My game plan has slightly changed over the course of the last few weeks. For example, I am planning on teaching my students how to use Windows Movie Maker in the up and coming week and having the students use this program to explain the differences between Greece's democracy and one other type of government. The other type of government will be picked by the students and approved by me the teacher. They will then find or make pictures/movies that describe these types of governments and compare it to democracy. They will finish the project by telling the pros and cons of each type of government and present their project to the class.
For the second quarter project, there has not been a whole lot of change in my project except for the fact that my principal has warned me to be very careful with this topic since we have a large Islamic population in our school and all of the problems that are arising currently. I have yet to change anything in this project.
For the third quarter (Black Death), I am planning on spending more time on how the plague broke out compared to the human response since this focuses more on our standard. This is the only change so far in the third quarter project.
For the fourth quarter project (Age of exploration), I am planning on doing an example project on Christopher Columbus as an example. The reason why is because he is a great example and he is the easiest person to research. This will ensure that all students are challenged and are working hard.
Since I have started to research these projects, I am very excited to start these projects with my students and I hope they will be as excited as I am. My principal seems to think that the students will get a lot out of these projects and is excited for me. Lastly, I am very happy that these projects were given as an assignment in the class because if they were not, I would have never done this.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Sunday, October 2, 2011
How far I have come
My game plan is to incorporate real world problems into my world history class. I am planning on having one real world problem per quarter.
First quarter - Greece's/Rome's government - compare other countries' governments along with Americas. What governments work and which ones do not. My concerns are that for Greece's government and Rome's government project has lack of direction. This can cause students to become lost and have many problems. I am planning on starting this project in the next three weeks.
Second quarter - Crusades - Fixing the problems in the Middle East. My administrators have mentioned to me that this might be a touchy subject since our school has a high number of Islamic people in our building, and because of problems with the Christian population in our building. I feel this project can show that this problem can be worked out with the right resources.
Third quarter - Black Death - CDC zombie apocalypse response http://www.bt.cdc.gov/socialmedia/zombies_blog.asp. My administrator had mixed feelings about this project. I might have to try something else. Zombies currently have a huge following, and I feel that the students will see how people in society react to certain outbreaks of plagues. I know as soon as our administrators see the outcome, they will like this project.
Fourth quarter - Age of exploration - How should people/countries interact with indigenous people of a region. There are a ton of accounts of the affects of people intermingling with indigenous people throughout history. I feel that the students will enjoy this project.
Overall, I am finding a good amount of resources for my projects and seems to be moving forward at a good pace. Our school has a lot of technology and the students, for the most part, seem to understand how to use it. I have not really modified my action plan yet, but I can see myself changing it in the near future. My main concern is the amount of time that these projects will take since because of our curriculum. I hope I can get these projects in and still hit all of the standards/indicators this year.
First quarter - Greece's/Rome's government - compare other countries' governments along with Americas. What governments work and which ones do not. My concerns are that for Greece's government and Rome's government project has lack of direction. This can cause students to become lost and have many problems. I am planning on starting this project in the next three weeks.
Second quarter - Crusades - Fixing the problems in the Middle East. My administrators have mentioned to me that this might be a touchy subject since our school has a high number of Islamic people in our building, and because of problems with the Christian population in our building. I feel this project can show that this problem can be worked out with the right resources.
Third quarter - Black Death - CDC zombie apocalypse response http://www.bt.cdc.gov/socialmedia/zombies_blog.asp. My administrator had mixed feelings about this project. I might have to try something else. Zombies currently have a huge following, and I feel that the students will see how people in society react to certain outbreaks of plagues. I know as soon as our administrators see the outcome, they will like this project.
Fourth quarter - Age of exploration - How should people/countries interact with indigenous people of a region. There are a ton of accounts of the affects of people intermingling with indigenous people throughout history. I feel that the students will enjoy this project.
