Economics...AHHHHH!

ECONOMICS!
When I first saw this word I cringed, and thought to myself "UH OH, I don't know anything about this boring subject!". Boy was I wrong! I actually knew a lot about economics, and this surprised me. I hear the word and I think boring stock market, and bouncy numbers and positive and negative signs. I know that positive signs is what you want when playing the stock market, and that different investments bring in different amounts depending on how much you invest and at what share. I know that it is a good way to make money if you know what to invest in, and if you know about different companies. I remember investing in stocks in my 8th grade Social Studies class with my favorite teacher. I don't remember how my group did or how the activity was ended, and I think that this is because like a lot of things my class did we just never finished it. I wonder about my fake stocks and where I invested my money, and how my stocks did. I believe that I would use this in my classroom to teach stocks and investment and how it influences nations, communities and people. Stocks can be bought from different countries, and for different companies. If I were to buy a stock in a company in Japan that makes electronics then I have influenced Japans economy. When I buy their product in the store I have influenced Japans economy. I am demanding a product that Japan supplies. Supply and Demand influences communities that have processing plants, or factories. When the demand is up the factories need more workers which means that more people in the community will be hired which means that more money is being made by the people. The people turn around and spend their money in their community to purchase such things as food and goods. It's the circle of Life in the world we now live in.

Economics is the study of the production and consumption of goods and the transfer of wealth to produce and obtain those goods. Economics explains how people interact within markets to get what they want or accomplish certain goals.
Economics can be included in the classroom in many different ways. The students could put together their own Lemonade stand, and learn about supply and demand. I think that for an elementary classroom this is the perfect exercise for them, and the students have to purchase their supplies and market their product, as well as design their store front and sell their product.
I worked for a small business owner throughout high school and a little bit into college, and I had a first hand glance at how the local economy effected his business. When the community was doing well and the tourists were in town the play house was open and the warehouse was on a hiring frenzy the business did great! When summer ended and the tourists went home, the playhouse only opened on weekends, and the warehouse was on a hiring freeze the business did poorly. During the winter he couldn't afford to keep on to his staff so he would let go some of his workers. The rest of his workers were on strict tight schedules and this would last until the holiday season. During the holiday season things picked back up, online orders were coming in, the playhouse was opening a few more days, tourists were back for their families, and other businesses demanded his goods. He would hire back on the ones who he had to lay off, and business would be good. The struggle for the small business is to survive through the winter and emerge again in the Spring ready and open for business. This is becoming harder and harder on small business and they are closing rapidly. I worked for this man for 6 years or so, and It has been a rough ride for him. I had only ever wanted to see him succeed in his visions but I am sad to say that he may not make it through this winter. The economy in my hometown has gotten so bad that no one is able to spend money in his bakery. There have been other shops that have gone out of business recently in that town. Wal-Mart opened down the street from his bakery, and has been winning over his loyal customers, customers who have been going there since they were kids and their parents were bringing them. Wal-Mart is a big business that has had a downsizing effect on the community, although their economy may be doing well the economy of the town is suffering.
--- This is an example of how economics effects the community, and the people who live with in it.

After listening to the class explain and go over the different points of economics and how to apply these in the classroom I don't feel so overwhelmed by this! Every body who had presented put a lot of work and thought into their slides to teach the rest of the class how to use economics in the classroom. I found it helpful that there are so many different sites out on the internet that can be used to apply these ideas of economics in the classroom.

These are the economic slides that my partner and I made for our presentation about Economics influencing People, communities and Nations.

The Glogster that I created that I thought was so much fun. This helped me understand economics better and to really get a handle on it. I thought that this could be used in the classroom as a group project or individual projects. I like that it had different backgrounds but you were not stuck to those you could pick your own. It allows you to add videos and pictures! I like that it is a multimedia poster and I am sure that I will be using this program in the future.

Celebration of Learning

Today with the fifth graders we had a celebration of learning! The students were very well behaved while we taught them. The students showed each teacher patients and consideration while they were being taught. Our class didn't have any outbursts or misbehaving students, and this I am very thankful of. I enjoyed teaching and learning with this class of fifth graders, and I see very bright futures for them. These fifth graders were very bright and intelligent. They came up with some awesome ideas for their cooperation projects and they worked well together. I couldn't ask more of a classroom. We celebrated their learning with white board paddles that the students can use during a lesson to answer questions. The fifth grade teachers were excited to get these paddles, but the students faces lit up when they saw them. The class really appreciated the paddles and that was a great feeling. I am glad that I got to spend time with this class learning. These students had taught me so much, and I will use the knowledge they taught me to further my development of my teaching skills. I can say that I am very blessed to have taught such a wonderful and well behaved fifth grade class.

