seems that it wouldn’t work because students are more apt to cheat because GPA matter so much more. Even more important is that GPA plays a big role in what that student can do to further their education and as an educator, one wouldn’t want to allow students to cheat to better themselves. I think it’s a wonderful idea and would totally do it for a middle school class where grades didn’t matter nearly as much. However for high school I don’t think I could/should do that. One other thing is that I wouldn’t want to have as much stuff on the walls and board as Ben did because of the classroom size the limited spaced was amplified by the stuff covering the room.

Reflection 9- <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Now as I recollect, it seems as though there was a great deal of hidden curricula in my schooling. However some of it went against other things that I learned for example, in most of my classes we faced the teacher and thus gave us a sense that we weren’t the source of knowledge but the teacher was. Whereas in another class that same year I had a teacher who would line up the desks across from each other giving me a sense that students and teachers have knowledge worthwhile to class. Along with that it always seemed that the teachers had nice fancy technology while the students always had the much less nice, barely serviceable machines. This gave students the feeling that the teachers were more important than they were. Another big hidden thing I can think of was our school sort of segregated the classes from each other, like all the seniors had their lockers in one area while the freshmen all had their lockers in a completely different and less desirable place. This taught us to not really intermingle with the younger students and also that there was a hierarchy of importance in the school. Some big null curricula that I went through in school was going over conservative political ideas in school. It seemed as though in my school our teachers loved to talk about their liberal policy areas, which is all fine and dandy, however they neglected to explain rigorously what conservative political ideas were. This left most students thinking that conservative idea were just less smart than liberal ones, whereas in reality both ideas are probably equally dumb (sorry for the cynicism, but being a poli sci major for three years will do that to you).

reflection 8- <span style="color: black; font-family: Cambria,serif;">What really seemed to strike me about the readings for last class were the sad reasons to which social studies sprung forth. It is truly heartbreaking to see the beginning of social studies stems from trying to separate people from each other. I believe that the strongest influence on social studies starting was social efficiency. This was the idea that it would allow some students to advance into roles of high influence, thinking professions and it would prepare some for labor intensive careers that were still needed for the country to run. It is that same element that exists to this day! High schools are designed to help create social efficiency, and rightfully so. Not every student should go to college and that’s fine! America should aim to have high schools that prepare students for all different kinds of life. Although I think it would be a grave misstep to have high schools limit students to only following one path but leave them options to go to college or to enter into the workforce. As a school our goal shouldn’t be getting every kid to college but rather to get all kids prepared to be able to succeed in whatever they do. Whether that is going to college to be an engineer or getting their high school diploma and working a job. Granted I will admit that at this current time in our nation’s economic disaster that lofty goal of having a worthwhile high school diploma is more challenging than ever before (sorry about the rant, I just enjoy the subject). The paragraph on page 91 is challenging. Yes it is wrong to expect that students can’t do as well in certain areas because of their colors or pocketbooks. However it is hard to imagine that one could use the same curriculum for a rich suburban area and an inner city area high school. There is so much that is going on that schools can’t control that make it more challenging for the students in the inner city to do well, they certainly have the capacity to do very well, however it is their circumstances that make it hard to believe that the same curriculum would work for two completely different schools. I think it would be wrong to offer up a weak curriculum to these students though; perchance a more particular one would serve these inner city students well. A curriculum that would challenge students in the same way but do so using a more relevant set of materials and different structure for classes.

Reflection 7- <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">After discussing Columbus Day I think it would be hard to teach Columbus Day without going into detail about what really happened. Students need to be able to understand that the historical giants were people as well and not just demigods of their time. Students have to have a balanced view of these people so that they know that there are men and women out there who can still make huge impacts on our society for either the good or the bad. I also think it would be very fruitless to only give the negative picture of Columbus as well, in a social studies class I think it is very dangerous to present history as a one sided narrative. The social studies, like most things, are complex! It needs to be taught that way! When social studies is presented in a way that only shows something as either “right” or “wrong” student lose the opportunity to develop critical thinking and analytical skills. I will go about teaching Columbus by explaining to the students the good and the bad and then use a role play to show the students how someone can do something that seems so horrible from one perspective but from another seem so right. After that role play I would then debrief the students and have them discuss how history isn’t black and white and how something that seems so simple might be a very complex and complicated issue. <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> The end goal of all this would be to instill skills into students to allow them to think for themselves and decide whether or not they think Columbus was a good or bad guy and who knows maybe some students land in the middle. I would love to spend time teaching this because I think it can be a great case study of how perspectives shape history and how we must look through and understand perspectives if we are to truly get the value out of knowing/learning history!

