I was glancing at a colleagues blog regarding relevance and thought, since I do not blog regularly enough anymore... why cant I steal his topic?
In the social studies I feel that we are often thought of as a content course. The concern is generally centered around whether or not students know the material as opposed to the skills they use in order to analyze, interpret, apply and connect it... even more infrequently do I hear discussion about students ability to CREATE or EVALUATE using it. What do I mean?
Students in my classes often inform me that when we study material they shouldn't form opinions on it-- they seem to feel that information needs to be studied entirely objectively. As our own history, I am of the belief that we MUST have a deep emotional as well as logical connection to material in order to truly consider it. Is it wrong to judge a people or an action and feel it is wrong? No, as long as you support it with material and show your opinions make sense. In the end, isnt that a big part of why we are here? Think of the real world implications of social studies in a democratic system-- Voting thats the big one. Your vote is a means of voicing your opinion... we need to be sure students know how to develop opinions that can combine their emotional feelings and apply logical thought. Combine the reptilian and the mammalian, use more of the full capacity of the brain, develop meaningful personal connections with a basis in deep understandings; if we can do this in class and in life i think we are doing something valid.
How? Well, make students develop connections, rather than a 1 day lesson in which they are presented the 7 similarities of river valley civilizations, spend weeks covering them and allow students to create... less knowledge? Quite the opposite (the knowledge is deeper) -- More creating? Absolutely.
The traditional answer?
History repeats itself-- I know a lot of history and yet I am hardly Nostradamus... For some reason that answer just isnt good enough any more...
Monday, November 22, 2010
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Im Baaaa-aaaack!
Hello World!
Well, yes, I have slacked terribly on the blogging; its been a tremendously busy past few weeks. The team taught unit with Mrs. Coursen went tremendously well. Students made connections between the material in both our classes and spent several days discussing how to solve poverty in our community. Not only did this benefit them in terms of higher order thinking skills, it also opened students eyes to the fact that poverty is a large problem in our area. Students tend not to recognize that we HAVE homeless students, we HAVE students whose families aren't able to put food on the table, we NEED to recognize the diversity in our school and work to make sure everyone succeeds.
They say every journey begins with a single step. When people talk about this cliche they tend to focus on taking on challenges a piece at a time. While this is a worthwhile statement, I think its imperative that we note that no journey(barring the shortest journey ever) has been completed in a single step. Classes in the first quarter went well but we have a LONG way to go together. The first quarter is just that, a quarter. No sport has ever been won in the first quarter and no challenge has over been overcome just by starting a solution. We need to keep it up. As the year goes on the level of difficulty will increase, the skills we have worked on will be applied to more complex solutions and the knowledge we have gained will be applied to everything else we study. It is necessary that we approach these coming challenge with the same vigor we have shown thus far. I believe we can and will do it.
Well, yes, I have slacked terribly on the blogging; its been a tremendously busy past few weeks. The team taught unit with Mrs. Coursen went tremendously well. Students made connections between the material in both our classes and spent several days discussing how to solve poverty in our community. Not only did this benefit them in terms of higher order thinking skills, it also opened students eyes to the fact that poverty is a large problem in our area. Students tend not to recognize that we HAVE homeless students, we HAVE students whose families aren't able to put food on the table, we NEED to recognize the diversity in our school and work to make sure everyone succeeds.
They say every journey begins with a single step. When people talk about this cliche they tend to focus on taking on challenges a piece at a time. While this is a worthwhile statement, I think its imperative that we note that no journey(barring the shortest journey ever) has been completed in a single step. Classes in the first quarter went well but we have a LONG way to go together. The first quarter is just that, a quarter. No sport has ever been won in the first quarter and no challenge has over been overcome just by starting a solution. We need to keep it up. As the year goes on the level of difficulty will increase, the skills we have worked on will be applied to more complex solutions and the knowledge we have gained will be applied to everything else we study. It is necessary that we approach these coming challenge with the same vigor we have shown thus far. I believe we can and will do it.
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