Category Archives: Class Reflection

Teaching Economics in Elementary

Posted on April 6, 2023 by | 19 comments

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

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Posted in Class Reflection

Types of Assessments: Which is Best?

Posted on March 1, 2023 by | 12 comments

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

12 Comments

Posted in Class Reflection

Including Out-of-Classroom Experiences into Teaching

Posted on February 22, 2023 by | 15 comments

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

15 Comments

Posted in Class Reflection

Detailed Lesson Planning: Effective or not? Should teachers be required to turn their plans in for approval?

Posted on February 15, 2023 by | 14 comments

Hello Class! 

This week’s class session was both informative and interesting. I’m not sure about all of you, but I thought watching a teacher conduct a lesson was extremely helpful as it provided me with various ideas and strategies. Adapting a complete lesson plan helped me to better understand how to utilize the most efficient resources and apply my time management skills to my lessons. 

Through my additional research, I learned that many administrators and principals require teachers to turn in their lesson plans to be reviewed. Furthermore, there has been much controversy over whether or not lesson plans are even effective or necessary. Whereas some teachers create step-by-step daily lesson plans, other teachers refrain from planning a detailed lesson and instead think on the spot. Many professionals believe that teachers who write up detailed lesson plans, instead of jotting down notes and briefly planning, are failing to focus on the big picture of the content they’re teaching. 

I have linked articles for you all to explore: 

1) How to move out of the day-by-day lesson planning trap and think big picture https://truthforteachers.com/truth-for-teachers-podcast/day-by-day-lesson-planning-trap/

2) It’s Time to Stop Requiring Lesson Plan Submission https://www.weareteachers.com/stop-requiring-lesson-plans/

3) Why Lesson Plan?
https://www.chalk.com/introduction-to-lesson-planning/why-lesson-plan/

What do you think? I want to hear how effective you think lesson plans are and if you believe teachers should be required to turn them in for approval or not. Do you envision yourself making a detailed lesson plan for each lesson you teach, or do you think that’s unrealistic? Are principles too focused on the lesson plan write up instead of the ways in which teachers actually teach the content? 

I’m certainly torn about these ideas and I’m really looking forward to hearing everyone’s perspectives! 

-Christina Caluori



14 Comments

Posted in Class Reflection, Student Post, Things to Think About

Segregation, A Thing of the Past?

Posted on February 9, 2023 by | 13 comments

Hello class!

This weeks class session was especially interesting to me, due to the many different and extremely rare primary sources we were allowed to look at. Once the vastness of the archives were explained to us I knew that I probably would need to focus much of my time on specific sections based on my interest. The first section I spent the largest amount of time in was the Wyatt Tee Walker Collection. Through looking at this collection I came across many different extremely graphic images, some of people being attacked by dogs, sprayed by hoses, and even people being assaulted in peaceful sit-ins. These images were extremely moving to me, but what was even more moving were the articles and journal correspondences I was able to read during my time with the collection. As a young black man growing up I always felt that there was so much more to African American history in America, things in which I was never told or taught growing up. This collection gave so much insight into many things I have been dying to learn about during my young adult life. One thing that especially stood out to me was Wyatt Tee Walker’s integral part in the formation of the SCLC, in that he founded it with Martin Luther Kind Jr. He even lended considerable aid in organizing The March on Washington.

After spending a large amount of my time in the Wyatt Tee Walker collection, I decided to move to the section in which the class was warned about due to the insensitive language and bigoted ideals throughout the documents, in this section proposed by a former congressman (I cannot remember his name for the life of me). I went to this collection without truly knowing what to expect to see but if I had any expectations they would have been blown out the water. Through peering at the documents within this collection I noticed a trend that most of them were private correspondences about upholding the institutions of segregation. This congressman and his constituents were extremely concerned with the possibility of desegregating schools, and allowing schools to educate people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds aside from white. This congressman’s constituents were so adamant that the “problem” of segregation be stopped that I ran across quite a few letters mentioning the composition of militias to fight against desegregation, many of which called for this congressman to be the leader of their militia. But this was not all that surprising to me as I read it, what was most surprising to me was the passage and execution of the Pupil Placement Act within Virginia.

