The Day has Finally Come!!!!

I'm super excited that my two week unit is finally over.  I am now finally stress free.  All I have to do now is get my portfolio together.  My students' writing has improved greatly over the last two weeks.  I'm so proud of them.  I really enjoyed reading to them and coming up with creative activities to help them learn; however, I am ready to hand them back over to their teacher.  My cooperating teacher was such a great help.  If it was not for her, I would be running around with my head chopped off.  I couldn't have made it without her help and support.

Unit

This is my last week teaching my unit and I am so excited.  It was a long process.  When I thought I had my lessons planned for the week, I had to revise my lesson.  Some things I wanted to do, but I didn't because there was something more important that the students needed to learn.  Well, I hope all goes well with your unit.  This year is almost over with!!!

Social Studies Website

I found a really cool social studies website.  Students can find out what is going on around the world, learn about different countries, and use maps to learn about geography.  In addition, students can watch video clips and play games.  Here is the link below. Check it out!!!


http://kids.usa.gov/social-studies/

Block Experience and Unit!!!

Hello!!! Hope everything is going well with your blocking experience.  I had to begin teaching my unit this week.  It was not bad at all.  It took a while to find ways to make my lesson go smoothly.  I am doing my unit on Dear Mr. Henshaw.  I thought it would be difficult to find ways to integrate different subjects throughout the lesson planning, but it was.  Hope all goes well with everyone.

Block Experience!!!

My block experience is going good so far.  I have 5th grade and it is a lot different from the lower grades.  Today, my teacher had me help a group of students with their math.  I'm terrible at math and need to review some math objectives. Anyway, one student had an division sheet.  The student was really struggling with the worksheet.  So, I thought the student the division strategy Mrs. Fancher taught in class.  The student was very excited about learning the division strategy.  It feels really good helping students understand the material.  

"Patience is a virtue, a virtue is a grace, you add them all together you get a happy face."

When I was looking up a song to teach my math lesson, I came across this quote a teacher said on YouTube and I fell in love with the quote.  It made me remember the teachers I had who would always put a smile on their face re-teaching the lesson until the class have learned the material, even when they were tired of having to reteach the lesson.  As teachers, we have to remember just because we have been on the same lesson for two or three weeks, we need to find ways to help our students learn, even if it is pulling the student to side to help them learn.

Improving Reading Skills in the Social Studies Classroom

In order to understand social studies you have to be capable of reading.  This article talks about students difficulties in reading social studies materials.  Students have difficulties reading social studies materials.  Even I had trouble reading social studies material when I was in middle school.  The article discusses three reasons why students struggle reading social studies materials.  Three reasons are expository text, subject-specific vocabulary, and densely factual material.  This is true because when I was in middle school, I was familiar with narrative text than expository text.  When I was giving outside resources on a topic with a narrative format, I understood the topic more than I did with resources that had an expository format.  I was also not able to grasp terms in social studies because familiar words that are used in normally are also used in unfamiliar ways.  However, the article also provides strategies in helping students improve their reading skills in social studies.  If I were taught these strategies in middle school, then maybe I would have not struggled so much.

http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/subject/improving_reading.phtml

Helping English Language Students in a Social Studies Classroom

Often, Ell or ESL students are often forgotten about in the classroom.  When I was in the sixth grade, there was this one student who did not struggle in math, but struggled in social studies, reading, and language.  He struggled because English was his second language.  Many of my teachers did not try to find ways to help him succeed in those areas.  They would let him sleep in class or not explain the material to him at all.  Having a student in the classroom who does not speak English seems horrifying, but there are ways to help the student be successful.  In one of my education classes, I learned that as teachers we can read the information out a loud to the student, provide vocabulary, use visuals, and more. Below are links to help an ell or ESL student in the classroom.

http://suite101.com/article/teaching-social-studies-to-esl-students-a129303

http://escort.org/?q=node/163

http://www.eslpartyland.com/teaching-esl-student

Bringing Events Into the Classroom from Around the World!!!

Time for Kids is a wonderful way to get students interest in what is going on around them. This website allows students to know what is going on in the world, but in a kid friendly way with kids ranging from the age of 9-12 years of age reporting the news.  The website provides photos and videos, homework section (all subjects), and mini sites (holidays, book review, environment, and so much more). Here is the link below: hope you all enjoy the website!!!

http://www.timeforkids.com/