Field Experience Week 3

This week in field was great!  The more I'm in the classroom the more I love it, and can't wait to be a teacher and have a class of my own.  We were able to teach several times this week (only for small increments, but it was still a great experience), and really find several ways of teaching the students about the American Revolution.  

To help the students learn more about the different Acts in the American Revolution (Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Townshend Act, Tea Act, Intolerable Acts, etc.), we divided the students into groups of 4 and then assigned each group a different Act.  We then told them 4 things they needed to look for when researching their Act.  We also told each student that we would be going to the computer lab and they would be able to look up information about their Act.  We directed them to a reliable website and showed them where they could find information about their act.  The students really enjoyed being able to work on the computers and find research for themselves.  

Another thing we did to help the students learn about the American Revolution was make a timeline and a study guide about different events and people during this time.  We then proceeded to tell the students that we would be playing Jeopardy and taking a quiz in class.  They absolutely LOVED Jeopardy!  The students really enjoyed the competitive spirit about Jeopardy and got very into the game.  Informing the students that there would a Jeopardy game also got them to study their material.  This activity was technology-integrated as well because we did the Jeopardy game on the computer, which is so much fun.  We had the real Jeopardy background and music, it was great.  

Using technology in class really excited the students and gets them more involved about the material!

Field Experience #2

This past week has been another really great week in field.  My partner (Aubrey) and I have started teaching and have already taught 3 times.  The subject we have been given is the Stamp Act and the Boston Tea Party, and then everything in between as well.  I've never been a huge Social Studies fan, but teaching 5th graders is really fun.  They don't care to knowevery detail, and the information is explained very basically.  I think if high school students were taught the same way as elementary students (in Social Studies) then our high school graduating classes would know more about our countries history (and other countries histories).  

One of our lessons that we did was we gave each student 15 tootsie rolls. Then we told them that they were the colonists and we were the British Parliament-we would be taxing them on certain things.  We taxed them on what color hair they had, what they were wearing, what gender they were, etc.  The students got really into this lesson and got very upset.  We explained to them that this is what the colonists felt like.  They were being taxed on things that they didn't feel were right.  They were being treated unfairly and poorly.  

I've really enjoyed teaching the 5th graders in my class and have learned so much from them and from teaching them.

Field Experience Week 1

These past 4 days have been great. I feel like I learn SO much more being in field than I do when I'm in class (no offense to any teachers). I just feel that I learn by doing, not by listening to teachers lecture or show power points.
My field teacher is Mrs. Bishop and she teaches 5th grade at Edgemont Elementary in Provo School District. She's a fabulous teacher and really has a passion for teaching and for her students. Her students respect her and like to be in her class.
At Edgemont there is a lot of technology available. Mrs. Bishop has a SmartBoard, access to a mobile computer lab, printing/copying available, etc. However, even though there is a SmartBoard in the classroom, the teacher does not use it. She says she's not very good with technology but it is her goal to learn how to use it because she knows it'll be very convenient for teaching subjects such as math. Mrs. Bishop's class does use computers on a weekly basis, sometimes a couple or a few times a week. There is an actual computer lab, and a mobile lab that teachers can check out. These are great resources and my field partner and myself hope to take advantage of being able to have computers brought to the classroom.
I look forward to implementing technology into the classroom and teaching my teacher more about technology.

Digital Story 3

This week we didn't have class and therefore didn't learn anything new. However, this week my field partner and I were finally able to meet with our field teacher. Her name is Nancy Bishop and she teaches at Edgemont Elementary School in Provo. She seems like a great lady, and full of energy and good spirits. When we met with her she told us that she loves her class and the students are great! Whenever a teacher can tell you that her students are great, it's a good sign. We talked to her about teaching a few Social Studies lessons, and her response was that they don't do social studies very often. However, she said she would absolutely try and make time for us to teach the amount of lessons we needed too. I think this teaching opportunity will be great practice for me and my field partner, and it'll be a really neat experience for the students. Not very many elementary schools (or at least from what I've heard) integrate social studies into their daily lessons, therefore making it so students don't know as much as they should about their country, other countries, and so forth. While teaching these 5 social studies lessons, we are supposed to integrate 2 art activities and 1 computer activity, along with our digital story. We've got quite a few ideas already, but are going to observe the class for a couple days before making any big plans. I think this teaching will be great and will be a huge learning experience, and I'm anxious to start!

