One Little Word

"Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn't know you left open."

-John Barrymore

At the beginning of the semester, Syd told us to pick a word. It could be a word of something that you want to work on, or a word you currently were feeling. I chose the word Happiness. I chose happiness because it was something that I needed to work on coming into this semester. I have been diagnosed with clinical depression, so happiness is something I struggle with and strive for all the time. Over the years, I have been able to find happiness, but it something that I continually have to work on. Coming into this semester, I was dealing with a lot of personal issues and finding happiness was extremely difficult, so I chose to have happiness be my word to work on for the semester. 

Also at the beginning of the semester, Syd told us that before the beginning of every class we were to write a word on the board to describe how we were feeling for that particular day. After writing our word on the board, we were supposed to write our words in our interactive notebooks.

I did a pretty decent job keeping up on writing my word on the board and in my notebook until around Spring Break. After that I seemed to forget about my one little word. There were days when I would remember, and when I did I would put it on the board and write it in my notebook.

Now looking at the end of the semester, I am able to judge how my semester went. I can see that most of the semester I was either happy or stressed. My overall word was happiness, and I think that I have come a long way with happiness throughout this semester. I definitely still have a long way to go, but I am proud of the progress I have seen within myself this semester.

I think that having your students write down how they are feeling for the day is a great idea! It allows the teacher to get a feel for how her students are doing. It also allows the teacher to make adjustments to her lessons if need be. For instance, if Syd can see that we are all energized on a particular day, she won't make us sit there and listen to a lecture. Instead, she would have us doing something more engaging that would use some of our energy. I think that this also helps build a community within your classroom. It is something that I would definitely like to have in my future classroom.



Social Studies Blog Post #12

Picture Reenactment

For one of our classes, Syd pulled up a picture of a historical moment of Washington crossing the Delaware. She read a short section of a book that talked about this event. After reading the story, Syd had us look at the picture projected on the SMARTboard. She had us choose which person we were going to be and get into that position.

Once we all determined which person we were and were place, we had a discussion about what we thought was going on. Each person talked about what they thought their person was doing in this photo. I chose to be a person peering out of the side of the boat. I said that my person would be talking to Sister Lucia about what was going on in order to make sure we didn't hit any ice burgs.

I think that this activity was a lot of fun. It allowed us to gain a deeper understanding of what it would have been like to go through this experience. It also allowed us to reenact what we thought would have been happening in this photo. I think that this could easily be done in the classroom with many different subject areas.




Social Studies Blog Post #11

Geographic Garble

In Social Studies class we looked at boxes with words, letters, and pictures that are clues to the names of geographical places. We then had to look at each box and determine what geographical place it is depicting. After we went through all 20 of the garbles, we got into groups of three and had to come up with four gargles that all connected to one bigger idea.














Kaylee, Alyssia, and I started to think about what we wanted our bigger idea to be. Alyssia came up with the idea of National Monuments. We decided to create garbles of Big Ben, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Great Wall of China, and Niagara Falls. Once everyone created their garbles, we went around the room and looked at everyone else's and had to guess what their bigger idea was. Some of them were easier than others. When the group got to our garble, they were able to get it very easily.

I think that this is a fun, exciting way to get students to learn more about different geographical locations. I think after learning about a state, you could easily develop garbles over cities within that specific state.




Social Studies Blog Post #10

One Clip at a Time

"You've embarked on a journey that begins in the brain, but ends in the heart." - Paperclips

In Social Studies class, we watched a video about the Paper Clips Project. This project started in a small town in Tennessee. One of the teachers wanted to teach about the Holocaust as a way to teach tolerance and diversity. Since the students were not quite understanding how many Jews died during the Holocaust, they decided to collect paper clips - six million paper clips.

When we watched this video, Syd told us we could work on whatever we needed to and to just listen to the movie. I happily got started on my homework that I needed to catch up on. However, I very quickly became completely absorbed into this video. It was absolutely fascinating to watch this movie about how these students all came together. This one concept greatly impacted this town and the students involved in it.

