Why are we losing sense of direction?

Today, the world is at our fingertips. We can find out almost anything we could ever dream of knowing just by typing a few words into google or Wikipedia. It's wonderful, but with it comes new challenges. 

As a whole, our world is more connected that it has ever been before. Travel is easier, communication comes in dozens of ways, up to the minute reports can be found about almost anywhere on earth. Despite all of these things, or perhaps because of them, people know less and less about other countries. We know what actors or bands come from other countries, where the war is happening and maybe even a few political facts from other countries, but if given a map, few of us would be able to point out where these places actually are. 

How can we teach about other cultures with respect.?

I think that two of the best ways to teach about other cultures is through music and food. In different grades you can focus on different topics in other cultures (family dynamic, beliefs, rituals, dress, etc) but music and food can be incorporated from early childhood on, never getting boring.

Everyone can relate to music. Even if it's not their style, even if they think it's horrid, they can recognize it as music. Music and visual arts are the only two 'necessities of life' that experts can't explain through evolution. Music started as words, and art as pictographs, but their evolution into extravagant necessities can't be explained. Music tells a lot about a culture; the spirit, the shared values, the formality--all without words.

Food is another way to introduce other cultures. In one of the classrooms I worked in we had a new child from Japan, who spoke little English and was constantly made fun of for what was in her lunch box. We invited her mother to come in and talk to the kids about their culture, how what we see as 'gross' foods are their hamburgers and hot dogs, and they see those as our gross foods. The next day she came back and, as a class, we made hot dog sushi (rice and seaweed wrapped around hot dogs) and every one loved them; her lunch became the most coveted trade one could make.

I think that it is our job as educators to open our students eyes and minds to those that are different from what we think of as normal. Everyone has their own story, and each culture can teach us more about ourselves.

Image credit: http://www.dunwoody.edu/content/Image/Diversity/Diversity_Hands.gif

What is Social Studies?

When looking over the SCOS for third grade social studies I was pleasantly surprised to see that it's only focus wasn't middle class American communities.

After reading the SCOS I'm excited about teaching social studies in the early grades. A few of the objectives focus on the evolutions that different societies and communities have gone through, others focus on an individuals role in their society and how they can positively or negatively effect it, and, what I see as one of the most important schools can do for children, to talk about differences in communities, embracing their differences, and going even farther to understand and celebrate them.

When reading each objective, even more so for each broad goal, I was already attempting to come up with interactive and meaningful lessons for each. Goal 6 (especially objective 6.03) seems like a great opportunity to teach students about the concept of miniloans. As a class we could have a bake sale, car wash, or any other fundraiser and put what we make towards a mini-loan for some family, and, if we are working with the right agency, over the school year we could see what they are doing with it and how they've managed.

photo credit: http://members.shaw.ca/tzeglen/

My number one goal as a teacher will be for my students to, not just learn, but to enjoy learning. Since I plan to teach younger elementary grades, I think that introducing technology will be an important part of the curriculum and should be integrated into as many lessons as possible. As I've seen in my fieldwork, I think an amazing way to use technology as a group in everyday activities is the Promethean board. Working much like a touch screen, it lets students write on the board itself or on the adjoining board (which works much like an over head projector) but with the added bonus of color, pictures, animation and search engines at your finger tips. So far in my class we have used it mostly for math activities, but we've also done a few online grammar games, poetry, and some of the coolest power point presentations I've ever seen.

When I was younger I used an alphasmart board to take notes on because typing let me focus more on the information I was hearing about and less on making sure my handwriting would be legible later. At this point in time, it seems like laptops are more readily available and maybe even more affordable, but in some way I want all of my students (especially those with physical disabilities) to be able to practice tying and just generally familiarizing them self with the basics of a computer.

The four lesson plans I read about in Science stories that interest me the most are the snails, the floating/sinking fruit, the avocado pit and the germination bags.

The two that stuck out the most though were the snails and the fruits/vegetables. With the fruits and vegetables I thought that, besides from being a hands on and 'messy' lesson, the teacher showed how much she cared and how much thought she had put into it by bringing in foods from all different cultures. Not only would this make all the students feel more comfortable, but they were able to learn from each other without help from the teacher. The fact that she went so far as to do the avocado experiment soon after showed the students that she valued thier ideas and their contributions to the class.

My favorite lesson was, hands down, the snails. I love snails, have a few in my room as pets (apple snails) and find them incredibly interesting and relaxing to watch. They are extremely easy to care for, inexpensive, hearty, and would make great class pets/science projects. I think that having them make their own rules and making them responsible for the care of their snail brought a lot to the experiment. It gave the students a sense of autonomy and, although she helped in someways, they were. I will definitely be doing this lesson with my classes in the future.

Think of ideas....

Since a big part of the SCOS for early grades focuses on patterns, sorting, and comparing I think a fun lesson would be to make a class book about leaves and trees. As a class you could go outside and let everyone find a leaf of their choosing. They would need to make a drawing of it and (with either teacher or parental help) identify the type of tree it came from. The class culd make a bullitan board by arranging thier actual leaves (that have been laminated and cut into squares) in a pattern and let the other classes guess at what rules they had used that led them to arrange such a pattern. All the drawings and sketchings they made of their leaves, as well as a few fun facts about the tree it came from, could be put together to make a class encyclopedia. 

A messy lesson plan I found online that I thought would be enlightening was making your own landfill. Though it's a project that is done over quite a while (6 weeks) if you left it over December break (or had jars that you had started weeks before), it could be done. I think that not only would All About Trash be fun and interesting to watch, but seeing the exact process of what happens after we throw the trash out may give students an understanding about why recyling is important. 

All About Trash by Dawn Gilbert

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/3637

*Image credit http://farm1.static.flickr.com/31/61114776_66062dcac8.jpg?v=0

What do you see as your role as a teacher?

As a child I loved school; the playground, my friends, the little yellow cartons of milk--all of it. My parents believed that a good education was the best gift they could ever give me and worked hard to do so. My mom, a kindergarten teacher, found the perfect school for me and my father, a salesman, schooled me in classic rock on our 45 minute drive to it each morning. The small size of my school allowed for a close relationship with my teachers which I treasured. The teachers were interested, caring adults who wanted us to be happy.

As I started 4^th grade things changed. My dad was in and out of hospitals; hooked up to IV's and machines, in a wheelchair with a halo on his head. All of the equipment terrified me, but my mom showed me how to decorate the bars of his halo with Chanukah lights and he was still my dad. My parents were always truthful with me about what was happening, but school was a different story. My teachers knew what was going on, but never said a word to me about it; 'school should be her happy place, let's keep the sadness out' was their unspoken agreement. But you can't keep the sadness out when it's part of a child's daily life. April of my 5^th grade year my father died unexpectedly. When I went back to school everyone pretended as though nothing had happened; they didn't want to upset me. I remember wishing I could tell my teachers what I was feeling, but stopping myself because I didn't want to make them sad too. If one teacher had given me permission to cry, or if one classmate had understood the tightness in my throat, I think that I would have been able to let it out and then move onto the school work at hand but, as it was, I just sat in class wondering how everyone else managed to be so happy. I learned then that school was where you were free to express your feelings-- unless your feelings were sad, or could upset others, or make them uncomfortable.

Life went on for my mother and me and, though it was never easy, it was ours and we had each other. The day before I started 8^th grade we moved to South Carolina. After a year in a local private school there that just didn't fit, my mom and step-father reluctantly put me in public school where they feared that, instead of being 'Jillian: an individual', I would be just one more in a sea of faces struggling to stay afloat. And it's true; high school was a different world which I found restricting, impersonal and lonely.

Christmas of my senior year my mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. My step-dad was a wreck, and I knew I couldn't handle things alone, so I told one of my teachers what was happening. When I started Leslie's AP English class the previous August I had hated it; had hated her. But Leslie saw something in me that she thought was worth the hassle and refused to give up. I resisted, but over time began to trust her. So one day, with too many thoughts swirling around in my head, I went and told her everything; what was happening to my mom, how I was scared and numb and confused, but knew I couldn't let it show because I needed to be strong for her. Leslie didn't pity me, didn't treat me differently than she did anyone else, just made sure that I knew she was there to talk to. Even though I didn't take her up on her offer, just knowing that someone was there and that they knew what I was going through made it easier to breathe. Early that February my mom died. When I started back at school it was Deja vu: people avoided my eyes, spoke only of cheerful things, and never let the conversation lull for fear that I might bring up the exact topics they were so carefully tip-toeing around. Everyone but Leslie, that is. Leslie looked me square in the eye and hugged me, then just sat there and rubbed my back as I cried for the first time. She ended class early everyday that week and just talked to me. Whenever I had bad-dead-mom-days, Leslie could tell and always offered to talk, even after I graduated; my first semester of college she called or e-mailed at least once a week to make sure I was okay. Leslie taught me the difference between what it means to teach, and what it means to be a Teacher.

Now that I am on the road to becoming an educator, the classes that most interest me are those that focus on the student as an individual rather than as a learning receptacle. Some say that I'm following in my mothers' footsteps, but I think (and hope) I'm leaving my own. My life has led me to all kinds of experiences with all kinds of teachers, and I've been given the gift to decide who I want to be. My goal in life is to be happy, and if I can do for one student what Leslie did for me, I know that I will be.

*Image Via Postsecret