First Day of Fieldwork!

Today we had our first day of fieldwork for our Social Studies Methods class.  We got to meet the students that we are going to be teaching and play some fun icebreaker games with them.  Playing these games gave us the teachers an idea of what the students are like and also if they had any prior knowledge on what we are going to be teaching them.

The class was very energetic and engaged when we were playing our icebreaker games.  They were all really excited for my groups' icebreaker which involved a beach ball that had the globe on it.  The students would toss the ball around to each other.  We asked the students a variety of questions about themselves and also about the different topics that we are going to be teaching in our groups.  From playing this activity we learned about the students and where they have been in the world.  Most of the students have been out of the country, which really surprised us!

Some of the students were very knowledgeable about the different places on the globe.  One student was telling us all these different facts about Antarctica.  At the end of the class, we asked the students what they thought about all the different activities and which ones they found easy and which ones were a little challenging for them.  They liked all of the activities that all the groups had done but they found some of the social studies questions a little difficult to answer.

Overall, it was a great first day of fieldwork and getting to meet the students.  Seeing how the students were during our icebreakers gave us an idea of how they might be during our lesson and how we need to make sure that all students are participating and are engaged and focused on the lesson that we are teaching.

Cooperative Learning!!

As teachers, we are always looking for new ways to engage our students in the classroom.  Through cooperative learning, the students are not only working together but they are also learning from each other.  It is a more engaging way instead of having the teacher lecture to the students about a certain topic.  Studies have shown that students remember things better when they learn from each other which is what cooperative learning is all about.  Cooperative learning consists of five elements Positive Interdependence, Individual Accountability, Group Processing, Face- to- Face Promotion, and Social Skills.  These are skills that will be essential to students throughout their whole lives so why not learn them while they are young!

Cooperative learning is different from direct instruction in the fact that it is student-centered whereas direct instruction is teacher-centered.  The only role that the teacher plays in cooperative learning is passing out the materials and giving the students instructions at the beginning.  The students do all of the work together and some on their own.  Cooperative learning teaches individual accountability meaning that each student is responsible for a certain part of the task or a certain job.  This is also a way for the teacher to evaluate the students.  The students also give feedback to each other when they are finished working on their project.  This is a good way for them to assess how they work together in a group and also what they need to work on for next time.  There are tons of ways to incorporate cooperative learning into the classroom like the jigsaw method or stand up, hand up, pair up and so many others!

I think cooperative learning is a great thing to incorporate into any lesson!  The students are really getting a better understanding by doing it themselves.  I know when I was in elementary school most of what I remember is from activities that I did with my classmates.  I feel this is a great way to get students excited about learning and I can't wait to use it in the classroom one day!

Technology in the Classroom

We live in a world where technology is a good chunk of our lives, and it is progressing faster than we can handle.  It seems like every day there is a new piece of technology coming out or a new website being developed.  All of these websites and programs in the world and we don't realize how many of them are or could be beneficial to us as future teachers.

I recently did a project where I had to use a tool that I had never heard of before.  By the time I was done using the program I had feel in love with it and I cannot wait to use it in my future classroom one day.  My classmates also used tools that they were not familiar with.  The point of this project was to get us familiar with all of the different tools that are out there.  These tools make learning a more fun and engaging experience and that is what we want to do as teachers.  Some of the programs allowed us to record our voices which are not only good for us but also for the students.  Students love doing a project and recording their voice and playing it back to the class.  Some of the tools allowed us to create lessons and show them in a way that was more interactive and fun than just a powerpoint.  The students would also be able to use some of the tools too.  A fun one for the students would be WordArt, where they can put in a whole bunch of words about themselves and make it into a fun shape.  It's using tools like these that get students excited and engaged about learning.

Not only are we getting the students engaged when we are using tools like these but we are also teaching to the way that they learn best.  Since technology is such a big part of their lives as well.  Using digital tools will help our students to achieve better in the classroom while also having more fun.

Climate Change

Today in class we had a guest speaker, Dr Michael Edelstein.  He has been teaching for a number of years and today was talking to us about Climate Change.  A topic that we will need to know how to teach for when we are future teachers.  The main object when talking about climate change is the Earth and how the earth and humans are affected.

Today we learned that Earth is both an open and a closed system.  It is open because it brings energy in from the sun, and it is closed because of matter which would be us, humans, we do not change.  Dr Edelstein talked about how we should rely more on the sun than on fossil fuels.  This is because with the sun we are not putting harmful chemicals back into the environment, thus we are not polluting it.  Also, the sun will also be there whereas there may not always be fuels.  The message of Climate Change is that we have to change and fast.  Al Gore whom Dr Edelstein based some of his lectures off of has three questions: Must we Change?, Can we Change?, and Will we Change?
The atmosphere is made up of two different spheres: the troposphere which is where we live and the stratosphere which is where gases are trapped.  As gases like CO2 increase, the boundary between space and the atmosphere thickens.  We are dumping 110 millions of Manmade global warming pollution into the atmosphere every 24 hours.  In the troposphere, this pollution causes cancer and makes it harder to breathe.  In the stratosphere it causes combustion.  Greenhouse gases are another cause of climate change things such as air transportation, industrial agriculture, and even a cow farting is releasing something harmful to the environment.

Climate change is caused by human activities, the hottest year ever measured was 2016, hotter years have more fires.  The largest fire was in Alberta, Canada in May 2016.

The heat of the Ocean- bleaching out and killing the coral reefs, taking away the habitat for much of the life in the ocean.  Hurricane changes depending on if the ocean is warm or cold.

The Hydrological Cycle- Precipitation, Water Returns to the Sea, Evaporation
The same extra heat that evaporates more water from the ocean, causing bigger downpours and floods...pulls moisture even more quickly from the soil, causing longer and deeper drought.

October 13, 2014- Climate change "will likely lead to food and water shortages, pandemic disease, disputes over refugees and natural disasters in regions across the globe."
"Climate Change is a Medical Emergency" Professor Hugh Montgomery
We now risk losing up to 50% of all land-based species in this century

Back to School!

From the first day of Social Studies Methods, I realized that we are going to be teaching digital learners.  Students are no longer going to be taught the way that I was taught.  There will be no more paper tests or assignments in the classrooms, everything is going to be totally online.  We as future teachers are learning to become digital teachers, and are learning techniques and strategies to teach the way students learn best.  With using more technology in the classroom our students will be more engaged in learning.  With using technology in the classroom we will be better able to assist our students.


From watching the video below I realized that there is little to no technology in the classrooms that these children are in.  The teachers are not teaching to the ways that the students learn best, and the students are not motivated or engaged to do their work.  As teachers in a time when technology is such a dominant factor, we need to be able to adapt in our classroom.