Native American Jigsaw

Today we tried another method of jigsawing! Last time we did the jigsaw method in our class we used base group and expert groups in order to teach the different parts of the social interactive model. This time we were researching different Native American Tribes. 

The tribe my group was given was the Lakota Indians. We had to research things like the history, culture, clothing, food, important people, and their habitat. I was in charge of researching the history of the tribe. 

The tribe has a lot of history. Most of it involved being victimized by the United States people and government like many other Native tribes. 

Once we had all out research on the power point we had to present it to the class!

I really enjoyed working with my group on this activity. We all took responsibility of a part of the project and when everything came together it turned out really well. This shows that using the jigsaw method addressed the individual accountability of the SIM. 

This is something that I would like to use in my future classroom because the students get to act like the teacher. They will feel special that they were able to teach the class something new. On top of that they are deepening their knowledge on the topic when they are teaching others. This can be used with many other topics besides Native Tribes. Many things in Social Studies can be taught through this method. 

Aside from learning just content students are also learning on how to work together. They are developing their social skills. It is important that students learn how to work together respectfully. At the end of each jigsaw methods students must evaluate each other. These cooperative learning skills are very important for students to learn because they will use them throughout their lives!

Here is my PPT on the Lakota Indians! 

END OF THE SEMESTER!!!!!

It is finally the end of the semester! These last couple weeks have been a struggle, but I made it through! I just have to complete one final and submit my efolio for my Social Studies Methods class. This class I can honestly say taught me the most from my methods classes. That being said it definitely was not easy. I was able to teach a full fifth grade for the first time. I was taught many different tool that I can incorporate in my future classroom. Dr.Smirnova knew exactly how to push us to where we needed to be. I learned how to better write lesson. how to teach better, new ideas for teaching Social Studies and how to cooperate with different people. I would not have made it through this class if it wasn't for the group of people I worked with. We all helped each other along the way. If one of us didn't get something someone was there to help them.  Cooperative learning is now something that I have experienced and can't wait to use in my future classroom. 

All of that being said I am so happy this semester is over! I cannot wait to go home and spend time with my family, and get back to working. I need more money! I am excited for next semester to see what it has to offer, but my college journey is starting to come to a close. I am officially past the half way point of my undergraduate career! That is kind of scary.

So that's all for now! 

Choosing to be Grateful

Our teacher asked us to read the article "Choose to Be Grateful. It Will Make You Happier." In the article it discusses how being grateful makes people happier. For example people who made a list of what they were grateful for everyday had more happiness in their life than people who didn't. Sometimes it's hard to be grateful for small things. When we have a bad day we think the world is out to get us, but in reality we have so much to be thankful for everyday. I am thankful for my family. They have been their for me no matter what. They will always come first in my life. I would do anything for my family. I am also thankful my boyfriend. We have been together for over four years now and he has been there for me through everything. I love my pets more than anything as well. I have two cats and a dog that always seem to put a smile on my face. We need to be grateful for all that we have in life. We are all truly blessed to have people who loves us.  

Job Interview

In class we just finished our mock interviews! In our class four people were assigned roles of administrators and the rest of the class were potential teacher candidates that they could hire. Each administrator came to our groups and asked us questions relating to direct instruction, inquiry and cooperative lesson, assessment and differentiation. 

In order to prepare for the interview I went back and looked at the materials that we have gone through in this class. I prepared my teaching philosophy statement and my resume.I was very nervous for the interview questions because I was unsure of what they were going to ask and how to cover all of the material we have learned so far.

Some of the questions I knew right of the bat like questions relating to implemented the different instruction models. Other questions I had to stop and think about. Those questions were usually more abstract. For example if assessment was part of the house which part would it be? Another question I had to think more about was when you think of direct instruction what color would you think of? I thought this was a very abstract question that I could not prepare for. I had to really stop and think about this question. I ended just picking a random color just to get through the question. 

One of the questions that I really did like was the one where we had to choose a time to go back in history. That question really made me think about where I would want to go and why. I felt really prepared for the questions where they would ask what would my classroom would like during different types of instruction.
Next time I feel I need to be able to think more abstractly and prepare more for those types of questions. This experience I feel was a good step in the right direction to future job interviews. It made me think on my feet which is something we don't do often enough in school classes.
At the end of the session the administrators choose one person from each group that they would "hire" and I got picked! So I guess I did something right!

Economics

Today in class we presented different economic topics to the class. When I first heard we were going to teach about economics I was a little nervous. I had never really learned much on economics and if I did I don't remember it at all. The only thing I remember learning was about the stock market during Computer Literacy my sophomore year. I was given a certain amount of money to invest in three stocks and had to watch the progress and compare them to the S & P 500. But that was college. I don't think I ever learned anything in elementary school! 

I was really surprised by how many different ways my classmates incorporated economics into a classroom setting. My topic was scarcity and economic decision making. Scarcity is when people have unlimited wants, but the resources are limited. If resources are in high demand, but are scarce this drive the prices up. This leads to economic decision making. When products are scarce people have to make choices about how they will spend their money. Will the spend more for the product? Go somewhere else to get it? Or just go without it altogether? These are questions people face everyday and are the basic foundations of economics. 

My peers talked about other things such as: The difference between micro and macroeconomics, the different concepts, approaches to teaching economics, the decision making model, and ways to break down economics in the classroom.

One way to to incorporate scarcity in the classroom is by giving students fake money and giving them limited resources to "buy". The students will have to make decisions about what products are the most necessary. There are also many different online games that students can play to learn about economics. In one classroom that I observed in they had a classroom store. When they showed good behavior they received money that they could save up and spend in the store. This taught them that when money is limited they need to prioritize what they want the most. I think this is a really fun way to help manage the classroom and teach economics at a young age. 

I feel that it is really important to start teaching students economics at a young age so that when they learn about it later on in more detail they will have a basic understanding!

Here's the link to my slides: Slides

and my thinglink