Jeopardy

Jeopardy in the classroom sounds a fun and engaging way to make sure the students understand and know the content that you have been teaching. It sounds like it would be a fun way to review information with students. I remember playing jeopardy in class growing up, and I remember how much fun it was. I remember learning information that I didn't learn the first time around and I remember it being engaging and fun. BUT what I don't remember is that when this game would be introduced the fighting would begin. Students would jump up and demand to be captain of the teams and the teams were never "fair". I played this is college recently and still the fights continued. The arguments of the teams not being "fair" was thrown out by different teams (the ones losing at that time). I should have remembered all of this when we decided to play this game with the fifth grade class.
   What an adventure! I am glad that we did this experiment because I now know how to handle my own class when it is time to review. I am not sure that Jeopardy is right for every classroom, and for this classroom it was not the appropriate game. This should have been clear when the class was having trouble working with certain students, but this was over looked. There would be some things that I would do differently in my next adventure of playing jeopardy in the classroom.
           FIRST I will make strict rules of the game. I will not assume that the class already knows how to play, because that was the problem we ran into. I will reiterate the rules every time this game is played so there are no questions about "fairness" of play. These rules will include ONE "leader" from each group that will speak or write their answer. This will include HOW the groups are divided up, and this will depend on the class size and how the class interacts with each other. Students will be reminded that BULLYING is not allowed, and that talking  down to any other player will be an automatic point deduction and kicked out of the game. Although, I suspect just mentioning that will discourage and end any thoughts of talking down to other players. 
              Jeopardy is a great way to review topics with students as long as the students realize that there are rules and they should and need to be followed so everyone can participate and learn. Some students learn with competition and others do not learn that way so making sure that the game is for your classroom is important before introducing the game. Students should be motivated to play the game and so offering bonus points on tests or homework is a good way to make sure that everyone participates.
   I would like to try to play Jeopardy again in the classroom but I would make sure that ground rules are laid out first and agreed upon. The students need to agree to play by these rules or they will not play by the rules and all chaos will break out.
          Playing Jeopardy with the fifth graders was an eye opener to the different types of personalities and learning styles that will be present in the classroom, and this should be taken into consideration when these types of games are designed. Although, I didn't think it was a complete waste of a day because some of the students left the game with information that they didn't know before, and that's the goal of the game. The game should be designed to go over information already gone over in the lesson, and the questions should be designed to get the students to think. I think that the questions were mixed between difficult and easy questions which there should be a range of questions of the range of learners. I do wish that the game would have allowed pictures to be added for the visual learners. I believe that I will use this game again in the classroom.

What are Artifact Bags?!??!

This week in class we have been working on artifact bags! We first got to play the role of the student and in a group we were historians! We got to research and try to figure out the Five W's (Who, What, Where, When, and Why) these items were important. We had to solve each artifact to figure out who the person was, and we did it! Together my group discovered that the person was our teacher Professor Smirnova! I really enjoyed doing this activity because it was a fun way to learn about our teacher. 

   Then...the roles changed! We became the teachers and we were told to put together an artifact bag that contained three or four artifacts , a book, a primary source and a website for our classmates to try to guess who or what we were! These artifact bags were based off of the unit plans that we taught to the fifth graders, so one person from each group met with another person from the other groups and we taught each other using our artifact bags. This was a fun way to learn about each of the groups assignment.

            BUT WHAT DID I PUT IN MY ARTIFACT BAG?!

I tried to come up with a few clues that could only belong to John Smith; as well as, clues that could have belonged to someone else. I took this approach because I wanted to challenge my fellow classmates. I chose the charter given to John Smith from England to settle in Jamestown. I choose this charter because I thought that it was a good primary source of information. I also thought that it could help my classmates figure out who but not giving it away completely. I chose a map of Virginia from the 1607’s. I chose this because I needed my classmates to know where the mystery person went. I chose tobacco and a tobacco leaf because, this was the cash crop of Virginia. I chose the family crest of John Smith, because this is something unique to John Smith. The family crest was something my classmates had to look up to figure out what it was, and what it was used for. I chose the book “The Jamestown Colony” by Gail Skaurai, because  I wanted to give my classmates some information about Jamestown. I included a few websites that I found that I thought would be helpful in their research. 

I used a website from the history channel, a website that contained a lot of history of Jamestown along with a video. 

Teaching each other these lessons was a good way for us to practice and to become more confident in teaching lessons to a class. I thought this was a creative way to teach social studies. 

IN THE CLASSROOM

This can be incorporated into any topic that you teach. It is tool that can be used to have students wear a different 'hat" while learning. They can become historians, researchers or archaeologists. 

