Introduction

Welcome!

Hi, and welcome to my Social Studies blog.

My name is Julia Roberts, and I am a preservice teacher at Memorial University of Newfoundland. I will be publishing new blog posts as I come across interesting or relevant information for the course. Check back regularly for interesting links or my personal thoughts about topics from our class. 

This blog is being used as an online journal for Education 3962. 

Memorial Students vs Geography

January 16, 2013

What's wrong with this picture?

Of course the continents are mixed up, but the larger issue here is the lack of global citizenship. Memorial students can't grasp concepts outside of their own continent, maybe not even outside of their own province.

[Click here for the CBC article and video]

This topic sparked a lot of emotion during our discussion in class, and while I agree that maybe some of the "globally aware" students weren't being interviewed in the CBC video, our class was missing the larger point of the discussion.

It is our responsibility as preservice teachers (and soon to be interns) to own up to these issues and take it upon ourselves to fix them. We need to avoid getting defensive when offered some constructive criticism (yelling, getting red in the face, totally shutting down) and practice respectful listening. How are we supposed to get respect from our students if we can't give respect when learning about the areas where we have problems? Sometimes you just need to swallow your pride, accept the things you don't know as well as you thought, and make up for it!

This class was more than us bickering and whining, it was our opportunity to learn all about the "real world" issues that we should be thinking about as future educators, especially social studies teachers.

Guerrilla Geography Day

February 8, 2013

One of our Social Studies terms that we have been discussing is thematic. February 7th was Guerilla Geography Day on twitter with the theme of gender representation. It is amazing how many things we turn a blind eye to everyday. We're very used to hearing about the "big bad media" and the evil magazine covers, but you don't have to look any further than your own street to find serious gender issues...

I could go on and on about this topic, but I think the most important things is to keep a critical eye.  We should be aware of what is going on around us and not passively accept things at face value. Respect and value should be shown for all members of society, regardless of age, gender, race, or class. 

Quizzes and Twitter and Critical Thinking, oh my!!

February 10, 2013

We had a discussion about Twitter today which got me thinking about using Twitter as a sense of citizenship - as students? as preservice teachers? as members of a 3962 community? forming connections? staying current?

Which lead to thinking about critical thinking:

critical thinking - class discussion about sept 11, disasters, our place in the world, being prepared

When students are taught using a substantive concept of education as the guide to the design of instruction, they learn to initiate, analyze, and evaluate their own thinking and the thinking of others (within all the content areas they study). Doing so, they come to act more reasonably and effectively in every part of life. They are able to do this because they have acquired intellectual tools and intellectual standards essential to sound reasoning and personal and professional judgment. Self-assessment becomes an integral part of their lives. They are able to master content in diverse disciplines. They become proficient readers, writers, speakers, and listeners. They use their learning to raise the quality of their lives and the lives of others. They become reasonable and fairminded persons capable of empathizing with views with which they disagree and disagreeing with views uncritically accepted by those around them. They are able to use their reasoning skills to contribute to their own emotional life and transform their desires and motivations accordingly. They come to think, feel, and act effectively and with integrity.

CriticalThinking.org

What Globes Really Taught Me...

February 13, 2010

Globes - More accurate, better and more accurate information 

Critical Thinking - Helps get the full picture, unbiased, well-rounded discussions

~

Maps - Distorted views, self-centred  

Passive Thinking - Unchallenged acceptance, distorted views

Everything is connected in Social Studies

Teacher Resources

February 10, 2013

I will update this page as we continue to discuss additional resources in our ED3962 class.

Padlet (formerly Wallwisher)
Create an online collage of text or images on your own "wall"

Live Binders
Organize your resources in an online binder

Google Earth
Download required

iPad resources available from the App Store
- App Store provides an entire section devoted to education apps

Google Teacher Academy
How to get involved in becoming a Google certified teacher


Poll Everywhere
Create instant polls to use in a lesson with internet access

QR Codes
Create QR codes to use with technology in a lesson 

Twitterfall
Create a timeline or story using a classroom twitter account

Smarttech
A website with SmartBoard resources for educators with emphasis on student collaboration.

Everything is Connected

February 19, 2013

Finally understanding all of these "crumbs" that are being conveniently mentioned...

Writing the midterm diagnosis paper has really opened my eyes to the larger concepts of Social Studies.  Collaborating with my colleague, Sarah Kikuchi, has been one of the most rewarding experiences of this semester so far.  We finally began to understand the level of connectedness Social Studies really has.

The idea of teachers being the centre of the classroom has never been more wrong. We are moving from teachers handing information to students to teachers becoming co-learners in the classroom.

Respect, Connection, Citizenship, Relevance...Finally these Social Studies terms are starting to really make sense.

We are all global citizens, it's about time we contribute to this paradigm shift. 

Textbooks

March 5, 2013

When I started this course, I thought social studies was about the "stuff" you learn from outdated textbooks...

Boy, was I wrong!

It is so much more than that. It's all about keeping up with not only current issues, but current and future technologies, current interests of students, and resources, resources, resources! My head is spinning!

Critical thinking, or thinking too much?

