That's a Wrap!

 Last Day!!

It's the end of the semester! It's crazy how fast time has gone, but I'm grateful for this experience. I've really enjoyed writing this blog and I hope you've enjoyed reading these posts! I've learned so much in this class and I can't wait to implement what I've learned when I student teach in the fall! I appreciate social studies so much more after taking this class and I'm excited to create social studies lessons for my students soon! Thank you so much for keeping up with my expedition!

Excellent efolio Experience!

 Evaluating My efolio Experience! 

Here is the welcome page of my efolio!

The efolio is an electronic portfolio of all of the work I've done in Social Studies Methods this semester! You can view my efolio here. This efolio features this blog! In addition, it has information about me, projects I've done, my lesson plan, and so much more! I put a lot of time and effort into this efolio and I think you should check it out! 

This was a fun and creative way for me to demonstrate everything I've learned this year. This could be presented to a potential employer so that they can see a professional outline of the work you've completed. I can use this efolio to look back on when I'm teaching so that I can remember the importance of teaching social studies. Although it was a lot of work, I found it very fulfilling and a worthwhile experience!

Fantastic Fieldwork Fun!

 Classroom Time!

This is the opening slide for my group's lesson on the Mexican-American War!

Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom and More!

 Well, What Does the Textbook Say?

Chapter 7 was all about how to promote student learning! Although lectures are a common practice for teachers to use to deliver information to students, there are tons of other ways for students to learn! For example, teachers can practice cooperative learning, which involves a teacher picking small groups for students to work in to complete assignments or to help each other learn. A similar tactic is called collaborative learning, which is the same concept as cooperative learning, except these small groups are with randomly selected or selected by the students. Students typically learn really well from their peers, so these learning environments provide great ways for students to interact with each other to build up their academic and their social skills too! Another practice that teachers can implement in their classroom to modify their teaching to benefit the students is to recognize the multiple areas of intelligence and incorporate at least 2 into every lesson. There are 8 types of intelligence, which are as follows: word intelligence (acquiring information through language), math intelligence, picture intelligence (thinking in pictures, not words), music intelligence, body intelligence, people intelligence, self intelligence, and nature intelligence. By understanding which areas of intelligence your students thrive in, teachers can incorporate these areas in their classroom so that their students are more likely to perform well and retain information. 

Planning for a Democratic Classroom!

 Let's Take A Look At What The Textbook Says! 

Chapter 4 was all about lesson planning! Lesson planning is important because it ensures that each lesson will be meaningful, engage all learners, and give students an opportunity to share what they've learned from the lesson. Since the goal is to make meaningful lessons, each lesson should have an outcome and an objective. An outcome is what the student learned and an objective is how you measured that the student learned. There can be more than one objective per lesson. For example, you can have a performance objective, which measures the student's skills, and you can also have a affective objective, which involves how the student feels about learning and what's being learned. This is crucial because if a student isn't enjoying learning, they most likely won't be motivated to learn. As a teacher candidate, I want my future students to learn from and enjoy my lessons, so it's very important that I know how my students feel about my lessons so that I can find the optimal teaching method for my class. This is why I also differentiate my instruction for my students, so that each student's needs are being met, ensuring that all diverse learners are included and can succeed in my class. I want to set my students up for success, which is why I include modeling and guided practice in each of my lessons. When I model what I want my students to do, they're more likely to understand what's being expected of them. Guided practice is meant to make sure that each student knows what's expected of them and to provide extra support if students still need some clarification. This will guide students to the independent practice, where they demonstrate the skills that they've gained from the lesson on their own.