Overall, I am finding a good amount of resources for my projects and seems to be moving forward at a good pace. Our school has a lot of technology and the students, for the most part, seem to understand how to use it. I have not really modified my action plan yet, but I can see myself changing it in the near future. My main concern is the amount of time that these projects will take since because of our curriculum. I hope I can get these projects in and still hit all of the standards/indicators this year.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Game Plan
If you take a minute to look at my game plan, you will see that I deal with real world problems. One of my problems has to do with the Middle East and maps. The materials that I will need to accomplish these goals is current news papers, since Palestine is currently trying to get statehood from the U.N. and the internet. I would also like to use Google maps so students can see the different areas we will be talking about.
I have started to save different articles about Palestine and Statehood along with a discussion with our principal. He told me that this project is a good idea but I need to be careful because of the large amount of Middle Eastern students in our classroom. I am very excited to see what the students will come up with in completing this project.
I have started to save different articles about Palestine and Statehood along with a discussion with our principal. He told me that this project is a good idea but I need to be careful because of the large amount of Middle Eastern students in our classroom. I am very excited to see what the students will come up with in completing this project.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Week 2
I teach seventh grade Social Studies in Ohio. The large majority of the standards that I teach have to do with world history. The NETS standards and indictors help teachers teach twenty-first century skills to their students. They show teachers the expectations of the twenty-first century.
One of the indicators that I am planning on working on is in the first standard "Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity. The indicator is "engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources." The way I am going to teach this to my students is by having one activity per quarter that has to do with a real world problem. One example of a project we will be doing this year is when we go over the crusades. After we discuss the Crusades in my classroom, we will talk about the problems that are currently going on the Middle East (Israel). Then have the students use a program like Google maps and/or other visualization tools to let the students attempt to make new laws/boarders for the Middle East. At the end of each project, I will have the student evaluate me and the project to see what I can do to make the projects better.
The other standard that I am planning to work on is standard four "Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility" indicator one "advocate, model, and teach, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources." The way I am going to do this in my classroom is at the beginning of the year, I am going to have a short unit with our Language Arts teacher about plagiarism and the use of reputable resources online. This lesson we have come up with is used to show the students a handful of websites that have factual information and fake websites. We will go through these websites with the students and point out how to decide if the website is reliable or not. The students will then spend a day in the lab doing a webquest, looking at different websites and deciding on their own if the website is reliable or not. A webquest is a website that walks students through an activity in an organized format (Cennamo, Ross Ertmer 2009). The webquest will walk the students through a handful of questions, such as: "Who is responsible for the information of the resource, when was the information published and why is the resource published?"We will also be spending about a week in the library with the librarian showing the students how to cite different material they find in books and websites. The way that I will be evaluating myself to see if I hit this standard/indicator well is by checking throughout the year to see if students are citing their projects correctly and using websites that are reputable.
References
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
One of the indicators that I am planning on working on is in the first standard "Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity. The indicator is "engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources." The way I am going to teach this to my students is by having one activity per quarter that has to do with a real world problem. One example of a project we will be doing this year is when we go over the crusades. After we discuss the Crusades in my classroom, we will talk about the problems that are currently going on the Middle East (Israel). Then have the students use a program like Google maps and/or other visualization tools to let the students attempt to make new laws/boarders for the Middle East. At the end of each project, I will have the student evaluate me and the project to see what I can do to make the projects better.
The other standard that I am planning to work on is standard four "Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility" indicator one "advocate, model, and teach, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources." The way I am going to do this in my classroom is at the beginning of the year, I am going to have a short unit with our Language Arts teacher about plagiarism and the use of reputable resources online. This lesson we have come up with is used to show the students a handful of websites that have factual information and fake websites. We will go through these websites with the students and point out how to decide if the website is reliable or not. The students will then spend a day in the lab doing a webquest, looking at different websites and deciding on their own if the website is reliable or not. A webquest is a website that walks students through an activity in an organized format (Cennamo, Ross Ertmer 2009). The webquest will walk the students through a handful of questions, such as: "Who is responsible for the information of the resource, when was the information published and why is the resource published?"We will also be spending about a week in the library with the librarian showing the students how to cite different material they find in books and websites. The way that I will be evaluating myself to see if I hit this standard/indicator well is by checking throughout the year to see if students are citing their projects correctly and using websites that are reputable.
References
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
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