Masks

Today in our Music and Fine Arts class we created masks that were of a bird and decorated them. I think that this could be the start to a very good study of cultures and the types of masks that different cultures create and hide behind. For America, masks are something that can be used in cinema, dance, theatre, music, design, and even cosmetics, but what about the Middle East? or Africa? or even South America? It would be a very cool and engaging unit to do because you could use the inquiry method to research other cultures and what kind of masks they create. There would also be plenty of writing prompts and writing ideas. One idea I thought of would be to have them create their own mask, of their chosen culture to study, and then write a story that goes along with the mask or a narrative of how the mask was inspired.

Washington DC trip

Over spring break, my dad took a large groups, two charter buses full, of students to Washington DC. My dad started this trip when he taught 6th grade at North Liberty, but now that he is a principal at Walkerton he has added his students to the NL group and continues to help put the trip on. Remembering the trip from when I was a student, this was a great trip to learn about the history of the US. The students and parents are engaged from the start. This is a big trip to set up, and the cost is a lot, but it is definitely worth it. I know that every two years there is a lot of excitement building up to going on the trip. The great thing about planning a trip like this is the curriculum that can lead up to it and follow up. I would think a unit on pretty much any history lesson, or historical figure would be great. The reason I suggest a trip like this, even though nowadays field trips are hard to convince schools that they are really supported by the standards, is because the primary resources that are in Washington DC are unbelievable, from the Revolutionary War to WWII and present day.

Book Club

Yesterday in class we had a book club presentation. We chose a kid's book and read it, in order to act out a scene for the entire class. We chose to read the book J.T., about a boy who finds a cat and takes care of it, although he must deceive his mother to buy food for the cat. In this book are a lot of different issues that kids would have to think about in higher level thinking. They would not only have to comprehend the book, but also think evaluatively, analyze what they read, and compare and contrast with other texts and their own values in life. The presentation for this class was very insightful because you can see how well the students can catch on to the unwritten things like emotion and the different points of view that each character has. If there are students who are terrified of acting or standing up in front of others, there are still roles for them like the narrator or even a silent part in the scene. When the presentation is over, have the students and even the teacher ask questions about the scene, book, and especially the characters and how they felt throughout the scene. This is as great way for students to think deeper about texts.

Improve your Community

For the first lesson that I taught this semester, I had the students think about what it meant to be a good citizen of a community and how they would improve their community/school. In order to do this, the students worked in their groups, which is the table they sit at, to plan out how they would like to improve their community. The Language Arts part of the lesson was to create a persuasive poster trying to convince their community or school to make the necessary improvements! Here are their posters, which I thought turned out amazing! I have an incredibly creative group of students!! A big thing that I considered a success was that the students really debated and required a vote to choose which topic to choose. Although I was unable to talk too much about the democratic process, I did mention to them that voting was part of our process in the United States and asked them to share what they knew about our democratic society. They shared a few connections, saying that they know the majority vote rules and that is how our rules are created, they must be voted on. This was a great teachable moment.

Working on my unit...

Alright, while I was working on the Unit, which we are doing the Underground Railroad, an awesome subject, I found this timeline at a website. I wanted to share this timeline because I have honestly never seen such a cool timeline. There are very important dates and the pictures make the timeline very neat. I may be a little goofy for posting this but I just thought it was so cool! http://www.fergusbordewich.com/FBtimelinepage.shtml

Decades Project

Decades Project! For our social studies class, we did a decades project. Each group had a decade from the 1900's, and for our decade we were supposed to research and find information about those years like the people, inventions, movies, books, and important news that took place. We all had a lot of fun and took the project in full stride as our class had very good success dressing the part, as you can see. Brandi, Tara, and myself had the 1920's. Turn of the Century

1920's

1940's

1950's

1960's

1970's

TEACHING MY LESSON

Last week, I was able to teach my second lesson plan. It went very well, and I was pleased to get immediate feedback from Sydney and my classroom teacher. I hope everyone else's lessons are going well and that you recieve feedback like mine, very informative and helpful! Just wanted to say that I appreciate it! The students in my classroom were very engaged, and I have to say this is due in large part to a powerpoint I made. I made a powerpoint of holidays and the students were to help me discuss them, as way to start my lesson. The biggest contributor to this presentation was my classroom teacher who gave me holidays that students in the class celebrate that other students might not have heard of, or that I had not heard of. These holidays were Queen's Day in the Netherlands and Eid ul-Fitr, an Islam holiday.