Digital Story 2

What: This week in class we learned about copygright.  We learned how to give credit to a source if we use their information, and we also learned why it's wrong to plagiarize.  

So What: What this means to me as a teacher and student is that I cannot take somebody elses work and get credit for it.  However, I am allowed to use other people's lesson plans (in the classroom) as long I cite the source.  This is really good to know because in our world we have SO many resources and there's an answer to almost ANY question.  The time to be original is long past, but we can use somebody elses idea and jazz it up.  Honestly I probably need to do a better job at giving people credit for their work, and citing their source when I use it in class or outside of class.

Now What: What this means to my future students is that I have to teach them not to plagiarize.  I have to be the one to teach them how to cite internet sources, and book sources (if they still have books by the time I teach).  When the time comes that I become a teacher so many things will be ran by technology, maybe even every lesson plan.  Teachers are doing more and more with technology and that just means there will be more opportunity to teach students how to cite and give credit for others' work.  Getting in the habit of citing resources is a great thing, especially if I decide to do more schooling, because more schooling means more research!

Digital Story 1

What: This past week in class we learned about digital stories. Our assignment is to create our own digital story with our field partner. This digital story we create will then be used in the classroom where we will be observing (field experience).

So What: I think a digital story is an awesome thing. It's a teachers chance to tell a story to her students using emotion. Watching a digital story will help students understand a subject so much more than just reading from a textbook. Digital stories can also help me a lot in the classes I'm in now. Once I've got the basics down (once I know how to do everything), a digital story could be very useful for me because I could use it to summarize each class, or each unit (for a test, etc...). This technology means to me that I can make class more exciting and display the information more interesting.

Now What: Digital stories can be useful for students in many ways, and some are listed above, but there are a couple others as well. One way is students can make their own digital story if their teacher teaches them how to use the program. This way students are learning the information, but are having fun at the same time. Students can also have a way of showing what they have learned to their parents. I'm really glad I learned how to make a digital story because before learning how many programs I could make a digital story on, I only thought PowerPoint could do things like movie-making. Digital story can help me become a better employee/teacher because having the knowledge of how to make a digital story is something not all teachers have. It's also a great way of showing progress to your employer/principal.

Vidcast Reflection

World War Two

5th Grade Social Studies
Standard 5: Students will address the causes, consequences and implications of the emergence of the United States as a world power. (Analyze how the United States' involvement in World War II led to its emergence as a superpower.)

World War two is not something I remember learning a tremendous amount about. It never really bothered me in elementary school that I didn’t learn a lot about the wars, or other events in history. However, now being in a social studies class, I really see the impact of learning about the past. For our project, we chose World War two because of the impact it had on the United States and still has on our country. So many people contributed to the war and deserve to be recognized. This is why, in our project, my partner and I chose to make our video about the different people involved in WWII. For example, Anne Frank was is celebrated today for being a brave young girl who went into hiding during the Holocaust for what she believed in. And Hitler is another well known name. Without Hitler, WWII wouldn’t have been as deadly.
Our project connects to the NETS and INTASC Standards in many ways. First, according to the NETS standards, we made sure to, “advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources.” We cited all of our sources and gave credit to anyone who’s work/words were in our project. In the INTASC standards it says to, “use appropriate resources to facilitate individual student learning.” I think using pictures of people who impacted the war and having a narration of who the people are is a great way of utilizing resources to capture the students’ attention.
Potential drawbacks may definitely occur in the case of a vidcast. My biggest concern is not having enough time to create a vidcast once I’m a teacher. I have spent so much time on this vidcast, and do not wish to spend this much time again. My future plans for this vidcast is to show them in a classroom, whether it’s mine or somebody else who borrows the vidcast. I would love to share with students what I have learned and find interesting about WWII.