Hello Fellow Classmates,

As I write this blog post, I have to admit even though I enjoy math, studying economics is not the most exciting topic to me but after our class on Tuesday, I now see how wrong I was! I never imagined that our economics lesson would include reading diary entries and studying artwork. I liked that we began the class with a turn-and-talk on the core economic principles, then moved into the decision making model and important ideas including key vocabulary to provide to students. This class helped me to understand the importance of preparing an interactive lesson and providing students with an opportunity to experience economics in different ways. Such as Dr. Bland telling us about a grocery shopping experience with her daughter when she was learning about opportunity cost in school.  Throughout history we see the importance of economics and our students will need to know these principles to function as good citizens.  As we saw in class, economics touches all parts of our lives, so we have to ensure our students are getting the foundation needed to reach their full potential. It seems we are now moving to a more cashless system for buying and selling goods. How do you think this will affect our society and how do we prepare our students for this? Here’s an interactive link from PBS kids that may be helpful with economic learning:  Cyberchase . Topics . Money | PBS KIDS

Our activity of reviewing primary source documents of Ephraim Coleman, an ordinary 68-year-old man who kept a diary was fun and comparing different sections of the diary to get insight into his daily life over the period of a year was interesting.  This is another great way to have students look for economic principles in everyday life.  I especially liked utilizing the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) to help with researching an important person in American history, although I did find it hard to think of just questions without stopping to discuss, so I was tapped once 😊 by Dr. Bland. I would never think to teach a history lesson in this manner, it was an “aha” moment for me. At the beginning of the semester, I really saw history as just facts and figures to learn, which is how I was taught history in school. We did not have any interactive activities to make history exploratory, exciting, and wanting to dive deeper to learn more. I don’t remember hearing about economics until high school and it wasn’t a study of it, but essentially just a definition to learn so this has been eye-opening to me. In our slides for this week’s class, Drs. Stohr and Bland have provided great links on teaching economics in elementary education. One in particular, the Virginia Council on Economic Education, provides entire lesson plans for interactive teaching of economics to elementary students. I reviewed a few of them and will keep as a resource for lesson planning. I now understand how important it is to start economic education early. Here’s a couple of links I hope will help you regarding this: yl_220304.pdf (socialstudies.org) ;  Economics For Kids And Teenagers | PBS LearningMedia

So, my final questions are: for this week’s class, did you have an “aha” moment? If so what was it? Also, do you remember when you were taught about economics in school? What was your experience? Any other thoughts on this session? It really was a lot of fun with economics and it is always so helpful to me to hear your thoughts; I get a better perspective on what we’ve learned. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Thanks, Tera

Good afternoon class!

I loved that we got to listen to Ms. Creech at the beginning of class and that she was so kind to come to visit us on campus. Afterward, we covered different types of assessments and that’s when my brain really got thinking. I was fascinated by all the different ways in which students can be assessed because, for the majority of my high school experience, I was assessed via group projects or multiple choice/matching tests. The only time I experienced variance of assessment was for my AP 2D Design class where we had to create a portfolio to turn in to College Board.

Because I had only experienced a portfolio-style assessment once in my life, I was most intrigued by it. Here are some resources I looked through in order to become more familiar with the topic:

a. The Purpose of Building a Portfolio Assessment (thoughtco.com)

b. 17.7: How can portfolios be used for assessment? – Social Sci LibreTexts

c. Student Portfolios as an Assessment Tool | Education World

Some key points I gathered from these sources were:

1. Portfolio assessments are very subjective in nature. Even if the teacher utilizes a rubric, the individualized nature of a portfolio makes it difficult to remain objective and stick to the rubric. In order to avoid this, teachers need to make sure they are checking their biases and getting second opinions if needed. – link a
2. There are showcase portfolios (ones that “display the candidate’s depth of knowledge and is a compilation of successfully completed work” (King 2008)) and formative portfolios (“illustrates a student’s learning processes over time and demonstrates growth” (King 2008)). – link b
3. It also is important that you allow students a choice what is placed in their portfolios. You might have a few specific pieces you require, but permit students to include two or three pieces of their own choosing. – link c

Not only did these different assessments make me reflect on my own experiences, but they also made me think about which techniques would be best for me to use in my classroom. Given what we have learned in class, which type of assessment do you see yourself using? Why? Would you change assessment types based on the subject you’d teach? How many different assessment types do you see yourself using at any given time? Which techniques can you not see yourself using? Why?

I look forward to reading your responses!

Warmest Regards,

Carstyn K

Hi Class!

I’m not sure about you all, but I have so many thoughts about our trip to the Valentine Museum yesterday! I absolutely loved how the museum was set up by themes rather than a timeline. This made me feel like I was able to fully explore all the different depths of history rather than memorize a timeline of past historical events.

At the end of class, I shared about how one of the artifacts that stood out to me was the rolling pin that was used during the Civil War to break into stores and steal food. This was due to inflation, which made it difficult for people to afford food at higher prices. I was struck by the thought of hundreds of people breaking into stores, using everyday items to smash windows and steal food for survival. I wondered about how a simple object like that was such a huge part of history, and I would not have known about it if we wouldn’t have gone to the museum. I want to know more about the artifacts that intrigued you most! What were they, and is there one thing in the museum you wish you could have gotten to observe more?

I also started to think about how I would incorporate something like this experience into my own teaching and why it is important for students to have their own experience with historical exhibits like the ones we saw together. I would love to take my students on a field trip to a museum in order for them to experience history from a different perspective. When students are given the opportunity to leave the classroom, they are excited about a new “adventure” and will be more engaged in what they are observing. Students will also have an opportunity to become more familiar with physical, primary sources that allow for a different type of learning. I can definitely relate to this because I feel more connected through experiences and visuals than I do through reading textbooks. That being said, I plan on trying to incorporate at least one field trip devoted to history into my school year.

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/liven-up-museum-field-trip-stacey-goodman

Above is a website that lists different strategies to get students actively involved while at a museum. Some of the strategies are too old for elementary school ages, however, many of them are adaptable to use in grades K-5 with guidance from chaperones, teachers, and adults working in the museums. I was intrigued by the idea of having groups of students go on a guided scavenger hunt throughout a museum. This would allow students to think of the trip in a more adventurous way while still learning about important historical events. They most likely won’t even realize they are learning! What strategies do you see yourself using if you were to take your class on a field trip to a museum?

I look forward to reading your responses!

-Alexa