After class we were told to pick a quote from the movie and to reflect upon that quote. I chose to reflect on the quote "You've embarked on a journey that begins in the brain, but ends in the heart."

I think that as a teacher we start teaching a topic so that our students learn the material; however, it becomes more important for us to make connections that are personal for our students. This connects whatever the lesson is to our hearts and emotions. The Paper Clips project started as a teacher teaching her students about the Holocaust, but the project became so much more than that. This really got the students thinking, connecting, and becoming emotionally involved. This now becomes something that students will forever remember.

To learn more about the Paper Clips Project, click here.


Social Studies Blog Post #9

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.

-Victor Hugo

We had to choose an event in history and find songs that were influenced by the event. I chose to find songs that were influenced by Hurricane Katrina. I chose Hurricane Katrina because I wanted to choose an event that I was alive for. I chose four different songs.

The first song I chose was "Where Were You" by Jackson Browne. This song was written about the response time of the Bush administration's emergency relief efforts. 

Another song I chose was "Any Other Day by Wyclef featuring Nora Jones. This song invokes the power image of the American flag waving in desperation as the people of New Orleans ask for help. 

A third song I chose was "The Saints are Coming" by Green Day and U2. U2 and Green day teamed up and performed this song at a halftime show when the New Orleans Saints returned to the Superdome. 

The final song I chose was "Love is Free" by Sheryl Crow. This song was inspired by the flood in New Orleans. Sheryl Crow said that the people of New Orleans are spiritually based, so they inspired this song.

Overall, this activity was very impactful for me personally. I did not realize how many songs were influenced by this one event. For several months the song "Love is Free" was one of my all time favorite songs because of its upbeat rhythm. Little did I know that this song was influenced by this event.

"Love is Free" by Sheryl Crow

Social Studies Blog Post #8

Journey

Alyssia, Kaylee, Bri, I created a mini novel unit together covering the theme of journey that was apparent throughout the novel Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Munoz Ryan. We very quickly decided that this was a great book for us to focus our unit on because we all found parts of it that we were able to connect to. We decided to focus on the theme of journey because of the events that Naomi experiences in this novel.

For English/Language arts, we would have our students write another chapter talking about the year following where the story ends. We would also talk about collective nouns since Naomi Leon writes many different lists of collective nouns in her journal.

For Social Studies, we would look at how to read maps. We would also compare and contrast the holidays celebrated in different parts of the world. Students would learn about the climate and physical features in California and Mexico.

For Reading, our students would read Rosita and the Night of the Radishes by Dorothy Thurgood Manning to learn more about the Night of the Radishes.

For Math, our students would figured out the distance Naomi Leon traveled and calculate the miles she traveled from California to Mexico.

For Science, we would learn about growing plants and trees such as avocados, radishes, and lemons. We would also talk about the sun and how it cast shadows over the trees, and how it changes depending on the time of the day relating this to the kids playing in the avocado grove throughout the day.

For Art, our students would try soap carving, radish carving, and make their own journal to make lists.

For Music, we would have our students develop a school appropriate playlist for the drive from California to Mexico.

I was most excited for our culminating project. Our students would create their own mini travel blog for the journey from California to Mexico. Students would blog about their reason for the trip. They would choose what vehicle they want and find out its gas mileage. They would then use this to find out how much they would spend in gas. Students would create a map marking the path they would travel with fun places they will see throughout the journey.

We had so many different ideas for our mini novel unit. We had such a fun time creating this mini unit and could have kept writing ideas. I think that this mini unit could easily be implemented in our future classrooms.


To read some travel blogs that will inspire you to hit the road, click here.


Social Studies Blog Post #8

North Cascades National Park

For our final big project in Social Studies, our class had to research different National Parks. Alyssia, Kaylee, an I partnered up and chose to research the North Cascades National Park.

We started out not having a clue about what national park we wanted to research. We browsed around for awhile before coming across this beautiful park, located in Washington.

