Ed Camp

We had some great discussions today. It was great to talk to people about what worked in their classroom. We all have enough experience now to really share ideas after trying lots of different things.  After a couple years we've all been through the trial and errors and we know the lessons that are most effective. I picked up some great lesson ideas to integrate art and language arts into my history. I want to start using Edmodo. I learn a lot from my peers.

Beginning the writing lesson

I started my journey towards a persuasive essay about the colonial regions by teaching the students how to first write a solid persuasive essay.  I used the district resources, focusing on analyzing counter arguments and using higher level transition words.  When I was happy with the kids' progress, I started to plan out how I was going to bring the colonies into the mix.   I have never enjoyed teaching about colonial life.  I usually jam through it.  I am glad this assignment made me do something different this year.  I had the students jigsaw the three regions and it made all the difference.  They enjoyed it, learned more than my previous classes, and I was proud of their learning.  It was a win-win and they were ready to write persuasive essays.

Wordle Writing Reflection

I realize that when reading my students' writing, I am initialing focused on how well they established their character.  Because they wrote a narrative about a person in history, I guess I am analyzing their work on how well they created that character.  "Think" and "thinking" are also bold words.  I am trying to teach the kids how to think as authors, but at the same time, they have to think as their historical figure would have.

Historical Thinking, Tier 1

As fifth grade teachers, I think covering Tier 1 is basically our goal.  We have to provide a solid foundation for the students, because we are their first real stop when it comes to learning history.  It is essential that we teach them that they cannot use the values of the present to understand the past.  I think that doing a first person narrative as a person from the past can help them put themselves in their shoes somewhat.  It will make them have to think about the issues from that historical time.  Just visualizing what things looked like 500 years ago will be important.  We really have to scaffold their learning if we want ten year olds to gain that perspective though.  It is a very high level of thinking.  I think using the SPECs can help here, because it makes them look at the different parts of the history through a different lens.

Writing Assignment

Our group decided to plan ahead for our fifth grade narrative writing next trimester.  We are going to plan a lesson that has the students write a story about the journey of a person or the actual explorer of their choice.  We started to brainstorm which explorers had a compelling story that can be turned into an interesting narrative.  It seems like a very simple assignment, but I think the it fits well for the objective of learning the history and writing.

Fall 2011

When I think about our weeklong workshop, I automatically think of heroes.  Dr. Denenberg leaves quite an impression.  The students in his classes must have learned a lot.  He gave us a lot of "take and use" ideas.  We were given so much information that it is still sinking in today.  The history professor gave us so many interesting stories that it seemed like some of them must have been made up.  I have been reading more about some George Washington's early battles.

First Post

I know a lot more after these first four sessions, including many strategies I can use in all subjects.  I've got to get all the stuff organized so I can take advantage of everything.  I am excited to have a big project to work on.  First thing I am going to do is some research on the Comanches.  I was inspired by Dr. "Willy", and I think my students will really enjoy learning about the Comanche and their interactions with the settlers.