https://www.commentary.org/articles/ralph-smith/the-souths-pupil-placement-lawsnewest-weapon-against-integration/ 

Upon further research of this law I realized this was not something which was just executed in Virginia but in many of the states throughout the country, mostly within the south, who did not agree with the integration of public schools. The Pupil Placement Act was drafted and written into law to directly oppose the federal mandates to desegregate schools, and it did this by actively slowing or in some cases completely halting the integration process within their respective states. States would accept the smallest fraction of black students into their schools to seemingly appease the federal government, but they truly were doing everything they could to stop progress towards the desegregation of schools. Some states or districts decided to just completely close down schools when they were told they needed to be desegregated and other districts even created scholarship like programs for white students to go to private schools to get away from new black students in desegregated schools.

Through learning about the many different strategies people of the past used stifle desegregation efforts it made me think about an event I heard about recently, like two weeks ago from one of my best friends from high school. He plays football at Delta State University, a division II school in Mississippi. Throughout his time there he has told me about many different and scary incursions he has had with extremely bigoted people during his time in Mississippi. The other day he told me that some schools in Cleveland county Mississippi were still segregated until August of 2017. Through looking at the documents during class and keeping these events in mind it made me wonder how any school over 60 years after the passage of Brown vs. Board of Education could continue to perpetuate segregation. More info can be found at these websites:

https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2019/07/15/school-desegregation-consolidation-cleveland-ms-district-consolidation-presidential-politics/1714756001/ 

https://www.cnn.com/2017/03/14/us/cleveland-mississippi-school-desegregation-settlement/index.html

My question to you all, is what do you think? How do you think a school district could uphold segregation for this long? Have you heard about this? If so, how? If not, why do you think?

13 Comments

Posted in Class Reflection, Student Post

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Does your knowledge match up?

Posted on February 2, 2023 by | 15 comments

Hey guys, happy Thursday!

I have been doing some hard reflection since the last class, and my reflection hovers around what we don’t learn in school. I remember vividly the paragraph on Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycotts and how the movement initiated from her actions. I never knew the surrounding history – the year and a half of discontent surrounding the actions of the city and the buses and the threats of boycott. I was left wondering what else I did not learn from major events that surrounded major events.

I have been conducting my own research now, and one topic that has recently come to my mind is voting; I have seen signs go up around my community recently for the state senate vote. I think back on my education and I have to thank Susan B. Anthony for my ability to vote in these elections and all others, but I was curious to see if I was maybe missing some information.

Apparently, there were two suffragist groups fighting for voting rights for women – one was the National Women Suffrage Association (NWSA), formed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, and the other was the American Women Suffrage Association (AWSA), formed by Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson (teachinghistory.org). I never learned the names of Lucy Stone or Julia Ward Howe, or Thomas Wentworth Higginson! These two groups also supplied different tactics to earn the right to vote for women. NWSA went straight for petitioning the US House and US Senate to earn the right to vote, whereas the AWSA aimed to get local and city governments to approve the right to vote for women to eventually get support for the nation to earn the right.

Additionally, I learned that the suffrage movement started and ended with Susan B. Anthony – because of her work, white women across the United States had earned the right to vote. While it is true that she was a major figurehead of the suffrage movement, she passed away almost 15 years before the country had added the 19th amendment to the Constitution!

Tennessee’s ratification of the 19th Amendment, 1920.

We missed so many other men and women suffragists who worked hard to ensure white women had the right to vote, so why do we only learn about Susan B. Anthony? Why don’t we learn that suffragists held the first picket recorded on White House grounds in 1917, and they conduct this picket for THREE YEARS, six days a week, to earn the right to vote? They were called the ‘Silent Sentinels’ because they would never speak at their picket, they would let their banners speak for them – I mean, how cool is that?