March 6, 2013

Just a quick entry in response to two articles given out at the end of class today:

• From cocaine to incarceration (October 14, 2007)
• CBC: FBI trip led to Labrador child porn charges (March 15, 2010)

After the initial shock of reading the two articles above, I really started to think about the message. First of all, I couldn't believe that a teacher who was in jail for cocaine trafficking was prepared to go back to teaching after his almost two year jail sentence. Secondly, I felt sick to my stomach after reading about the teacher in Labrador's child porn charges. But then I took a step back and had a "Huh??" moment...

Both articles stated the profession of the men being charged with a crime, but both crimes had no connection to their current (at the time) jobs or places of work. The article about the west coast man states that Mr. Cook said "even the judge presiding over his case felt that children were not involved with the drug abuse or trafficking", and in the Labrador story, Sgt. Newell said that "the child pornography did not involve any victims from Newfoundland and Labrador". After reading this, I checked a local news website which almost always has some story dealing with drugs on the island, and I checked the main page of the Telegram website and found the following:

I found it interesting that two articles about similar crimes mention what is being investigated, but not the professions or names of the individuals involved. This may be a case of over-thinking on my part, but I think this really exemplifies the fact that teachers will always be under scrutiny in the public eye, and should always act under our legal obligations in our teaching code of ethics (NL code of ethics found here).

Teachers are role models. We always have to be aware of our choices. 

Student Centered Activities

March 8, 2013

I am amazed to see how easily you can incorporate things that can be considered "garbage" into a very meaningful lesson. At the start of this course I thought that a resource had to be something fancy or exciting. Now I know that you can have an entire class filled with activities about a single water bottle or wadded up paper ball. It's all about your perspective and willingness to get creative and do your research!

Article Discussion

March 13, 2013

A continuation on the previous articles:

We discussed the two articles in depth during our last two social studies classes. During the discussion in the first class I had my mind set that Mark Baxter White should never get his teaching license back, but kept going back on forth about whether or not Eugene Cook should get his back.

Then I read the article Action Research and Self-directed Learning: The Unconscious (and Deliberate) Work of Teachers. Specifically the section which states "The preparation of lesson...and a whole other range of pedagogical activities compel us to be self-directed...How can we not make priorities for ourselves? We actively organize and participate in our own lives - we plan for the success of our students".

This article opened my mind to see a whole other side of the story. Besides going against the NLTA code of ethics, Mr. Cook was slandering the role of a teacher by saying that he still cared deeply for his profession. As a teacher you must always show accountability, responsibility, and reliability. He abused the system and should not be allowed to take a teaching position from another potential teacher who is dedicated to the profession.

It all comes down to CHOICE.

From Article Discussion to Lesson Planning

March 15, 2013

The discussions we have been having about the two newspaper articles has given me a great idea for a connection to the social studies curriculum, and I found a great lesson plan idea from Joseph M Kirman's book, Elementary Social Studies: Creative Classroom Ideas (2008). The chapter that I found useful was titled "Studying Media Bias in Current Events with Newspapers". I thought the connection between what we have been discussing in class (feeling bad for Mr. Cook because of the tone of his article vs. Mr. White's impersonal article) could be applied into teaching my own lesson about bias and the media.

The section of the text that stood out to me was "To be human is to be biased about some things and people. Ethics demands that we do our best to prevent biases from entering where they do not belong; for example, we do not want judges to be biased, but to make their decisions based upon facts and law". This example fits perfectly into the theme of our last two classes. 

To teach this lesson in an elementary classroom, you would have to choose articles that are relevant for the intended grade level, however you can still teach the same important types of issues that we have been discussing in our own class. For example, if you start the class off with a working definition of bias, you can start a deeper discussion and create a very authentic lesson.

I think the most important thing to take away from this topic is that it is okay to have some level of bias the first time you hear about an issue because it is a natural instinct. The important thing is to be able to recognize it and be able to view an issue critically to see a number of different sides that influence an issue.

Inquiry Teaching

A quick note on the inquiry teaching approach.

Inquiry teaching is relatively new to me. I was introduced to this type of teaching for the first time this year. After reading a few articles about it, I found one passage in Kirman's text that really gave the image of a connected classroom community:

"This assumes that the value in question observed in our society is reasonable, and that it to disregard it would obviously be frowned upon. For example, failing to help an injured person would certainly be considered a values breach in Canada. This value relates to the importance of human life. Through the inquiry process, children can determine the pragmatic base upon which this value rests; that the value and importance of human life places a canopy of protection over all, and one never knows when he or she will need help". 

I found it very interesting how the description of a teaching technique used in social studies relates so closely to the themes that are a part of social studies. 

Final Thoughts

March 28, 2013

Final thoughts about the ED3962 course.

I started this course thinking I already knew what Social Studies was all about. I quickly learned that it is a topic that goes so much deeper. In this course, I was able to collaborate with my colleagues, share useful resources, and gain a new perspective about what professionalism  means for teachers.

I have updated my personal teaching philosophy to include accountability and reliability - not that it was missing before, but I feel that I now have a deeper appreciation for these qualities.

I have learned about the importance of human interaction thanks to Nayake's story, and I am able to find many more connections in my own life that I was not previously aware of.

I now feel confident to view the world through a critical eye, and I feel like I have a better grasp on the qualities that all new teachers should strive for.

I will no longer select resources to use in my classroom based on what other teachers think are "good". I understand that each resource must be relevant, applicable to outcomes, and something that can be used to motivate students instead of simply being presented to them.

I feel like I have changed from this type of teacher:

To having the potential to become this type of teacher: