Book Talk

Using literature books  is a very good way to present social studies to students in the classroom. Using historical fiction and nonfiction books like we did during our book talk is a good way to get away from regular textbook learning. These kinds of stories are interesting to students and when they have factual information, they can be a very beneficial tool for the teacher to promote effective social studies learning.

Fact, Question, Response

The Fact Question and Response that we did over the articles is an excellant tool that teachers can use to help engage students not only with just reading articles but helping them understand what they are reading.  By doing this activity students have better comprehension of what they are reading by having to look for key terms and facts that will help them understand the article. The videos we watched in class that showed the teachers engaging with the students in reading and understanding by using the post it notes showed me an excellant way that I can teach my students to better understand what they read.

Climbing Mt Everest

The activity we did on climbing Mt Everest was a very creative way to help students learn social studies.  While in the classroom I had to do an Attitudinal Survey before teaching a lesson for Ms. Dosser.   I was integrating social studies into my lesson so one of the questions was "Do you like social studies?"  The data showed that not many students liked social studies.  This was due in part to the fact that social studies is rarely taught in this classroom.  Using story path, box city, and other interesting activities is a very good way to raise the interest level in your students.

Social Studies in the classroom

One thing I have noticed while working in the classroom with my mentoring teacher is, there is not much importance pertaining to social studies.  All the lessons I have observed have focused mainly on Math,  Language Arts, Science, and Reading.  The only time they have any instruction with social studies is when the counselor comes in, which is usually once or twice a month, and talks to them about behavior concepts.  The schools main concern seems to be focused on the TCAPS testing in the spring.  I understand that the schools are pressured into steering the students to do well on testing but I feel the students are missing out on key concepts they would learn if more emphasis was put on teaching social studies.

Observation

I had a wonderful experience yesterday while working with my mentoring teacher.  The students were collecting their backpacks to go home.  The teacher had purchased a large Magna Doodle board for her classroom.  During this time she was working with one of the special needs students assigned to her classroom.  He has Down's syndrome and is considered non verbal.  She wrote simple questions for him on the magna doodle board and it was amazing to see him answer them with yes and no answers.  She has been working with him on a daily basis, trying to get him to say words.  So far he says "yes", "no", and "mommy."  It is remarkable how just a simple game can promote learning. 

Google Earth

I became familiar with Google Earth when my husband was deployed overseas.  He told me about it so I downloaded it on my computer.  It was amazing.  I searched for his camp site and found it no problem.  It helped me become familiar with the area in which he worked.  But until we viewed it in class it never crossed my mind to use it as a learning tool in the classroom.  Now all sorts of ideas are popping into my head on how it could be incorporated into teaching geography.

Geocaching

I really enjoyed the day we went geocaching! Even though the weather was bad it was still exciting to find a cache.  This would be a great thing for the family tro do when on vacation.  They could find where the closest ones are to their vacation spot and really have a good time as a family.   This is also great for a classroom activity (depending on the age group) and teaching geography. Even if you can't actually geocache with your students, the concept would still work with something like a scavenger hunt around the school yard.