I found it very interesting that there was such an abundant amount of information online about this national park. What I think I found most interesting was that the park doesn't charge an admission fee! The park makes money from the campgrounds and other tourist attractions. Even more interesting is that almost all of the money the park makes goes back into the park to make it an even greater place!

I really liked this activity, especially after our field trip to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. It allowed me to look at another national park and compare it to our local one, as well as other parks I have visited such as the Great Smoky Mountains and Mammoth Cave. Studying this beautiful national park has inspired me to visit more national parks. I have always wanted to head out west to see some of the beautiful parks out that way such as Yosemite.

I have definitely been inspired by our field trip and this project. I would love to be able to take my students on a field trip to explore the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore as well as do a mini research lesson on different national parks. I would also want to spend time talking about how it is our responsibility to take care of and protect these beautiful places.


To learn more about national parks and explore the national parks around our country, click here.




Social Studies Blog Post #7

The Underground Railroad

We chose to create a video using iMovie portraying elements of the Underground Railroad. After brainstorming a list of ideas, we decided to look at standards to see if there were any that correlated with our brainstorming topics. We came across a fourth grade standard that dealt with movements and people leading to the Civil War. Looking at this standard, we decided that the Underground Railroad sparked our interest. We all remember studying the Underground Railroad in school, and it was something that we were all very interested in. As such, we feel as though it will be a topic our future students may also be interested in.

We chose to divide our video into two separate categories: the first being places associated with the Underground Role, and the second was the important people. 

I think that creating a video about a topic in Social Studies was very interesting. It was a way to allow us to integrate the arts into a Social Studies topic. Creating the video wasn't very difficult, so I think that it will be a simple, but exciting way to incorporate music into lessons. I think that adding music to a Social Studies topic can have a greater impact on our students. Personally, when there is music added to something, it seems to make a bigger impact. 

Social Studies Blog Post #6

Photo Sharing

In the first week of class, we were told to take pictures of two things:
1. The first photo should be one that demonstrates what you believe is your most cherished and natural right.
2. The second one should reflect your understanding of CITIZENSHIP.

For the first photo I chose to take a picture of my nephew of I. I believe that my most cherished and natural right is the pursuit of happiness. I believe that it is our right to be happy and to do things that make us happy. In my life, spending time with my nephew is one of the things that brings me happiness. Kayden, my nephew, is a sweet and caring little two year old boy. Whenever Kayden and I spend time together, we always have a blast with lots of smiles and laughter. I'm not sure what it would be like if I didn't have the right to do what makes me happy.




For the second photo, I chose to take a picture of a passport. I chose to take a picture of a passport because to me citizenship means that you belong to a specific country. Citizenship is the status of being a citizen, so what comes to my mind is having a passport. Your passport indicates which country you are a citizen in, so I thought a passport would explain what I understood about citizenship.

I think that the first picture helps us as future teachers better understand our students. Since it was up to us to take a photo of what we believed is our most cherished right, the teacher is able to see what is most important in our lives. The second photo helps assess our background knowledge of specific terms, such as citizenship. I think that is a great activity that students who are a little bit older could easily do. 

"Kids for Character: Citizenship"

Social Studies Blog Post #5

Field Trip

On April 4th, we took a class field trip to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. We started out by meeting at the Main Visitor Center in Porter. While there, we looked around at the bookstore and a room that was full of information about the Dunes. We also watched two short movies about the National Lakeshore as well. After that we drove to Gary to the Paul H. Douglas Center for Environmental Education. This is where we took a short hike through a section of the Miller Woods Trail and talked about the Savannah Oak.  It was absolutely beautiful to walk this short section of the trail.


After we walked the short trail, we went back to the building where we ate our lunch. After lunch, we drove to Bailly Chellberg. We took a short walk on the trail to see the farm and homestead. I think that this was a very neat experience. We talked about how when you book a field trip, a park ranger actually lets you into the home to look around. I think that this would have been a really neat experience to actually see what the house looks like on the inside. However, we were unable to see the inside of the house. Even though we did not see the inside of the house, simply seeing the outside of the homestead and farm was absolutely wonderful.