Doth the law here, where God Almighty himself has crafted unique beauty in the foundation of the earth with His amazing knife, with which He scraped out mountains to create a MOST Grand Canyon, thereof enforce upon students a regulation, dare I say abridgement of rights that are given, nay! Mandated by the constitution of our great union, for which our fathers have possessed for generations and have DIED to protect the liberties and freedoms granted by such an inerrant document of marvelous grandeur and noble birth. Shall we stand upon the legs of greatness and yet spit upon this sacred ground on which our bounty laid, a treasure of freedom and a crown of liberty? Or have our father’s fought and died to protect the right of a government of the PEOPLE by the PEOPLE for the PEOPLE to create on their own meritable standards a vast supply of knowledge to pass yonder to the bowels of this new spring of American people?


 * Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier (1983) **
 * Bethel School District #43 v. Fraser (1987) **


 * No clear legal standing for this to be unconstitutional, in fact one can make a case that the precedent is that the states do have the right to pass such a law. The tenth amendment asserts that the states are granted the ability to make their own laws on things not distinguished in the constitution. **

Reflection 6- I’m not a huge fan of the PGDP, I feel as though it’s just another thing to clutter up schedules of already extremely busy college seniors. We are already assigned a lot of small weekly work with reading (which is to be expected because this is a 400 level and 5 credits) and PPPs not to mention the occasional micro teach. I do understand the importance of this exercise; because on the job we will have to be seeking to improve our professionalism. However at this juncture in our careers we are very busy with senior seminars and other demanding courses that pour out tons of work to the point that the PGDP just seems tiresome. Again I want to make it clear that I really like the premise to this exercise, it’s just the timing doesn’t seem helpful. Hopefully it ends up not being as big of a commitment as I fear because I already have enough work that takes up most of my time. I don’t think that this would be too useable in a middle school classroom. It just seems difficult to have students identify things in which they need to work on that will actually challenge them to be a better student. Even for this task as college students it seemed like a lot of us grappled with just adding things that wouldn’t be hard for us to do and didn’t really care too much about having this develop us into more professional people. Also I think this would be challenging to grade because the difficulty of the task would vary from student to student and create some unbalanced grading. This may work out better if as a teacher you assign each student an equally (ish) hard task that they had to improve on. However this would still prove to be a rather annoying project to grade, but could be really good for students.

Reflection 5- I absolutely loved the TED talk that we watched in class on Monday! I thought that it was very thoughtful, and really interesting. I agree totally with the way that our education program grades people on this curve of right or wrong and therefore stifles creativity. This whole idea comes from teaching to the test and trying to get ALL students to score well on only certain areas of “academics” rather than letting students develop in areas that their learning and bodies are more meant to develop in. Although I would find it foolish to want to eliminate all math and science from students who don’t excel in those areas I also find it foolish to want to cut out arts because they just aren’t practical to test for. Instead of our education program trying to shove out little robot learners who are all good at the exact same thing we should encourage diversity among our population of learners. I would truly love the United States to adopt these principles in education and pioneer a new way of assessment that doesn’t punish creative thought. That being said this new method wouldn’t just let students make up things, (i.e. America was founded by Hinkle Mc’Steinpants) but instead allow students to use information to try to form new arguments or explore new thought. I am willing to admit this style of grading might not work the best in some subjects such as math, but outside of that I think that this would be a possible method of grading. I would really love to be able to grade this way when I am teaching (God Willing) however I suppose that will more depend on the school districts policies. So I guess that I’ll just have to be crossing my fingers for a that sweet school district!

Reflection 4- One thing that really irks me is the way that social studies teachers can sometimes make a really big deal about the grammar that is used in a paper. It’s truly frustrating to have lost points on a paper because I couldn’t remember where to put a semi-colon (or where to use a dash for that matter) when I had a well articulated argument and used English well enough so that the teacher could understand what it is that I was trying to say. Sure, not all things grammar related should be thrown out the window as a social studies teacher however is it really necessary to grade all the intricacies of the English language? I’m not making a case for allowing students to just put a “u” when they are trying to spell “you” or even things like using “their” when it should have been “there” but things outside of the basic grammar seem so unnecessary for the students. As a social studies teacher my main goal is to get students to learn how to think critically and analytically of the world around them, and in doing so hopefully equipping them with the ability to form logical and supportable arguments. It would really nice if some students would remember the exact date that certain things took place or to have students remember when to use parenthetical citations but that isn’t my end goal. So instead of spending time critiquing grammar it would be far more productive to use that time to really digest each student’s argument and offer to them helpful advice. It is skills such as critical thought and analytical thinking that will help my student survive in the “real” world not their depth of understanding the English language. (All grammatical mistakes are completely unintentional)