My challenge for you is to use artifact bags to engage your students in a new aspect of learning.

Until next time

Teacher Observations.

All week in class we have been watching other groups present their lessons, and we are asked to watch these lessons and figure out what is wrong with them, and what we liked about them. Each group has grown and has expanded their lesson plans. Each group has brought something different to the table. I liked that each group presented three lesson plans, and got to teach them all. I enjoyed watching the other groups teach their lessons. I have learned so much. The students seem to be very engaged in each lesson. I think that as the groups teach the students become better at transitions because they know what the teachers expect. Each group has done something different for their inquiry and cooperative learning lessons, and I like that we get to see different ideas for each type of lesson.

    I like that our teacher gave us specific things that each one of us need to work on to become a better teacher/presenter/educator. I like that each of my peers will be sending me feedback on my groups performance. I think that this will be super helpful. I am always looking for what I have done wrong and what I can improve on.

  I think that being observed is one of the most terrifying feelings. I don't mind that my peers will be giving me feedback, because I am looking forward to this. I just don't like being watched, and I know that this is something that I will have to get over because with Ed TPA and the new certifications I will be observed quite a bit. I like that we are being taught how to handle these situations by being observed during class.

       HERE IS A CHALLENGE FOR YOU! WHEN GIVING FEEDBACK TRY GIVING SOME POSITIVE FEEDBACK, BECAUSE NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR JUST THE BAD THINGS THAT THEY HAVE DONE. SHOWING SOMEONE THEIR FLAWS IS A HARD THING TO DO,SO WHY NOT COMPLEMENT SOMETHING THAT THEY DID GOOD BEFORE YOU ASK THEM TO CHANGE ANYTHING OR SWITCH ANYTHING.

Until next Time!

Discoveries from lessons in fieldwork.

This image sums up the experience I had with teaching in front of an entire class. This was my first time teaching in front of an entire class so it was learning while I was doing. 

What did I discover about planning the lesson :

       I Enjoyed planning the lesson, but found it difficult at first. I wasn't sure where to start or how to start. I had to get information from the group before to figure out where to start my lesson at. I found it easier to write the lesson plan and the power point at the same time.

       I thought that the cooperative learning lesson was a challenge to figure out how to teach the idea that we had. I still get nervous when teaching.

I believe that over planning, and over practicing are the keys to a good lesson. My group had a few actives but we could have have more.

What did I discover about teaching the lesson:

   It was Different, and I was not use to the whole class. I have only ever had three or four kids in a group that I was teaching at one time, I enjoyed it but, I just wish I had more time to teach the lesson

   I discovered I do not project my voice enough.

 
Students and how they responded to us, expectations did they meet them or not? 

     It was not as difficult as i first imagined. The students were pretty well behaved and let us teach with out complaining. I thought that some ideas needed to be covered again because the students didn't grasp them, Society and Colony they still confuse the two.

     I thought that the class was smart and he feedback on the homework proved to our group that the students understood the Roanoke lesson. Some of the students had very good insights.

I had made Popsicle sticks to use to pick on different students, but I didn't need to use them.

- The students were eager to learn.  Although next time I would assign roles for inquiry and cooperative learning lessons.

About self : how did I perform in all aspects and in teaching in front of the classroom?

   -In the planning of the lesson plan I believe that I did well. I thought that I gave some great ideas and insights. I thought that most of my group was very informative about their information and tried to help each other out. I did learn that I need to project my voice. I also learned that I need to practice more on how to say the "harder" words, and possibly use a you tube video for the entire class to hear the word and everyone join in saying it.

About team teaching and what did I discover?

   There were lots of ideas, and I thought that we did a great job with working together.

   I thought that we helped each other with each section of the lesson plan and the power points

   We had met a few times, but wish  could have met more. Although it was difficult because not everyone live don campus and some of us worked and had classes late. It was hard to meet up but, we did it.

   It was all of our first time teaching in front of the class, and so we had no experience to go on, except group one. It was difficult to plan a lesson when we weren't sure how to go about it, but with some outside help I think that we did pretty well with the lesson plan its self.

   Working in google docs helped so even if someone couldn't make the meeting they could see what was going on and have some input. 

  We got to depended on each other to get the work done and helped if it got to be to much, or weren't sure how to do something. I liked that we were able to rely on each other, and I couldn't image having to do three lesson plans by myself in that short of a period.

Students learn differently, and it was hard to get all of their needs in one lesson. Direct, Inquiry and Cooperative learning are three different types of lesson plans but all aspects of students learning abilities can be implement in them. 

My question to you is how are you going to use everything you have learned about yourself and team teaching to make you a better teacher? 

Until next time.