At Bailly Chellberg there was still a cemetery  and another homestead that could have been explored. However, I was frozen at this point so I did not continue any further exploration. This summer when it is warmer I would like to go back and explore more of these trails.

The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is a great place to go for a field trip. I learned a lot of different things that classrooms can do for a field trip. The best part of having a field trip: it's free! There are so many exciting aspects of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore that classrooms can explore. In my future classroom, I would love to be given the opportunity to take my class to this beautiful location for a field trip. It is especially great since it is close to us. We don't have to travel far to be able to experience this beautiful park.

To learn more about the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, click here.

Social Studies Blog Post #5

Soap Carving

For class, we read the book Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Munoz Ryan. In this book, one of Naomi's talents is soap carving, and she really enjoys making lists. One of the lists she creates lists a bunch of different animals. 

For class, we were told to bring a bar of unscented soap to carve, just like Naomi Leon. I bought a bar of Ivory unscented soap to carve. At first, I wasn't sure what I wanted to carve in my soap. I decided to look in the book for something that I could carve into my bar of soap. I came across a list of animals that Naomi Leon wrote down. It was then that I decided that I wanted to carve some type of animal into my bar of soap. I decided to carve a butterfly. 

I started carving my butterfly by first drawing my butterfly into the soap with the tip of my pencil. One I had drawn my butterfly on my soap, I used the sides of some scissors to start chipping away at my soap. Once I had chipped away the excess soap, I started attempting to smooth my butterfly with the scissors. I eventually gave up and decided to try coloring my soap with some chalk crayons because I thought that maybe adding some color would make it look better.

I found that I became more frustrated as time went on. Beforehand, I thought that it would become easier the more that I carved; however, this was not the case for me. Instead I became more frustrated the further I got in my soap carving experience. I ended up not liking how my soap carving turned out, but I think that is because I am a perfectionist. Since this was the first time I have ever carved soap, I knew that it would not be perfect, but the perfectionist in me wanted my soap carving to be perfect.

I think that this activity was a great way for us to gain a deeper understanding of the novel we were reading. We were able to actually experience what it was like to carve soap, just like Naomi Leon. In a classroom, I think that doing something like this would help my students better understand what they are reading.

"How to Make a Soap Caving" by Dave Zachary

(From YouTube)

Art Blog Post #8

Thank You, Ma'am

On March 9th, we read the story "Thank You, Ma'am" by Langston Hughes. The short story is about a young boy named Roger who attempts to steal the person of an older lady named Luella Bates Washington Jones. Roger was trying to steal the purse to get money to buy new blue suede shoes. Mrs. Luella grabs Roger by the collar and drags him back to her home. Roger believes that he is in great double; however, Mrs. Luella surprises Roger with her kindness and generosity. To read the short story, click here.

After reading the short story, we were told to make one of the characters in the story using whatever materials we wanted to. After we created our characters, we were supposed to write a diamante poem. A diamante poem looks like a diamond when it is written. A diamante poem is made up of 7 lines. Line 1 has the beginning stubject. Line 2 has two describing words about line 1. Line 3 has three doing words about line 1. Line 4 has a short phrase about line 1 and a short phrase about line 7. Line 5 has three doing words about line 7. Line 6 has two describing words about line 7. Finally, line 7 has the end subject.

I ran out of time and was only able to make my character. The character I chose to make was Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones. I chose to make Luella and included her big bag as well because that was important to the story.


Even though I never wrote the poem for this activity, I think that it would be very beneficial in a classroom. I enjoyed getting to make a character from the story because it allowed me to create what I thought the character would look like. I also think that it would be beneficial in a classroom because students could then use their character to help them write the poem. I think that my doll of Luella would have helped me create my poem, so I think that having this in a classroom would be a great activity.




Art Blog Post #7