It is so amazing to continue to learn as we move on in our class, our programs, and just in general, but I think should be taken as an important reminder that we may not learn all of the information that we need to get an idea of the whole event. As we become teachers, this will remain important as we try to help our students become historians. Also, I think everyone should take a moment (when (and if!) you have free time) to explore the teachinghistory.org website; it does give great lesson plans, as Drs. Stohr and Bland had said and it has awesome background information and primary sources to look at and learn more information from. All of the images and facts I used tonight originated from teachinghistory.org, and lead me to this website: https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/woman-suffrage#background

Lexie

15 Comments

Posted in Class Reflection, Student Post

Class Reflection/Rosa Parks

Posted on February 2, 2023 by | 14 comments

Our reading this week from the Richmond’s Unhealed History book, chapters 7-9 was interesting through the different graphs and maps showing how Richmond has changed over the years.  These three chapters were once again filled with difficult reading.  The treatment of individuals because of the color of their skin was clear during this time period and is still evident in our society today.  One case and point that comes to mind is the National Football League (NFL), where very few African Americans hold the position of Head Coach.  In 2021, 71 percent of the players in the NFL were people of color, according to NFL.com.  Situations like this happen every day with little corrective actions taking place to move above this injustice.  I mentioned the NFL because of the upcoming Super Bowl and all the attention on that game.      

This week we had an opportunity to work in separate groups in class to discuss the Rosa Parks Montgomery Bus Boycott in more detail.  We reviewed documents that covered the boycott event as well as other documents leading up to the event.  These documents included the police arrest warrant, seating chart of the bus, a letter to the Mayor of Montgomery, and an insert of a history textbook passage.  The class were also allowed to review the letter to the Mayor of Montgomery through the eyes of students, teachers, and as a historian.

 It was also interesting to learn information concerning the bus boycott that my school did not provide such as the planning of the boycott as early as May 1954.  I was under the impression that the boycott all started with Rosa Parks and the bus situation in December 1955.  It was also mentioned that other towns had also gone through similar situations that Montgomery was going through concerning their buses.   

 Thank you, class, for reading my post,

Milton 

 

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Posted in Class Reflection, Student Post

Single-Sex Schooling and Gender/Sexual Identities: How Do We Support LGBTQIA+ Students During Development?

Posted on April 14, 2022 by | 6 comments

Hello all,

For our very last blog post of the semester, I thought we would be able to take the time to do some reflection and see what that looks like in the field of Psychology. For my child development class, I have been working on a toolkit for the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities, in partnership with the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement. This toolkit will include evidence based-recommendations for teachers to access during their teaching careers in order to achieve what this class has been working to achieve: as much inclusion and support as possible.

In the last couple of Child Development classes, we have carefully read empirical and anecdotal articles about single-sex schooling and the effects, or non-effects, it has on student performance and sense of belonging, to name a couple, as well as how single-sex schooling may not be backed by scientific evidence to conclude that single-sex structure improves student academic achievement.

Along the way, we reviewed how psychologically, mentally, and emotionally challenging it might be for students who do not conform to cisgender, heteronormative identities. The LGBTQIA+ community will tend to feel less of a sense of belonging, and the single-sex structure and heteronormativity may discount and devalue their identities, which is very detrimental to children and young adolescents’ development.

Dr. Hunt discussed how some Republican senators are pushing to pass a bill that bans LGBTQIA+ instruction in the form of literature/texts, videos/documentaries, and such. This is very disheartening for many reasons. Recently, I have thought about teaching in Nashville, where I am closer to an environment of interest and some family. I, myself, also identify as a gay cisgender male. So, to hear about what has been happening in Florida and in Tennessee with the “Don’t Say Gay” bill and the banning of LGBTQIA+-supportive instruction gives a little sense of hopelessness for those with political power and disappointment that our careers are in the hands of white men in power.

Read one or both of the articles below, and let me know what your thoughts are about everything that has been discussed and anything that you want to bring in from the class.

