Economics in the classroom

Today we focused on the topic of economics in the social studies curriculum. Everyone in my class was responsible for researching a portion of the presentation. The format of this presentation was a direct instruction lesson with elements of JIGSAW incorporated. The only experience I have with economics is through my life experience of working. 

In high school I had a brief half semester course going over economics but it was not very effective or meaningful since I do not recall much. My portion of the presentation focused on economics as a whole and ways to incorporate it into everyday instruction. I enjoyed coming up with ways to explain economics to first graders and second graders. Even though the topic of economics is hard to grasp, I feel it is important for students to have a genera understanding of it in order to be positive members of their community. 

Always have a back up plan

During our unit plan instruction, Carielle and I had planned on using the program called Kahoot in order to assess our students prior knowledge. Kahoot is an interactive website where teachers or presenters create multiple choice questions and their audience responds using a tablet, computer or smart phone.

It did not go as planned. The tablets provided were not functioning properly in order to access the Kahoot app. Carielle and I had to improvise. We decided we would use whiteboards and dry erase markers instead and ask the question orally to the students. It seemed to go smoothly for the most part. I wish the tablets had worked because we would have gotten through our pre-assessment quicker and we would have had less off task behavior. As I have learned in life, but definitely in teaching it is always good to have a back up plan. 

Voices from previous years

This week we focused on the topic of geography and we also reviewed collaborative and cooperative learning. The media that Dr. Smrinova chose for us to show our understanding was a program called voice thread. 

Voice thread is a program where many individuals can come together to brainstorm ideas. In the voice thread, you are able to add your perspective or comments via text, video, audio, or uploading a file to the particular slide. I enjoyed voice thread. I think it would be highly functional at the middle school and high school level. The students would be given a topic and each student would have to provide their opinion, understanding, or perspective. I feel this program really showed how teachers can use technology in their classrooms. 

Meaningful learning

Two weeks ago, we developed a lesson that encouraged the students to take a creative perspective to history. The students were given the task of creating a brochure for the Hudson Valley. The students were split into groups of two or three and each were given a specific topic to focus on. The group Carielle and I worked with, focused on the historical aspects of the Hudson Valley. I found the students were engaged throughout the entire lesson and time seemed to fly by. At the end, each group came together to present their brochure. I came away learning some interesting facts about the Hudson Valley that I did not know before that class. 

The Reflection Process

To say our unit plan did not go smoothly is an understatement. It was one of the biggest learning experiences of my graduate career so far. I thought the quote above perfectly summed up how I felt that day leaving Bishop Dunn Memorial School. I left with a bitter taste in my mouth about education. It took me a few days to understand the bitterness is a part of the entire experience. 

Carielle and I decided to focus on Henry Hudson as the main topic for our unit plan. Our direct instruction lesson was primarily made up of vocabulary words and looking back now I would have changed that. I would have focused more on the content of Henry Hudson instead of the important words the students would encounter. Due to the imperfections, I feel as though our lessons were not as profound as they could have been. We had this great plan in our heads how everything would occur, but as is life, it did not go as planned. Even though I feel our instruction could have included more content, the students were engaged. We used an interactive website from National Geographic regarding Henry Hudson to engage our students in the lesson. I feel this gave the students a visual representation of Henry Hudson's voyage into this region. 

I really enjoyed working with Carielle as a co-teacher. I feel we worked well together. We were able to get over the humps of the day together and work through the kinks. I feel we also balanced each other out when it came to instruction. Carielle would speak about a certain portion of the lesson and then pass it off to me. When it came to designing the lessons, we also worked extremely well together. We bounced ideas off one another and collaborated for the entire process. 

All in all, I feel we have much we could improve on. Yes, I did leave Bishop Dunn that night crying and feeling negative about my future as a teacher, but once I took time to reflect authentically, outside the moment, I realized I learned something. I learned that I need to take criticism better. I also learned I need to focus on content, even when I do not particularly care for the topic. Ultimately I will be teaching every content area so I need to be able to create lessons that are meaningful and intriguing for my students even when I am not confident in the subject area.