Category Archives: Student Post

Do Maps Tell Us Stories About Places and Spaces?

Posted on March 29, 2023 by | 12 comments

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

12 Comments

Posted in Student Post

Getting The Most Out of School Trips

Posted on March 23, 2023 by | 12 comments

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

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Teaching Hard History

Posted on March 15, 2023 by | 13 comments

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

 

13 Comments

Posted in Student Post, Things to Think About

Teaching and Tackling Hard History

Posted on March 14, 2023 by | 13 comments

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

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Posted in Student Post, Things to Think About

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

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Primary Sources: Privacy and Integrity

Posted on February 9, 2023 by | 13 comments

Salut mes amis,

Last class was enlightening for me in more ways than one. I had no idea that Richmond had a rare book/archives collection (an extensive one at that!) It was incredible to take a peek into the lives of strangers decades, even centuries after these documents were written.  At the same time, I was very conscious of the fact that I was reading letters that were likely never meant to be read by any other parties aside from the writer and the intended recipient.

Put yourself in their shoes: imagine someone reading your diary entries from when you were a kid or your text messages, it’s a bit (or a lot) mortifying to think about. If we apply this to our classrooms, do you think that it is ethical to have students read and analyze personal primary sources?  Is the historical significance and opportunity to gain knowledge too great? Maybe a bit of both?

Some of the readings from this week addressed the idea of adapting primary sources to make them more suitable for students, whether it be for grammatical reasons, changing the syntax, or making the vocabulary more age appropriate. In the Tampering with History: Adapting Primary Sources for Struggling Readers reading from this week, the authors “urge teachers to tamper with history.” They also acknowledge that many people vehemently condemn this idea and believe that it “cheapens the past.” Historians often talk about how vital reading and interpreting primary texts from the past are for our current understanding of historical figures and events. Do you think any of the integrity or benefits are lost when we alter primary sources?

I look forward to hearing from you all,

Jordann

13 Comments

Posted in Student Post, Things to Think About

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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

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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

Historical Fact or Fiction?

Posted on January 26, 2023 by | 15 comments

Greetings fellow classmates,

Whew! I don’t know about all of you, but my mind has been spinning ever since our Tuesday night class. There’s so much to reflect upon when it comes to learning how to teach elementary history and social studies topics, and I’ve found myself contemplating the best ways to integrate language arts in a cross-curricular fashion to get students interested in reading and learning about the past. 

To add some personal context, I’m forty-something years old and my elementary school years were in the eighties. (And yes, my younger friends, it was as fantastic as you’ve heard!) But from what I remember about learning history as a child, I found it boring. Painful. The subject to endure. History was taught from a textbook only. There were no supplementary materials. And I hated it. However, I loved to read . . . but only fiction. English was my favorite subject, and all subjects were taught separately and distinctly. 

That brings me to the following central teaching question that I’d like you all to ponder: Should we as educators use historical fiction to help teach our elementary students history? Or, will this blending of genres impede a child’s ability to discern fact from fiction? Should we avoid historical fiction until a certain grade/age level or introduce it as early as possible to potentially help students (like a younger me) become more engaged in learning about the past? 

I’ve compiled a few varying viewpoints on the teaching and learning of history through historical fiction below: 

I’ll reserve my own thoughts and opinions until the rest of you have had a chance to read, reflect, and respond. Happy Thursday!

I remain,

Your sincere

friend

Sue Annely 

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Posted in Student Post, Things to Think About