What will you be caught doing on Facebook?

Media plays a significant role in everyone's life today. We get news fast about things that are going on around the nation through the television, internet, radio etc. We can be connected to people around the world and celebrities through Facebook and Twitter. A lot of information about people can be viewed on their facebook or twitter. Sometimes people can get in trouble with what they put on their social networking site. We all have heard about the teacher who got fired because she had a picture of herself drinking a glass of wine and her students saw it.
Because Media is so instantaneous and it is so easy to connect with people all over the world, we are able to see how one country affects the nation. Our nation no longer sees each country as an individual nation but as a whole nation that affect one another. As a nation we are more together than we used to be because we are all connected and we all receive the same news. When 9/11 happened in New York City, everyone around the world knew and everyone was able to discuss the implications of the attack and were able to mourn for America. If other countries had received the news really late it might not have been as catastrophic as it was viewing it that same day as more and more information kept appearing. It seemed like everyone around the world was tuned in to see what was going to happen to the towers and the people in those towers. Countries rallied around America when we were in such turmoil as a nation.Support was very encouraging for our nation in that troubling time.
Much of the news now is negative so sometimes we can stereotype things and people negatively because of the way the news is portrayed to us. Because our news is instantaneous, sometimes we make our decisions faster and we are able to make more informed decisions because we get our news faster and more detailed.The news used to be more for adults, but now there is news that is written for children so that they can understand what is going on in the world. More and more, we are trying to get children to learn about the nation as a whole and make decisions about what they think about issues.

Students have learned to believe that we are all citizens in the world and need to be respective of other nations. We as a country are going away from egocentric feelings about our country to caring more about the nation as a whole. By being culturally diverse and celebrating these different cultures children are able to see how our country is a part of a much bigger nation.

Students today have a much more accurate portrayal and perception of the world today than what they had years ago because they receive news from all over the world and are also introduced to many different cultures all over the world. Students are also working together to take care of the environment because they realize that everything they do affects the nation as a whole. Overall, Students are much more knowledgeable about the nation than they used to be.

How Children Learn!

     When thinking about how children learn, I immediatly think about how different and unique each child is. Because each child is unique and different, they all learn in different ways. Some children are auditory learners while others are visual learners. Some students like to do things with their hands and are considered kinesthetic learners.Sometimes as a teacher it is hard to teach to every student in their preffered learning style but it is very important to make an effort to do this to help students succeed. There are many different issues that can be thought about when thinking about how children learn. Some of these issues are interest, motivation, activity, exploration, and collaboration.

   As a future social studies teacher, it is important that I make sure the materials I am teaching the students are interesting to them. This might mean letting students have a little more choice and freedom about a topic. If students are younger, you can give them a list of topics they can choose from so that they still have some kind of choice about what they are learning. It is important to get the parents involved so that they know what their child is doing and can also help them get information. The students will draw a picture illustrating something they learned or enjoyed about their topic and then talk to the class about their findings. This way individual learning is left to the student and they are not just reading straight from a textbook and answering questions. It is also important that students stay motivated and as a teacher I need to make sure that students stay aroused and their attention is captured. I am going to make sure I have an interesting beginning to a lesson such as, state an interesting social studies fact to grab their attention. I can also use extrinsic motivators to help students become even more motivated. Another issue that is important is the activity. It is important that I make sure the instructions to my activities are very clear and concise for easy comprehension from the students. I need to be a facilitator of knowledge who moves around the room giving assistance if it is needed, ask questions to make sure students comprehend, maintain order,and reassure students. It is important that I foster students learning and not just tell them the answers in the activity.One more issue is exploration. As a social studies teacher it is important for me to let my students explore the community, state, and nation. By letting students explore, I am making the subject more real and exciting to them. I can take students to museums where they can actually see the history of the state or world.  It is important that I let my students figure out what they believe and feel about certain issues as a part of exploration. The final issue that influences childrens learning is collaboration. This is a very important issue because social/moral growth depends on the ability to engage with other students, share decisions, be a part of something, and give them more strength then simply doing things on their own. Collaboration and team building provides students with a real life experience of a democratic community.

   All of these issues influence my Social Studies teaching. It is important that I make sure all of these issues are developed in a way to give my students the best possible learning experience. I believe by taking part in these issues, students will have a very good social studies knowledge that will come from many things instead of just textbooks.

My thoughts on Social Studies and the literacy connection!

