I have valued the importance of world events throughout my life. I am very lucky in that my parents kept me aware of what was going on in the world throughout my life. I remember coming to school as a student and being able to answer my teachers questions about local and even world current events but my fellow classmates had no idea what my teacher was talking about. Also, my parents kept a very neutral perspective and unless I specifically asked they did not impose their personal beliefs on me. I would even ask questions about the opposing side (the opposite of what my parents believed) and they would gladly answer my questions in as neutral of way as possible. So often, I see that teachers are so concerned with past history and forget to even teach about current events or events in the last five years. When I was in high school we rarely got to modern day history because the focus was on years and years before. I hope to use my understanding and belief that current events are extremely important in my future classroom.
Post 2:
Through-out my placement my teacher has incorporated group projects and presentations in each subject. The students are divided into groups based on where they sit (their teams) or reading level. The students get anywhere from 2 to 4 class periods to complete the research, poster, and practice for their presentation. The students get one sheet of chart paper to illustrate, explain, write about their task. Each team or group is given a different task so no presentation is alike. The students are encouraged to not only complete all parts of the task but also include their own touch to the presentation. Today, my students were presenting information from the Westward Expansion Period in our history. One group's task was to explain the war of 1812. As an addition to the information they researched they all held American Flags and sang the national anthem. They encouraged their classmates to participate by giving them the page number in their social studies book which lists the lyrics. It's amazing to see how excited they get about presenting and collecting props and extra "fun facts" to include in their presentations. I found this to be a highly motivating assignment (the group tasks and presentations in general) while also having a major focus on academics. I always look forward to presentation days :)
Critical Classrooms Vignette 7
I have valued the importance of world events throughout my life. I am very lucky in that my parents kept me aware of what was going on in the world throughout my life. I remember coming to school as a student and being able to answer my teachers questions about local and even world current events but my fellow classmates had no idea what my teacher was talking about. Also, my parents kept a very neutral perspective and unless I specifically asked they did not impose their personal beliefs on me. I would even ask questions about the opposing side (the opposite of what my parents believed) and they would gladly answer my questions in as neutral of way as possible. So often, I see that teachers are so concerned with past history and forget to even teach about current events or events in the last five years. When I was in high school we rarely got to modern day history because the focus was on years and years before. I hope to use my understanding and belief that current events are extremely important in my future classroom.
Post 2:
Through-out my placement my teacher has incorporated group projects and presentations in each subject. The students are divided into groups based on where they sit (their teams) or reading level. The students get anywhere from 2 to 4 class periods to complete the research, poster, and practice for their presentation. The students get one sheet of chart paper to illustrate, explain, write about their task. Each team or group is given a different task so no presentation is alike. The students are encouraged to not only complete all parts of the task but also include their own touch to the presentation. Today, my students were presenting information from the Westward Expansion Period in our history. One group's task was to explain the war of 1812. As an addition to the information they researched they all held American Flags and sang the national anthem. They encouraged their classmates to participate by giving them the page number in their social studies book which lists the lyrics. It's amazing to see how excited they get about presenting and collecting props and extra "fun facts" to include in their presentations. I found this to be a highly motivating assignment (the group tasks and presentations in general) while also having a major focus on academics. I always look forward to presentation days :)