Reflection 3- The most challenging part of building a unit to this point would have to be abiding by the Michigan education department’s standards instead of just planning something that I think would work out well for our fake students. When thinking about the Middle East there is so much that comes to mind that could be useful to teach students. Although I have noticed that one can usually make the standards fit anything because they are written rather vaguely it is still challenging to figure out how to make your lesson fit into the standards. Another thing that has been challenging about building this unit is figuring out what ideas should go into the limited amount of time that we have to teach it. When planning a unit one always thinks that everything that they come up with should be included but it’s hard to tell without having tried it out what actually is effective and what is just wishful thinking. One last thing that has been challenging is working with other people who may or may not share your opinions on what could be good for the class. I believe that units should be planned chronologically because social studies is one subject area that builds off itself and it’s very challenging to understand why certain things happen without knowing the full story of what came before it in history. Themes could work but I think a teacher would have to spend a far greater time figuring how to make them work without leaving out important background information. Although this is not the way I would go about doing it I could see a successful strategy being chronological themes. This would be teaching all of the things related to let’s say Vietnam in a theme but teaching it in a way that goes through all of the history leading up to the war. This to me is still not a very effective message because it would be hard to go through all of the information that surrounds most things that are taught in social studies because they are extremely complex issues. Going back to the Vietnam theme, it would be hard to explain all of the complexities of colonialism in the same theme and therefore students wouldn’t fully understand the situation in Vietnam. Although Chronologically teaching social studies still has some issues, such as trying to move fast enough so that one can get through the robust academic curriculum. Even with that challenging problem that is brought up by teaching chronologically overall the benefits for students having the best shot at understanding the material well, is worth the risk of missing some material.

Reflection one- <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> The best memory that I have from a social studies class would be from my senior year in high school where my teacher had the entire ap government class choose a bill that was trying to be passed into law and make an argument for why that bill should be passed. Along with that the teacher gave out roles for the class members to have, such as president and majority leader and what not. Doing this allowed the class to see the complicated process that goes on while a bill is in limbo between paper and law. The worst memory that I have from a social studies class would be in 9th grade our global issues class made us make maps of the region that we were studying, and for me not being artistic my maps would always appear as though they were just a giant blob of colors. Along with that I felt as I, as well as other students, would spend more time focusing on what way the region was shaped rather than what really made the different areas unique. Also that class irked me because they would use those maps as the biggest chuck of our grade, and those maps showed nothing more than a student knowing how to trace a region well, it was just downright silly. That was a pretty difficult question to answer though seeing that I’ve pretty much loved every social studies related class in high school. Why do I want to teach social studies? Well this one might take a little time to unpack. I love everything about social studies it is something that I find supremely fascinating, and it has always come extremely easy to me. However that isn’t the main reason to why I feel called to be in social studies education, I feel this way because it is often an area where students and parents feel is worthless. In a society that now is so focused on math and science we are overlooking the most important part of education, teaching students to think on their own and understand others well. Social studies is a subject where it forces students to look at an issue and think for themselves why they support it or they don’t, along with that it also teaches students how to interact with people who have a different opinion. Although it isn’t those skills that will determine whether or not a student gets into a ivy league school it are those important skills that will help that student develop into a self supportive person. I want to teach social studies because I believe it is imperative to their development as a human being and I believe that I can make an impact on young people and in some small way help fix one of America’s biggest problems, education. Oh yes and also one far less noble reason, I love the idea of having summers off!

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Reflection 2-

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about what good teaching looks like for me at least is ability to go with the flow. What I mean by that is being willing to go with the class and break off of what you might have wanted to do to better accommodate to the class’s needs. That being said I think it is also very important to not just let the class dictate what it is and when you teach but having the sense to let go of the control a little bit so that the class is engaged rather than a teacher just getting his agenda done and the students all sleeping in class. Good teachers also know how to get respect from their class and with that respect they influence students to care about whatever it is that they may teach. The last one that I can think of for this is just being comfortable in front of class and being able to command attention from the class. Often in these grade levels students are loud and can be hard to captivate attention so it is of dire importance that a teacher possesses this trait. Thinking more introspectively I can see that I have the ability to be comfortable in front of class and can typically command attention out of people so I don’t fear that part of teaching at all. Another strength of mine would be using my humor to hopefully gain respect of the class and get students to respect me and want to listen to me and do the things that I ask of them. Finally I also think that I have the flexibility to go with the flow of the class and make the class effective. But that one is a double edged sword because I fear that my style of classroom leadership will not have enough structure for the days that the class just doesn’t want to participate in the discussion. So I would really love to improve in my ability to plan out lessons, also sounding more like I know what it is that I’m talking about so that I don’t sound as though I know as much as the student. One thing I really feel as though I need to learn is being able to stay focused on the lesson and not spend so much time goofing around with the class. Although I think that can be good I fear that I may spend too much time doing this and not enough time actually teaching them the things they need to learn. Another thing that I’d really like to learn is just effective methods of teaching, such as games that actually work or cool ways to introduce challenging topics. Lastly I would really like to learn ways in which teacher separate their professional lives from their social lives because I often throw myself into my work and I don’t want my entire life to live and die with teaching.