    In all of the education classes I am taking this semester, I have begun to realize how much my education lacked as far as a challenging education that makes me want to learn more about a particular subject. I feel that if my teachers had given me more problem solving or more direct experiences, I might have like particular subjects better. I really don't remember any of my social studies learning coming from outside a text book. This is pretty sad considering I have already learned about all of the direct and vicarious experiences you can have in social studies from reading this chapter. I didn't even feel like there was a lot of discussion in my social studies classes either. I remember some group activities but in many of the groups only one person did most of the work. I wish I had more time to read for pleasure because reading is very important in social studies as it takes you to different places and students are able to explore a different language. I also would've never thought about a journal being used for social studies but like I read, it encourages metacognition (thinking reflectively).I really only thought journals were used during communication skills. I can see how this would be good after talking about complicated world issues like students often do in Social studies. I am upset that I never had the chance to do this especially because I am a person who likes to write their thoughts down.
      As a future social studies teacher, I would like to have a lot of discussion in my classroom. I would like to divide students into groups and then have them talk about an issue and then this way they are forming their own opinion instead of just giving me my answer back to me on a test. I believe after the group discussions individually students can write in a journal to further reflect on their thoughts and make sure they are their thoughts and not just someone elses in the group. It is important for me as a teacher to bring in literature books that supplement the textbook. An example of this is reading Number the Stars or excerpts from it when talking about World War II. I am upset that I didn't have a strong foundation in social studies, so I am going to see to it that my students have a stronger foundation building upon all of these activities.

Reactions to the Edu 358 class!

I am thoroughly excited for this class. I am really excited that Dr. Duncan is allowing us to choose 50% of our grade because that means I have more control over my grade. I also really like the activities we get to choose from. I really like blogging so I know I will enjoy this part of the 50%. I also am excited to do the current events part so that I am made to pay attention to the news. I think everyone should stay current on what is going on in the world. Another part I am excited about is the museum, because this is just an opportunity for me to go and get graded on such a fun experience. We have such a wonderful museum right down the road from where I live. I have to admit that I might have been a little overwhelmed when I found out all of the things I had to do because I have a million other things I have to do being a senior. I just always worry about getting my work done on time and then I always manage to get it done. I'm trying not to worry as much this semester though and realize that I will get everything done. I just can't do everything all at once. I was also a little anxious about the midterm and knowing where all the states and capitals are because I know that I struggle with geography. I didn't really have much geography in school and it seems like we mainly needed to know about North Carolina. Other than a couple of anxieties, I am really excited for this class and know it will be great!
My goals as a learner of social studies are to learn more about geography and also how to teach my students better. I have always liked history and learning about different cultures so I believe I will really enjoy this class. I hope I will gain enough knowledge to be able to effectively teach social studies to my students. I am very excited for this class and think it will be very beneficial knowledge for my elementary classroom!

Changes over the semester from my learning and experiences in Introduction to Language Arts!!

Wow!! The semester is basically over, and I am moving on to my senior year. That is very hard to believe, exciting and sad at the same time. It feels like just yesterday I pulled up to Meredith college and unloaded my stuff into the freshman dorm. I have learned a lot in these three years that I will take with me into my future. I can't wait to see what my senior year brings. This semester I have grown not only in my studies but also as a person. I have become a lot less anxious than I used to be and more independent. I have really learned a lot from my courses especially my introduction to language arts class!

One thing I realized was that there are six language arts which I never knew before. I never really thought talking and listening were a part of language arts learning. I never really considered them to be and I believe many of my previous teachers did not either because it didn't seem like many of my teachers allowed me to freely speak in class. I also learned about different types of reading which I was able to view in my classroom observation when Mrs. Smith read aloud to the children. I also learned about reading and writing workshops which I was able to observe as well. If my teachers had allowed me to participate in reading and writing workshops, I would've probably liked school more. It was wonderful to see how enthused students were when participating in these workshops and to see how enthused Mrs. Smith was about them when I asked her in the interview. I really believe Powell elementary is doing the right thing by having those children participate in reading and writing workshops because I could tell students were benefitting from them. I know in the future I will implement reading and writing workshops in the classroom because I have seen the benefit from them and I am intrigued by the independent learning that is going on in these workshops. I also learned about the different types of listening and all about phonemes, grapheme, and morphemes which I had never heard about in my life before this class! I also really enjoyed learning about the different stages of spelling, which I know will come in handy when looking at future papers written by students.

I really loved the fact that almost everything I learned about in class I was observing. I believe that really engrained the mateial into my head. I learned so much about writing workshops because almost every time I went to observe that is what I saw. I was so excited to get in the classroom and witness the writing workshop taking place because I knew what was going on within them. In the interview I felt really knowledgable talking to Mrs. Smith about the writing workshops because of what I learned in class. During a reading workshop I observed in Mrs. Smith's class, a little girl was reading and using sticky notes to mark the main idea of the book and other things. I remember learning that students did this in the reading workshop while they were reading. So many things I learned from class I was able to observe in the classroom which reinforced what I learned in class.

