Thursday, December 15, 2016
Economics Currently
In elementary school, once a week a few of my classes would receive magazines that held short news reports, interesting facts, and other factual stories that we would have time to read and talk about. Until creating a current events lesson on economics, I hadn't thought about how important those magazines and news stories were. It is vital that as teachers, as social studies teachers in particular, that we remember to involve students in what is going on in their world on a daily basis.
I created an economic current events presentation using a NewsELA article on Black Friday shopping. For the lesson, students would look at the NewsELA article, as well as articles on the economics of different stores opening earlier or closing down for Thanksgiving. I also provided a few articles on laws that were created because of Black Friday. Using all of these resources, students would be asked to decide if there were enough economic benefits to staying open on Thanksgiving as well as Black Friday, and explain their reasoning. Teaching about Black Friday would be useful when teaching economics because not only is it an event that takes place every year, students will be familiar with it, and may have family members who work in stores that remain open on Thanksgiving which may affect their standpoint. Further, Black Friday relies on so many different concepts of economics, whether it be supply and demand, advertisements and sales, or profit for the stores. All of these concepts could be addressed when the student is explaining their stance on Black Friday.
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Evaluating Interviews
Being able to experience an interview for a teaching position was a helpful exercise in that it caused me to think about questions I could be asked when looking for a teaching job, as well as gave me the opportunity to reflect on the answers I provided. Many of the questions really made me think about how to effectively answer what I was being asked while basing my answers on my experience with fieldwork and in classes. Being asked how I would handle students engaging in a physical fight was definitely a question I had not previously considered. Students fighting one another is not an unusual thing for me in that in elementary and middle school fighting occurred in my schools and classes, but I had never considered how I would handle being in the position of the teacher in such a situation.
Not only were the questions interesting to think of, it was sometimes difficult to make sure I knew how I wanted to answer before I began speaking. In a normal class setting I likely would have been able to answer the questions at least on a basic level. Because it was an interview, regardless of the fact that the "principals" were my peers, it was important to me to make sure I was answering the questions as fully as possible. I also wanted to make sure my responses were well thought out so I wouldn't be hesitating in the middle of sentences or tripping over my own words while trying to express my thoughts. It was satisfying to feel prepared in answering the questions in that I knew I was drawing from my experience for fieldwork as well as information I was taught in classes from various different semesters. Feeling relatively comfortable in giving my responses validated me in my career path because, even while I know there is nothing else I want to do in life but become a teacher, being comfortable answering questions about how I would implement different aspects of teaching in a classroom was reassuring. Being "hired" based on my interviews with the different schools at the end of the process was definitely rewarding and has provided me with a small push and renewed determination to finish out the semester as strongly as possible.
Thursday, December 1, 2016
Digging up Economics
As an educator, it is important to be constantly finding ways to engage students in new content being taught to them. One way of doing this is by using an artifact bag. I created an artifact bag that I would use to introduce the topic of economics. I included five "artifacts" that I thought each covered a different concept of economics. The items I included were US currency, a coupon, a shirt tag that said "made in India," and two QR codes that linked to the youtube videos below.
Having students work together in groups in order to determine what the next lesson could be engages students in the lesson. It allows for discussion about the items, as well as how they could be related to each other. Then, when the groups present what they believe the connection between all the items is, having them explain why they think each artifact was included shows their metacognition and helps the teacher understand their though process. Further, when teaching the lessons on economics (or whatever the artifact bag may be on), the artifacts in the bag can be used as examples for the different concepts or vocabulary they represented. In doing so, you're activating student's prior knowledge from the artifact bag lesson, and helping them make connections between vocabulary and a more concrete item.
Creating an artifact bag was not something I had previously thought about, but I now realize how useful it could be. The items within the bag could be made more or less difficult depending on the grade level of the students. While I would have used my artifact bag to introduce the lesson, there are also ways I could use the bag to review a topic as well. If I were using an artifact bag lesson at the end of a unit, I could include create multiple bags so each group had a different one, and then tailor the items in each bag to one specific concept covered in the unit. In doing so, it would help students review the concepts learned, as well as help me see if there were concepts the students did not fully understand, and therefore could not identify based on the artifact bag provided.
Having students work together in groups in order to determine what the next lesson could be engages students in the lesson. It allows for discussion about the items, as well as how they could be related to each other. Then, when the groups present what they believe the connection between all the items is, having them explain why they think each artifact was included shows their metacognition and helps the teacher understand their though process. Further, when teaching the lessons on economics (or whatever the artifact bag may be on), the artifacts in the bag can be used as examples for the different concepts or vocabulary they represented. In doing so, you're activating student's prior knowledge from the artifact bag lesson, and helping them make connections between vocabulary and a more concrete item.
Creating an artifact bag was not something I had previously thought about, but I now realize how useful it could be. The items within the bag could be made more or less difficult depending on the grade level of the students. While I would have used my artifact bag to introduce the lesson, there are also ways I could use the bag to review a topic as well. If I were using an artifact bag lesson at the end of a unit, I could include create multiple bags so each group had a different one, and then tailor the items in each bag to one specific concept covered in the unit. In doing so, it would help students review the concepts learned, as well as help me see if there were concepts the students did not fully understand, and therefore could not identify based on the artifact bag provided.
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