Hey y'all! It's so good to get back to blogging-- it's been a while!
So many exciting things are happening in Social Studies Methods class right now. This semester is off to a great start. I can tell that this semester is going to require a lot of hard work and dedication out of each of us, but I can also tell that we are going to learn A LOT. I'm already learning so much!
Week 1
Week 1 of the class got off to a busy start- we completed the course orientation and some of our very first assignments in the class. I looked at the KUD document for the first time during this week. I learned that this stands for "Know, Understand, Do." I also learned that this document is Gardner-Webb's version of the NCPTS, adapted for Gardner-Webb's Teacher Candidates. During this week, I also completed the Powerful and Purposeful Social Studies Article Review. I love that we read and responded to this article during the first week of this class, because it really helped me to understand and apply the information in the upcoming weeks of the course. I used this article to help me to come up with some of my questions for my Wisdom from Experience interviews. I learned that Powerful and Purposeful social studies is important because it prepares students to take on a diverse world. As teachers, it's our job to prepare them for this as much as we can! This directly aligns with NCPTS 2b, "Teachers embrace diversity in the school community and in the world," because if we teach Powerful and Purposeful social studies, this is exactly what we are doing. We are embracing diversity and preparing our students for diversity in the real world.
Week 2
During Week 2, I learned SO much. I had never done a TTotW (Top Tweets of the Week) before. I had never made my own infographic before. I had never heard of Concept-Based Instruction before Week 2, either. This was also the week that I started working on my Concept-Based Instruction Unit, and I completed my first interview for my Wisdom from Experience project. Week 2 was super busy, but the 2 snow days helped!
This week was so crucial to my learning experience and to becoming a teacher. If it wasn't for Week 2, I still would have no idea what Concept-Based Instruction is. I made a video explaining what CBI is for my Concept Visual, and you can check it out here￫ http://www.showme.com/sh/?h=3bJGMr2
I also made my first ever infographic during Week 2. I took the Multiple Intelligences Quiz on edutopia.org in order to find out how I learn best, and then I created an infographic based on the results. Check out my infographic here￫ https://infograph.venngage.com/ps/TMvjA0hG3I/types-of-learners-meg to see how I learn best.
Week 3
During Week 3, I submitted my first ever PDP (Professional Development Plan). This was huge for me, because I didn't know what a PDP was before taking this class. I really enjoyed making my PDP based on 2 things that I thought I needed to work on most in the KUD document. I also learned more about writing SMART goals, which was something that I found to be challenging before writing my PDP. These are my 2 goals for the semester:
- By the end of the Spring 2018 semester, I will be able to use data from teaching a lesson in my Clinical Educator’s classroom to effectively plan instruction, assess my students, and modify my instruction based on what the data shows that the students need. (KUD: 1a2, 4h1, 5a1)
- By the end of the Spring 2018 semester, I will have created a website that consists of a collection of a minimum of ten resources including research-based strategies for improving my teaching and students’ learning, including research-based strategies for differentiation practices. (KUD: 4a2, 5c1)
This aligns with NCPTS 5b, "Teachers link professional growth to their professional goals." When I created my PDP, I had to write out what my evidence was going to be at the end of the semester that I had achieved my goals. One of my evidence criteria was that I will write a narrative explaining my thought process and my steps for completing my goal. When I do this throughout this semester, I will be linking how I grew as a professional to my original professional goals.
We are currently wrapping up Week 4. I cannot believe how fast the first month of the spring semester has gone by! This week, Megan White and I completed and submitted our January Global Citizenship Project. In order to complete this project, we had to choose a current even that happened during the month of January, and make that event applicable to the classroom. We chose to do our project on the Government Shutdown that happened this month. Megan and I connected the event to social studies standards within the 5 Social Studies Strands, and made some classroom ready examples for how a teacher could integrate the event into their classroom. Here is the link to an interactive timeline that we made, showing all the government shutdowns in U.S. history￫ https://time.graphics/line/51227 Megan and I used this as a technology tool and classroom ready example that a teacher could use in his/her classroom to help them explain the government shutdown to students.
This week, I also began working on my Flipped Classroom Certification on sophia.org, wrapped up my Wisdom from Experience project, started on my Today's Learner Project, and submitted my final draft of my Concept/Content Web on my CBI Unit. We are moving right along this semester!
- I am very excited to say that I officially received my clinical placement for Spring 2018 today, and I am so happy with my placement! I will be in a kindergarten classroom. I am super excited to further my learning and grow as a teacher candidate with these k5 babies.
Outside Research
For my outside research this week, I read in The First Days of School: How to be an Effective Teacher written by Harry K. Wong & Rosemary T. Wong. On page 7 of the book, the heading is, "Effective Teachers Affect Lives." On this page of the book, it says, "You were hired to affect lives. You were hired not so much to teach third grade, history, or physical education as to influence lives. Touch the life of a student, and you will have a student who will learn history, physical education, even science and math, clean the erasers, staple all the papers, and turn cartwheels to please you." This is so true, y'all. (Also, this aligns with NCPTS 2a, "Teachers provide an environment in which each child has a positive, nurturing relationship with caring adults." Let's be those caring adults in these children's lives!) One tweet that I saw that I really liked this month said, "We don't teach content, we teach children." This is why I want to be a teacher-- to make a mark on the lives of children and to help them. We have done a lot of work in this class this month, and there is so much more work ahead. But every time we turn in an assignment, we are one assignment closer to being a teacher.
Connections to my Future Classroomđź’—
Throughout this first month of class, I am already making lots of connections between what I am learning and accomplishing, and my future classroom. Completing my Wisdom from Experience project had the biggest impact on me so far, out of everything that we did in this class this month. I learned more about differentiation, social studies instruction planning, methods for teaching social studies, and so much more, just by interviewing 2 teachers who are currently teaching right now. One of the teachers was kind enough to show me her PDP, which really helped me to see what a real PDP looks like in action. This really helped me to make that connection between my PDP in this class and what it will look like each year when I am a teacher.
Another connection that I was able to make between this class and my future classroom was completing TTotW. Twitter is an AMAZING tool for Professional Development. I have learned so many little nifty teacher hacks and I have been so inspired by lots of tweets this month. To end this month's blog, I want to share one of those tweets with you that really inspired me:
Sources:
Source for the above Tweet: NC Education Learners @leadandlearnNC https://twitter.com/leadandlearnNC/status/956181112497242115
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/effectiveness-model/ncees/standards/prof-teach-standards.pdf
Wong, H. K., & Wong, R. T. (2009). The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher. Mountain View, CA: Harry K. Wong Publications, Inc.
