Fact, Question, Response (FQR)

I liked the comprehension strategy that we studied in class last week.  I think that it is very important to teach comprehension strategies to students, especially for content area reading.  Students sometimes find content area reading boring, and they may read it without comprehending the material.  FQR is a great strategy to get students to think about what they are reading and to get them to respond to it.  I know that sometimes when I would read textbooks, I would read it and not remember anything about what I read.  I wish I had known about FQR then so that I could have gotten more out of my reading.  FQR is a wonderful strategy, and I plan to use it in my own classroom.

Social Studies Book Talk

I enjoyed the book talks that we did in class last week. I learned about so many books that would be great to use in my classroom, and I feel that literature is a great way to integrate Social Studies into the Language Arts curriculum.  I also feel that the book talk is a great tool to use in the classroom.  I think that having students read a piece of literature and then promote it to the rest of the class is a great idea.  I think this would interest other students in the books more than the teacher making suggestions.  It seems to me that children take the opinions of their peers more seriously than those of the teacher.  I feel like this would be an excellent way to promote reading for enjoyment and entertainment.

My Social Studies Classroom

I want to use fun and innovative techniques to teach Social Studies.  I plan to use a combination of group work, class discussions, and performance based projects.  I feel like Social Studies is essential for students, and I hope to spark their interest in the subject.  I want my students to learn about the many different types of people.  I want my classroom to be a safe place where students will feel that they are all equal and can express their beliefs without fear of persecution. 

            Diversity is a major part of the Social Studies curriculum, and I definitely want to teach it in a way that fosters positive feelings toward diverse cultures.  I want my students to be ready to be a part of the global community, and the only way that they will be able to participate in that community is to have a knowledge about other cultures.  I am very excited about entering the classroom, and I hope that I will have the opportunity to have diverse students.  I am sure that I will be able to learn from them and increase my knowledge about different cultures.  I know that there is still much that I have to learn about other cultures, but I am willing to research in order to be a culturally knowledgeable educator.        

Story Path

We began story path on Monday in my Social Studies class.  This is a great activity to use in the Elementary classroom.  Students create their own characters and actively participate in problem solving.  I think that is also a great way to integrate subjects.  Students can participate in reading and writing activities while they are working on a Social Studies project.  Story path also incorporates art into the classroom.  Students have to create the landscape where their story path is taking place.  I feel like story path is a way to engage all students.  There is something that all students could find to enjoy about story path.  I hope to be able to use this activity in my classroom to help make my Social Studies classes fun and interesting.

Pumpkin Globes

In my field placement last week, the second grade classes made a very interesting craft.  All of the second graders brought in a pumpkin, and they painted them blue.  They then colored a map of the continents.  They colored each continent a different color.  They then cut out each continent and taped them to the pumpkin.  They had to place each continent in its general vicinity on the globe.  I feel like this was a great project that helped the students better understand where the continents are located in relation to one another.  I would definitely consider doing this activity in my own classroom.

Geocaching

I really enjoyed it when we were introduced to geocaching in class.  It is a very valuable tool for use in the classroom.  It could be very helpful when teaching students the concepts of latitude and longitude.  It is a fun and exciting way to teach the concept.  The students would be fully engaged while searching for the geocaches, and they would be learning how to use a GPS device.  I also liked the idea of sending out a key chain and keeping track of where it goes.  I think that this would be very exciting to the students.  I feel like they would come in and want to check the sight daily to see the progress of the key chain.  It would also be possible for teachers to set up geocaches on the school campus strictly for educational purposes.  Geocaching is a very interesting activity, and I think that it would be very beneficial in the classroom.  I also think I would enjoy looking for a geocache.