Learning Strategies/ Social Studies

Well, this is my last blog. I have to say this class has been such a great experience for me. I will be leaving this class much a much different view about the Social Studies.

 I really dreaded having to take this class. Social Studies was always my worst subject in school. I did not have a good attitude about it and did not do well. Even as an adult, I feel like I am pretty dumb when it comes to Social Studies. I always felt like I didn't even know the basics. I don't want to blame my teachers, but I am. =)  Every Social Studies teacher I had, taught solely from the text book. We would round robin read, look vocabulary words up in the back of the book, answer the 3 question at the end of every chapter, and take a test. It was HORRIBLE! I have learned from this class that is is very important to engage students as they learn. Make it fun to learn. Make children fun to learn. We have learned so many different fun and engaging strategies on how to teach the aspects of Social Studies. I really enjoyed this class. My views on the Social Studies have greatly changed. I would love to teach the Social Studies to children one day =) .

United States Constitution

I loved the United States Constitution activity that we did in class. Each of us having parts to research and draw really helped me learn what a lot of the Constitution means. Having a different person tell about what each section meant also helped me to remember. I most definitely think this activity would be great to teach in a primary grade classroom. This strategy of teaching this lesson could be applied to teaching many state standards. I always stressed over trying to learn things like the Constitution because, I felt like there was just always too much to learn and overwhelmed me. I found it hard to comprehend the material. I can remember much more of the Constitution by using this strategy in class Monday.

Geocaching

I thought I had a idea of what geocaching was but had no clue. I never knew that so many people went on hunts like this. I am glad I finally went on one in class. I found this to be very fun. When I was a child, I would always hide something from my brother and make him find it using my directions of counting steps. I just told my daughter about geocaching, and she is already wanting to go. I hope to get to go some this summer.
Geocaching makes me want to hide my Easter eggs like this :)

Box City

I really enjoyed making our box city in class. It was sad to have to take it down. I think it would be nice to have enough room in a classroom to leave the box city up for a while. There are so many things that can be taught using the box city. Teachers can integrate almost evey subject and cover many state standards. The box city could also be used in higher grades learning concepts such as governance. I can not wait till I get to use this activity in my classroom.

Geography

Each time I hear the word geography, I think of a particular incident that happened to me that totally embarassed me when I was younger. This incident reminds me just how important understanding geography and knowing where you are in this world is.

For my 8th grade field trip, we took a trip to Washington D.C.. About 2 days into the trip, I made a comment in front of a bunch of people about how I thought it was supposed to rain all the time in Washington. My teacher told me that that was the state of Washingon. I thought I was in the state of Washingon. For the rest of the trip, until I got home to ask my parents, I had no idea where I was. I couldn't my finger on a map anywhere to guess where I was. I think it was really sad for someone my age at the time to not atleast know where Washington D. C. was.

My Biography

I loved the "My Life Biography" book we created in class. This would be a great activity to do during the first week in class. Some children are shy at the beginning of school so this would be a great way to introduce everyone and allow every student to get to know a little about eachother. You could use the book in many ways. It could be used as a timeline or even geogrphy, having students draw places they have been to. Students would love this activity and I also think parents would like to help and become more involved with this activity.

Books

Athough Eve Bunting's book So far from the Sea is a really sad book, I still enjoyed hearing it in class. Books are such a great way to retell history. They are a good way to get students wanting to know or learn more about history. I recently asked my 13 year old nephew what he thought about the bombing of Pearl Harbor and he replied asking  me what that was. I think it's really sad.

Since starting this class, I have been looking for different book for my classroom library that I hope to have when I begin teaching. I hope I can have a wide variety of history books. I really hope if I have them readily available that I will be able to spark enough interest on the topic that they will want to read them.

historical events

I had to find an important historical event from the 1980's. I thought this activity wa fun. After researching and choosing my event, I was curious and started looking at important events starting from 1900. I found and learned about a lot of occurrences that I did not know happened. I also was surprised at events I had forgotten. I created a time line from 1900-2010 of what I thought was the most important events to happen. I think this would be a great activity to spark historical interests in students.

Sing and Dance

I really thought the activities we had done focused around Paul Revere's painting were fun. These activities such as singing and dancing are great ways for children to learn while having fun. These activities also greatly help retain subject materials learned.

Alpha vs Beta

This is a really great activity.  It is a good way to remind students that everyone is different. It lets everyone know that just because someone does not act "normal" to their perspective, they are. Some people show their emotions, respect, and all social aspects differently. We all need to try to be more understanding about someone elses culture and norms.

M&M's

I really loved the 'no taxation without representation' activity we did in class on Monday. I think incorporating strategies like these in the classroom are great ways in making learning Social Studies exciting. Students will have more fun and will probably remember the materials taught. I hope to learn a lot of fun hands-on ways to incorporate Social Studies in the classroom.