The new semester has started off with a strong bang. Much has been covered already this first month. I am taking four classes this semester. Social Studies Methods, EDUC 410 Intro to Curriculum, ECE 270 Critical Components of Special Education, and Healthy Living for Elementary. Besides these classes I am still working at the after school program at my local elementary school, I have started getting my clinical placement set up at another elementary school close by, and our partnership with Washington Elementary is about to begin again in a couple of weeks. I am really excited about how this semester is going so far and cannot wait to see where it goes.
So far in Social Studies some of our big topics have been concepts vs topics in social studies, wisdom from experience, and our personal development plans (PDPs). We started off the semester hitting hard on concepts vs topics. We learned that social studies is turning away from being topic based lessons to basing lessons on concepts. We learned what concepts are and how to judge whether what we are teaching is a concept or a topic. Concepts are timeless, they are not stuck to a specific time period, they do not have a begin or end date they have just always been. They are universal, meaning they span the whole world, they are not limited to a town, or state, or whole country, they are applicable to everyone. Concepts are also transferable they are not limited to one subject or on topic but are applicable in many places. Finally, they are abstract, the Big Ideas, they are broad and not so narrow that they are specific to one thing. Learning what concepts are and how to apply them in my lessons will really help me in my future classroom. I do not want to only use topics in my lessons, I want to use concepts that my students can really make connections with which will help the lesson be more meaningful to them.
We have been working on our Wisdom from Experience projects where we interview 2 teachers, one from K-2 and one from 3-5 about their experiences in teaching, specifically with social studies. From my two interviews I learned that there is very little time allotted for teachers to teach social studies, if any at all. Because of this teachers try to find other ways to integrate the subject into other areas as best they can. For the lower grades they use holidays and themed lessons in which they integrate both their science and social studies. I asked both of my interviewees what they thought about the concept vs topics change and if they used it in their own class. Both of them had heard a little of it but did not do it themselves. After I thought about their limited time for social studies and how the teaching of concepts work I feel like it would actually be beneficial for teachers to focus on concepts because of their transferability. It would be easier to integrate a concept vs trying to integrate a certain topic.
I created my goals for my PDP this month as well. I focused on the NCTCS when creating my goals this time. For my first goal I used the standard 1a “teachers lead in their classrooms.” The unpacking of this standard mentioned how a teacher should have structured transitions for their classroom/school environment. I wanted to start finding ideas for effective transitions to help with managing my classroom. The other standard I used was 2d “Teachers adapt their teaching for the benefit of students with special needs.” A part of this standard is to locate and implement research verified strategies for students with special needs. I want to start finding these strategies now so that I can implement them for my future students with learning needs.
I have also been doing a lot in my other classes. In my EC class we have been learning about the different laws and policies that effect students with learning needs and disabilities. We have learned about IDEA, IEPs, 504s, Child Find, and many other things. Child Find is something that really stood out to me. Child Find is a requirement of districts, they must identify, locate, and evaluate every student who may have a learning disability and provide the supports needed by these students. It does not matter where these students go to school or their living arrangements. They can be homeless or migrants, and they can be in a private school and they must still be provided these things. In a twitter chat I did this week I learned about doing breakout rooms for a classroom. I have done one breakout room in Greenville but I had never thought about doing something in a classroom. This is mostly for older grades but I think it is great for things like critical thinking, problem solving skills, communication, and collaboration between students. In health class this week the professor was talking about keeping students active in the classroom and not having students stuck in their desks all of the time. One of her suggestions was during reading time to let students roam around the room with their books instead of sitting still. I thought this was cool because lately I have been doing that with my students in after school and I have found that their attention on the books and behavior has increased dramatically. I think this would be great to continue in my future classroom.
