Who Better to Embrace Hstory With then Ben Franklin!

Surprisingly while sitting in class collaborating as a group, a visitors comes in! The best part about the visit was it was no other then Ben Franklin!! Wow! Who would have thought Ben Franklin would have been in our classroom! He might have not been the real Ben Franklin, but he sure was close enough to being REAL! As adults we don't realize how imagination, make believe, and dress up can change the atmosphere! It really can. There is so much to learn in social studies and it doesn't have to be based on memorization, and facts. History is still so real and alive and we can make it EXCITING!! When Ben Franklin (the actor) walked in he brightened the room and changed the atmosphere. The class became more relaxed, excited, and engaged! What I learned from this experience is that simple things can come a long way when teaching to students. If you make history fun and worthwhile, students will be engaged and most importantly learn. They can connect more meaning to history when exposed to real life events and when they are engaged.

Evaluating, Collaborating, and Presenting Oh My!

What better way to explain and show a presentation then through the use of a PowerPoint! Today in class each group had to present their book evaluations. My group had the difficult task of using three social studies books (teacher edition, student book, and student workbook), which were not connected to each other in any way. But of course my fabulous team members were able to pull it together, evaluate, and form a very creative PowerPoint presentation!! Having Dr. Smirnova as a professor in the past, we knew we had to create a presentation that was colorful, capturing, engaging, and interactive! This is exactly what we did! As a team we decided to each split up the books and evaluate individually. After we each evaluated, we brought ideas together and discussed our findings using google documents. Using google documents we were able to collaborate and create a PowerPoint presentation to present to the class. When it came time for our presentation we were very proud of our work, and I believe also informative on our findings. The one wish we did give ourselves was practice. Are presentation could have been better if we would have rehearsed what we were going to say before we actually did our presentation. Overall our presentation went well, and once again collaboration PROVES to be very ESSENTIAL but most importanly SUCCESSFUL!!!

Let the Social Studies Class Begin....

Week 2 of class we began to work and collaborate in groups. Our task given was to research, and look through the social studies teacher edition book, student book, and student workbook. As we went through each of the books, we were to follow a checklist. As a group we were to agree whether the content in the books fit the social studies standards, and was the content fit for the grade the books recommended. Our group's task was a little difficult to complete, since we didn't have the matching teacher's edition book and student book. We gave it our best and overcame the challenge to complete our task the best way possible! At the end of our research, as a group we had to put a PowerPoint together to discuss our findings to the rest of the class. We have yet to present, but I am pretty confident our group's presentation will be done very well! :)

T-Shirt Time!!

First project of the semester was given, and boy did it turn into a great success. Not only was this another tool Dr. Smirnova used to break the ice for the class, but it allowed us to get to know each other a little better. It's amazing how we have something in common, which is the passion for teaching, but at the same time are still so very diverse and unique in our own ways! All the t-shirts were great!! It was a very fun activity and I really enjoyed seeing all the t-shirts! Good Job Everyone!! This is a great hands on getting to know you activity I would consider using in my own classroom one day!

Ohhh Social Studies Test....

So as a task and to see where we stood on social studies, Dr. Smirnova decided to gives us a 19 question social studies test. The test consisted of multiple choice questions, reasoning, explaining, and social studies concepts. Entering the test I thought, how bad could it be, BUT  boy was I wrong! The multiple choice wasn't bad, but when it came down to explaining the importance and ideas behind the questions, that's when it became a challenge. What I realized was I did know basic social studies facts and concepts, but what I really need to work on is becoming more familiar with the reasoning behind them. I really hope I can learn some of these during my journey in social studies class. I hope to grasp more knowledge on history, and learn strategies that I can use to help remember them!

Breaking the Ice.....

Having Dr. Smironova in the past, I know one thing she likes to do is break the ice with her students. She is very huge on team work and collaboration! There are many times throughout the semester we will spend time working in groups, sharing ideas, and completing task or projects. On our first day of class she divided us in groups. She had us introduce ourselves and share a little about ourselves. As we finished becoming familiar with one another, she then gave us the task of introducing our group to the rest of the class. I think this is an excellent thing she does to the start of her class. This really helps break the shyness, and allows people to become more comfortable with one another! So when we do have to present individually or as a group it makes it a lot easier. Instead of feeling like your speaking to strangers in a class, you actually feel like you are speaking to classmates you actually know!

So Many Resources Oh My!

First day of class so many resources were made known to us! Thanks to Dr. Smironova we were able to learn so many resources in the educational library. It's really comforting to know we have so much available right at our fingertips. The most valuable resource I found in the library was the teacher book, and student workbooks. Those can be very helpful when working on lesson plans. Kidsinspiration was a wonderful tool the librarian taught us. It's very fun and interactive and a great tool to utilize to engage students in lessons! Its also easily accessible for us to use, since it is on every computer in the educational library. Best thing about it.... it's free of charge! :)