First Experience in Fieldwork

First Experience in Fieldwork 

Our first day as teachers in a 2nd grade social studies class was exciting and interesting to say the least! We spent the first day introducing our selves and doing activates to get to know each other as teachers and students. We met every student in the class and asked them questions, academic and non academic, to get to know their interests and dislikes. Our teaching group method for getting to know our students was a "Ski-tell" game. In this game we had a jar of colorful skittles. Each student was to reach their hand in, generously, and pick out one skittle. Depending on the color of the skittle, the student was to answer a question. For example, if a student reached in the jar and picked out a blue skittle, the question to be answered was "Tell us something that you recently tried for the first time." The questions asked were used to specifically get to know likes, dislikes, and interests of students so that we could use the information to engage them in our future lessons.

Going through all the students we noticed how diverse and different this small class is. One student in particular, was so excited, loud, and engaged with everything she said and did. No matter what she was doing, she did it with enthusiasm. Then, another student we met, was the complete opposite. He was quiet and would barely tell us his name. Academic wise the class is diverse too. There are students who barely know letters and then there are students reading at a middle school level. Teaching a class this different in character and ability, is going to be challenging. Someone as teachers we need to find a way to engage and incorporate everyone. We also need to find a way to accommodate the abilities of every student so that everyone benefits from our lesson. After our first day meeting the class, I am excited to get started and learn more about them!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Current Events

Image
Current Events Social Studies is not only history but it is also todays current news. What was and is going on in your neighborhood and around the world is all relevant and important news to share. When someone thinks of a current event, they imagine the assignment you get in school where you have to find your local newspaper and pick a article to explain and present to the class. But, it is more than that; current events are around us all day everyday, especially in todays technology filled society. For this college course on teaching social studies, of course we had to do the typical assignment. Me and two other students worked together to find a relevant article and present it to the class with a few activities. Our article was on New York state banning the sale of large sugary drinks and how it will affect the economy in New York. Before this assignment, I had never even heard of this new law attempting to be pa...
Read more

The Importance of Economics in Social Studies

Image
The Importance of Economics in Social Studies  Economics is a huge part of social studies and although this may be obvious to us, for elementary school students, it isn't. Most students can guess that economics has something to do with money, but many don't know all the different aspects of it. The subject of economics has many new vocabulary words that students may not have seen before, such as supply and demand, scarcity, producers, consumers, needs, wants, etc. All of these words have an explanation relating to money and how products are made or wanted. When explaining these to elementary students, it can be tricky because they are complex and difficult concepts. Keeping definitions and examples simple and relatable is the best way to go. For example, asking the students about something that they want really bad and then having them connect it to the world of economics.  This subject can also be boring for elementary students because they don't necessarily hav...
Read more

Connecting to Economics

Image
Connecting to Economics In chapter ten of our class textbook,  National Social Science Press,  I was able to read up on the different ways we can make connections to economics. In the current moment, elementary students don't think that economics can effect them in anyway, but that is far from the truth. Economics effects just about everyone and everything, whether you have money yourself or not. A growing society can certainly effect the economy just as much as it effects class sizes. The bigger the class, the more needs for services such as teachers, janitors, cafeteria workers, etc. On the other hand, the opposite happens when class sizes go down- there is less of a need for these services. With class sizes growing in rural and poverty stricken areas, there are less services being provided to students who need it most. Important one-on-one attention is being overlooked and neglected because there is simply not en...
Read more