Thank you guys, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Luis

6 Comments

Posted in Class Reflection, Holidays, Student Post, Things to Think About

To Kneel or Not to Kneel, That is the Question

Posted on April 7, 2022 by | 8 comments

Composite image - Kneeling football player with American flag background

My Digital Toolbox for this class is focused on Second Grade and specifically the American Symbols.  

VDOE SOL Civics Unit: 

2.13 The student will understand the symbols and traditional practices that honor and foster patriotism in the United States of America by

  1. a) explaining the meaning behind symbols such as the American flag, bald eagle, Washington Monument, and Statue of Liberty; and
  2. b) learning the words and meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance

Prior to last week’s homework assignment, I had not fully considered how controversial certain symbols like the Statue of Liberty could be.  As a child, I was taught to respect the various symbols of the United States including the Statue of Liberty, Pledge of Allegiance, American Flag and the National Anthem.  In 2016, I was shocked to see sports figure, Colin Kaepernick,  kneel in protest at the beginning of a football game as the National Anthem played. To me, the Anthem was always a beautiful symbol of hope, courage, freedom, liberty, and community. I never stopped to consider that may not be the case for all. 

How should we as educators address this potentially controversial issue in the classroom? Are we able to separate our personal feelings and opinions and simply teach the content standards, or should we attempt to inform, enlighten and educate our young learners that not everyone is treated the same in our country and why that might be?  Should we go the next step and try to explain the controversy? 

I found the following brief article relevant and informative. The article provides context and discusses both the Pros and Cons of kneeling. I would love to hear your thoughts on the topic and how it pertains to social studies education for our children. 

Also, take a look at this longer article providing a bit more background.

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Posted in Class Reflection, Things to Think About

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The January 2021 Attack on the Capitol, Where We Are Now, and How We Can Prepare Our Students In a Divided Nation

Posted on April 3, 2022 by | 6 comments

On January 6th 2021, a mob attacked the U.S Capitol and left the nation puzzled, frightened, angry and shocked. Social studies educators put their lesson plans on pause and addressed the fear and confusion many students experienced.  Civics and social studies education is a topic that has been fresh since the election and everything that’s happened since. There is so much going on in just our nation alone; a pandemic, economic hardship, the fight for social justice, teacher walk-outs, BLM protests, police brutality, our role in the war in Ukraine and countless other things. Our job right now as educators in this divided nation is a hard one.

I found an article that really spoke to all of those hardships and emotions students are facing and how we can help them think critically and try to understand what’s going on in the world. The article, titled “A More Perfect Union: Social Studies Educators Tell How To Get There”,  encourages teachers to instruct students to verify facts, decipher between fact and opinion, and learn about media literacy in a world of false information. The article talks about the importance of not squandering debate, but encouraging healthy and constructive debates in the classroom that build community instead of further dividing us. One skill the article discusses that America desperately needs to teach our youth is learning to listen to one another. The article stresses how education is only part of the solution, not a solution itself:

“We can’t play the blame game of laying it at the feet of education,” Tyson said, “because this is a historical multi-pronged problem that is also rooted in anti-blackness and systemic racism. It’s rooted in the ways people feel disenfranchised and are finding themselves becoming more economically fragile. Two pandemics grip this nation and the world: COVID-19 and racism.”

The article uses this quote to encourage us to teach our students to work together, listen to each other, and have those conversations with our students about civics and social studies to prepare them for the future. We must be open about evaluating sources, thinking critically, discussing our viewpoints, and reaching a consensus of community.

There was a lot from this article I didn’t include so please take the time to read it. It felt very relevant to our predicament as social studies teachers in our world today. What was one big take away from the article that really resided with you? How can we foster community in our classrooms when discussing difficult political and civic topics? How has education failed students in the past and how can we do better?

(PS. I hope everyone had a great weekend! Please forgive me for my late blog post, I had my scheduled days confused. Thank you for understanding and I will see everyone in class!)

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Posted in Class Reflection, Things to Think About

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