Exciting Internet Resources for Social Studies

Three internet resources I have found to be very resourceful are:

www.microsoftencarta.com
www.discoveryeducation.com
www.nationalarchives.com

The first one I pay for myself and have kept my subscription for over five years now because of it’s valuable resources. It rarely fails me when I am searching for information or interesting facts. Also, it’s better than wikipedia since the information is from a trusted source.

Discovery Education is a site the Petersburg School District subscribes to. At the start page, it always has a “this day in history” blurb about something that has happened in the past. It is loaded with videos (mostly from PBS and other educational channels) that I can present in class, or post small clips from onto Moodle, where students can view them and answer questions. This is especially helpful with all the students that travel for extracurricular activities.

The National Archives is great for fact checking and finding. I don’t use it as much as the other two sources.

I highly recommend a subscription to Microsoft Encarta for those in the Social Studies field. If you have an overhead in your classroom or an online class site like Moodle, I recommend Discovery Education as well.

Philosophy Reflection

Writing and putting together my video presentation was an interesting process. Things that I thought would go smoothly didn't, and things that I thought would be difficult, weren't. Three things that I found worked well were:

• Already having a stockpile of pictures and video I had been taking since the beginning of the semester
• Asking students for tips on iMovie
• Having the tools necessary to make this project

Four things I found difficult were:

• Having to listen to my presentation and addressing all the horrible mistakes (lots of "ums").
• The amount of time it took to put it together
• Having to submit it without it being perfect because I had so many other obligations
• Going through the pictures and realizing I won't have my wonderful students forever. My mentor teacher is going to have to wrestle them back from me

If I could change some things about my video, they would be:

• To have set aside more time
• To tighten the narration to match the images better
• To have more images
• To have a better introduction and conclusion
  

Something that I thought was going to be difficult, and turned out not to be, was finding my philosophy of education. "What the heck is my philosophy of education?" I kept asking myself. When I set that thought aside to cool, I started watching video footage from my class and reviewing pictures. I found my philosophy right there in the documentation.

Overall, projects like this one are fun for my students. From now on, if they do have to something like this assignment, I'm going to make sure there is enough class time for them to get the help and support they need.

Energy Conservation Project Reflection

Oops! I thought I had done this one!

The most challenging issue I had with the energy conservation project was recording myself. I felt like the first day of student teaching. When I went back and reviewed myself, I found myself saying "um" A LOT! I also noticed I avoided looking directly at the camera and instead kept my eyes safely pointed towards the screen. This shouldn't have been a problem since I came in on a Sunday to record it in private.

For the actual project, I was amazed at how much money I spent on fountain sodas and how much paper waste I accumulated because of my soda addiction. I used to also get a latte every morning but I have switched to tea to save money and paper. When I made this switch I had to deal with headaches (which I used to never get) that finally went away after about a week. Can latte withdrawals cause that?

I did try to get the convenience store to carry re-usable cups to sell, but I got a not-so-polite "yeah, right!"

Overall, it was an eye-opening experience that has influenced my routine.

Philosophy of Education iMovie

Starting my Philosophy of Education movie was not easy. I wasn't too sure what my exact philosophy was until I went back and started reviewing video clips and pictures I had taken over the last few months. I was surprised to find my philosophy right there in iPhoto!

It was fun compiling the pictures and video clips of my wonderful students. They continue to be the highlight of this school year and it is nice to know I will always have these images/memories of them to look back on after we have gone separate ways.

The only part of this project that made me want to throw my laptop out the window occured during recording. Getting my sentences to match up with the images was not an easy process...my blood pressure is going back up just thinking about it.

I hope you enjoy my presentation (sorry it's blurry, it loaded that way).

Orchestrating the Media College

Orchestrating the Media College by Jason Ohler highlighted what I have been experiencing in Mr. Engell’s tech savvy history classes. My mentor teacher’s classes are almost all internet or technology related and he decided that it would be best for me to follow in his footsteps since technology is the future. Although I find it frustrating at times, I am incredibly thankful for this experience. The whole article by Ohler made sense to me since it can be directly applied to my classroom. If I had to take two statements from it that really stood out, they would be:

1) “As student participation goes public, the pressure to produce high-quality work increases.”

and

2) “I have witnessed more digital art taught by computer-savvy teachers than by art teachers.”

Having students post documents to googledocs and collaborating on projects raises the quality of the work immensely. It does cause additional stress to the student but in the end, their grade is higher because of it. It also gives them a chance to help each other out and correct mistakes that might have gone unnoticed.

The second statement also caught my attention because of something my mentor teacher keeps telling me. He says that he never thought of himself as an artistic person until he started embracing technology (mostly videography). It is a medium in which he can express himself and help students to learn. Technology is a tool that students want to use to learn.

One major problem that I have had with students using technology is keeping them on task. Having a laptop with internet makes it easy for them to end up doing something other than paying attention to the work. However, this is not the fault of the technology, it is a behavior problem that would probably be manifested as something else if the laptop wasn’t there (ex. note passing, doodling…).

Overall, these are exciting times to be a teacher!

Energy Conservation Project Finale

I finally built up the nerve to record myself presenting my powerpoint presentation. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be but I still sound and look nervous. I felt like how I did the first week of student teaching. I'm relieved I am no longer that way in front of the students.

I had to record it a couple of times because I caught my self saying "um" a lot.

Thank Gawds that is over with. On to the next project!

Energy Conservation Project, Cont.

For my energy project, I gathered information on how much soda I drank, how much waste I was responsible for, and how much money I spent on it. To view my presentation, click here.

After looking over the numbers I gathered for this project, I became rather disturbed over the amount of waste I was responsible for and the amount of money I was spending on a beverage I drank only for pleasure.

I've permanently switched to a reusable cup and have cut back on the amount of soda I purchase. Hopefully, over time my routine will be broken and I will no longer purchase a daily fountain soda. To see the data I collected, click here.