Cassandra's Journey through Social Studies

This NAT project was a very good way to reinforce the ideas we learned in fieldwork about how to create engaging lessons. Although it was not as in-depth as fieldwork, we still got to practice how create powerpoints and create interactive activities. One of the main things I'm learning show to condense my slides and speak from what I know rather than reading off a board. Reading off the board is very boring to students and isn't useful when you want them to remember it. To get the students involved in the lesson, by group and I found a "Just Dance" video about Lakota music for students to participate in. This way the students are up and moving and will remember the Lakota clothing by seeing the character dancing and will remember their music and dance by interacting with it. This is great to do with young students because they love to be active and many of them are really  good dancers at that age ! In one of the readings it described that to get students motiv

5 Themes of Geography  1. Location 2. Place 3. Region 4. Movement 5. Human Environment Interaction Location Absolute-specific using longitude and latitude  Relative- general area such as next to the school or down the road To  teach: give students a coordinate on the map of NY and have them find the absolute location of the place. For relative location give the students a place that they are all familiar with such as the school or supermarket and ask them to name things around there that would help someone locate it.  Place An area defined by its features that make it unique from other places. To teach: give students a list a familiar places such as the school, park, baseball field or their house and ask them to describe its features that make it unique from other places. They can discuss the windows, doors, color, nature around it, and its size.  Region An area that is defined by certain similar characteristics. Characteristics can be physical, natural, human, or cu

Making Social Studies More Exciting Use original sources and literature to teach history In-depth study of a few  important events  gives student the opportunity to understand many sides of a story Hands-on experiences add interest and meaning to lessons because students are engaged in visually and kinesthetically with hands on materials.  hands- on make lessons more meaningful especially for students who are less skilled with abstract ideas.  Study of multiple perspectives Encourage students to ask questions, collect evidence, and analyze the importance of historical people and events Make connections to students personal lives, families, and communities  local history  Acting out and role playing "What am I" activity - c reate pop-up books for important vocabulary in the social studies units you teach.  Each student can pick a term and create one page.  Have students create postcards from the culture or time period they are studying.  Teach what you ar

Today in class we presented our artifact bags to each other. My bag included:   a bullet moctezuma's headdress metal armor  stone weapons  My bag was meant to represent the Spanish conquistadors and the Aztecs fighting.  Kristen's bag included: a sword  armor a horse a cross Kristen's bag was meant to represent the Spanish conquistadors.  The other group represented Christopher Columbus in their bags. I thought Michaela's artifacts were really creative. She went out of her way to to go to the flee market to get these artifacts. She had a pilgrim, a compass, a picture of a boat, and the Italian flag . I also liked how Alexis's presentation was very engaging. She had us guess what the artifacts are going to be about based on the pictures on her bag. Rachel and Kim had a can of corn and cinnamon sugar to represent the items that were brought over during the columbian exchange. I thought this activity was very engaging and fun! I h

Things historians do: interpret events, importance, accuracy and identify facts examine records to understand facts History students should be able to: think chronologically understand historical events analyze historical documents conduct historical research Artifact Bag Article   Students make own meaning based on experiences and grow through interactions with other students turn and talk is essential in lessons instigate motivational opportunities: bright colors literacy and social studies allows students to connect 2 disciplines technology allows students to test reading skills in other areas analyze how each artifact connects to another and builds on each other students react and confer and make personal connections to artifacts multi-genre project ties together different writing styles- select different genres to present their information primary sources bring emotional aspect to readers- no purpose just writing for the facts experience is more meanin

This week group 4 taught the fifth graders, and it felt good to finally not have the pressure of teaching. I thought this group did an amazing job and they were all very enthusiastic. I liked how they reviewed with the students the previous lesson, which was our lesson. I was very happy to see that the students knew the answer which meant that my group did a good job teaching . Group 4 had many effective techniques they used to get the students quiet. The one I enjoyed the most was "hands on your head if your can hear me, finger on your nose if you can hear me," I thought it was a good way to get the students attention without talking over them. Their cooperative learning lesson was very engaging and fun for the students. I liked how they had a teacher working together with a group to keep them on track and answer any questions the students had. I like how before the students presented they reviewed important ideas when presenting and how to act as an audience. The prese