The final project in Introduction to language arts helped me learn more about the writing process. I learned about the different steps in the writing process but also practiced each step when I was writing my book. I really enjoyed writing the book, because it gave me a chance to share my story of my life in elementary, middle, high school and college. I was able to be creative in organizing my text and pictures the way I wanted to. I believe this would be a wonderful project for students to take part in because they are able to apply the steps in the writing process and be creative.

Overall, I believe I have learned a lot from my introduction to language arts class this semester. There are many things I am going to do in my classroom such as literature circles and reading and writing workshops. I can't believe this semester is coming to a close, but I can proudly say  have worked hard and learned a lot from my classes and my self. Now its time for summer and preparation for my senior year!!!

The impact of my field experiences on my course learning....

I have really enjoyed my observations/field experiences of the classroom. They have definitely impacted my learning for the course. The observations have helped improve my learning of language arts in the K-6

classroom. I was able to learn about reading and writing workshops in class and then go to the school and actually get to experience these strategies for language arts instruction in the actual classroom. I was able to see the benefits and happy faces of the students that were taking part in the reading and writing workshops.

I was pleased to see that this method of teaching language arts was very beneficial for the students. Mrs. Smith even told me that student testing had improved when they implemented reading and writing workshops into their curriculum. Most of the times when I went to observe, there were few discipline problems and I could tell students were interested in the reading and writing workshops. I think it is great that students can choose what they want to read and that they have a lot of free time during the day to write. I have truly fallen in love with the children in Mrs. Smith's classroom, and they made my experience even more enjoyable. I loved listening to their comments to Mrs. Smith's minilessons and how creative they were with their stories they wrote in their writing workshop.

My reflections show how much I learned from my observations. Usually my reflections were very long because of how much I experienced in the classroom that I had learned from my Education 300 course. This semester I learned and observed reading and writing workshops. From my observations I also learned about fractured fairy tales, biographies, story elements, fables, narratives, and inferencing and drawing conclusions. I thought Mrs. Smith was a very dedicated teacher who wanted the children to succeed. I thought Powell elementary was a good school that I might like to work at in the future. My overall observations allowed me to experience what I learned in Education 300 in a third grade classroom with actual third graders.

Revising and editing...

During class this week you conferred with peers to make revisions/edits to your narrative story. Discuss this experience in your posting this week. Likes? Dislikes? Would this work in a K-5 classroom? What if you are teaching in a middle/secondary content specific classroom? How can you make changes to implement this practice?
I enjoyed getting feedback about my narrative. Usually I feel like I am being criticized when I get feedback about papers, but the way this format of revising and editing was set up I did not feel criticized. I actually agreed with the comments the people made about my paper, and looked forward to correcting it. I believe the person who revised my paper did not give me as much feedback as the person who edited my paper. The conference with the person who I edited with also made it more clear what I needed to correct on my paper. I really liked getting valid and constructive feedback about my paper. I also enjoyed reading another person's paper to revise. The only thing I did not particularly like was the fact that I wasn't quite sure what to revise for. I think there should've been a little more direction as to what to revise. I found myself trying to edit the paper instead of revise it. Usually when I look over a paper I pay attention to the grammar part and don't really focus on revising.
I believe this method of revising and editing would work well in a k-5 classroom. I believe it would work well, because students would be working together in order to better one anothers work. Teachers would benefit from having students revise and edit one anothers papers so that not all of the work is on them. By editing and revising one another's papers, students would become better at revising and editing. This would help students with their grammar. Students would also learn how to take criticism and would learn how to work with their peers better. I believe having peer revisors and editors in the k-5 classroom is very beneficial. The only thing that would need to be implemented would be to give students more time in the revising and editing stage. Also, the teacher should give students specific things to look for when revising.
I believe this also could be used in a middle/secondary classroom in language arts or maybe even in other content areas where they might be writing a paper. The teacher should just make sure the students know what to look for when revising and editing. She should probably make these students go in a little more depth with their revising and editing then in elementary school, because they will know more grammar and have more revising skills.

Overall, I belive peer revising and editing is beneficial to students in k-5 and middle school. I believe it gives students a chance to work with their peers and it helps students become better at revising and editing. It also can free up some time of the teachers so she won't have such a huge job to fill. I really enjoyed revising and editing other peoples papers and received some useful feedback about my own narrative.