Monthly Archives: March 2023

Do Maps Tell Us Stories About Places and Spaces?

Hi everyone!

This week’s class session on the importance of geography was truly enlightening for me. Prior to last night, when I thought of the term “geography”, the environment and land structures was all that came to mind. However, now I know that geography encompasses much more than that. It allows for us to study the connections between people, places, and their surroundings.

We also had the privilege of taking an in-depth look at John Smith’s Map and having the opportunity to create our own. Our introduction world map activity was significantly eye-opening for me. It brought to my attention the glaring fact that I have lost a majority of geographical knowledge over the years. Did you have a similar experience?

Personally, I recall using selective maps throughout my elementary instruction, but I struggle to remember what specific lessons they were utilized for. Therefore, my questions for you are: were maps included in your K-12 experience? Did your thoughts on the importance of maps evolve throughout our class session? Lastly, what do you think are the most engaging ways to include maps in lessons across all subjects?

I also attached a link that provides some great resources discussing activities that involve maps: https://serc.carleton.edu/k12/maps.html

I am looking forward to hearing your responses!

-Mimi Bainbridge

Getting The Most Out of School Trips

Hello Class! 

After our trip on the walking tour, I was filled with many ideas on what to create my blog post on. I kept coming back to an idea I shared during dinner about going on field trips as a young student, but never learning as much as I did on our visit. I have lived in the Richmond Area for most of my life and did not know most of the information shared on our trip. After leaving our field trip, I had learned more about the city I live closest to than ever before.

My question is how do we make field trips impactful for students? How or what can we do to design field trips that leave students feeling engaged, interested, and educated on the subject of the trip? 

Here are a couple of links on the benefits of field trips and how to optimize a trip:

National Education Association: https://www.neamb.com/work-life/how-field-trips-boost-students-lifelong-success#:~:text=%E2%80%9CToday’s%20students%20are%20visual%20learners,to%20worlds%20outside%20their%20own.%E2%80%9D

Education Week: https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-response-field-trips-are-powerful-learning-experiences/2016/12

These sites provide some insight into the importance of field trips and ways in which to increase the benefits of these field trips. But what can we do to make their field trip as impactful as our walking tour? How can we as educators get students intrigued by the location of the field trip and the content surrounding said trip? What are some options for making sure that students stay engaged throughout the trip? 

I’m excited to see your responses! Thanks! 

– Emma Holcombe

Teaching Hard History

Hi everyone!

Today’s class session has definitely got me thinking more about how to go about teaching hard history in my own future classroom. Honestly, teaching history has been the topic I am most worried about teaching my future students, as I do not feel that my own history lessons were adequate growing up. I am feeling much more prepared to tackle these topics, especially in K-2 classrooms. The quiz we took at the beginning of class was a wake up call to how much I did NOT learn in school when I was younger.

I found another excellent resource that has more focus on lessons discussing slavery for younger students: https://www.learningforjustice.org/frameworks/teaching-hard-history/american-slavery/k-5-framework

However, the question I am still stuck on is how to teach hard history if you are working in a state or school district that either wants you to not tell the whole truth, such as only focusing on the ‘good’ parts, or does not incorporate it in the younger grade curriculum at all?  What if your personal beliefs on what you should be teaching about hard history topics do not align with the curriculum of the school you work in?

My second question is, what other hard history topics are there that we should be teaching about? I would like to hear from fellow classmates as to what topics you believe will be challenging to teach.

Our class session yesterday was extremely informative, but I still feel like I have a long way to go to further educate myself on the topic of slavery, especially in Virginia. As future teachers, how should we go about getting this further education, specifically focusing on delving deeper into topics? What should we be expected to do to learn more about a topic? I feel like there is so much to know and understand about history and I want to make sure that I can teach my future students the truth and avoid the seven key problems that we spoke about in class when it comes to teaching slavery in America.

Thank you for reading! I am looking forward to seeing everyone’s responses. I hope everyone learned something new today like I did! I also hope that we can continue these hard and difficult conversations throughout the remainder of our class, because they are extremely valuable and needed.

Best,

Halle

 

Teaching and Tackling Hard History

Hello everyone!

After this class, I definitely feel more prepared to take on hard history! However, there are still a lot of things to think about before creating those interesting lesson plans. My blog post will not be filled with a lot of resources and links (we got a great selection during class today!), but it will have plenty of questions!

My first question, is what are your initial thoughts and ideas on integrating diverse perspectives into instruction when teaching hard history? At the beginning of his thoughts today, Dr. Ayers emphasized starting your teaching with the undeniable facts and working outwards towards more complex understandings. What do you think about this idea? Would you use anecdotes, examples, and imaginings to humanize and contextualize? Would you focus on setting history in motion? How would you emphasize the complexities of the practice of slavery? Let me know!

There’s also the question (aka elephant in the room) of statistics. Most people dread the idea of memorizing a list of statistics and numbers. However, what if there’s a different way to view using statistics in the classroom? Making patterns, connections, and building historical empathy are all parts of the world of statistics. How would you integrate statistics and data literacy in your classroom without being overwhelming and ineffective? Visualization? Personal connections? I’m curious!

I hope you guys learned something new today!

Ashley

Types of Assessments: Which is Best?

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