Neighborhood pictures!

Today in our class we did a very neat and engaging activity. We each brought in a picture of our neighborhood, and then discussed the pictures in detail in class. After we all taped our pictures next to each other, we were able to see the similarities and differences between them.

I thought that this activity was very engaging for us as college students, but it would be even more so for the students we will be teaching. After doing a lesson today on being a good citizen of a community, I realized that kids are very in tune as to what a community has, doesn't have, and what they want it to have. By seeing what each person defines as their "neighborhood", they can also be lead into seeing how other people view the world.

Underground Railroad

Here is a list of books and websites that are good to use when teaching or learning about the Underground Railroad!

1. If You Lived When There Was Slavery in America by Anne Kamma and Pamela Johnson
This book would be for readers 3rd to 5th grades. There are many questions about what slavery was about and what it was like for the slaves to go through. Students can read this if they are interested in the living conditions and what the children did as slaves for fun, if anything at all.

2. Free!: Great Escapes from Slavery on the Underground Railroad by Lorene Cary
This book should be read by grades 5th or 6th. Given are accounts of slaves who decided they would no longer stand for the terrible state that they lived and chose to take part in the escape to the north and begin a passage on the Underground Railroad. The stories are based on newspaper articles, diaries, and even stories told down.

3. My America: Freedom's Wings: Corey's Underground Railroad Diary, Book One by Sharon Dennis Wyeth
For students who are in 4th to 6th grade, this story is about a slave named Corey, who follows his dad North to freedom. He keeps a diary hidden while he lives on the farm, as he secretly learned how to read and write, then he continues his writing as he travels the Underground Railroad. Very good book for students to read from a slave’s point of view traveling on the Underground Railroad.

4. Escape From Slavery: Five Journeys to Freedom by Doreen Rappaport
This book would be good for readers in 5th or 6th grade. There are five stories of slaves who find their way North to freedom by very different ways. Although the stories have been rewritten, they are all based on actual accounts of slaves who followed the Underground Railroad. Good source to use for primary source reading.

5. Courage to Run: A Story Based on the Life of Harriet Tubman
This book is based on the research done about Harriet Tubman, who was a very courageous leader of the Underground Railroad. This book would be for 5th or 6th graders who want to read about a famous individual who was a leader and ran the Underground Railroad.

6. http://www.the-ugrr.org/index.asp
This site was very informative and I found myself lost for a long time reading through all of the sources. This would be great for kids to look at with their parents, as there are three different paths that you can follow and read about.

7. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad/j2.html
This website is very cool. As you read the first page, you begin a journey as a fugitive slave seeking freedom in the North! You travel through the east coast states and see bigger cities every time you stop. It is very dangerous, but you are forced to decide whether or not you trust a safe house or want to cross a river. Students will have to see if they would have made the right decisions. This site is not too complex, but still an engaging, short activity for them.

8. http://americanhistory.mrdonn.org/undergroundrailroad.html
This site is a good source for me as a teacher, as it lists many good activities do with students during black history month or while teaching the Underground Railroad. There are also lesson plans available here to get ideas. The video clips and pictures may come in handy at times.

9. By Freedom’s Light by Elizabeth O’Maley
This book brings about a very important part of the slavery time period. The decision to become an active abolitionist was very difficult, for the consequences of being caught helping slaves were severe. This book goes through a 13 year old girl’s decision making of whether she wants to change her views on slavery when she befriends a slave.

Family Artifacts

How many times have you really sat down to think about what you have? Or maybe what kinds of things you would choose to represent you, your family, your values. It is hard to find objects, at times, to really show the love or caring that is important in your life. For our E325, we were asked to find 5 objects to represent us in these ways. I know that personally, there were a few items that were easy for me to want to bring to represent myself, but what about representing love, or friendship, or how to trully represent your religion, or culture. Our teacher was nice enough to take pictures of all the objects that we brought in to class. Looking over these objects, you can tell a lot about a person, but what is more intriguing is looking at the objects and wondering what story they might have. I suggest that this is a very good activity to do to learn more about your studetns, but also a way for them to find some identity. Thank you Mrs. Bontrager for this great lesson!