NAT project

For the NAT project, my group members and I were given the task of researching the Lakota tribe. This was a bit difficult seeing that sometimes there was little information to be found about things such as their habitat. However, once our PowerPoint was all together, it was interesting to see all of the information we had found about this interesting tribe. I was especially interested by their dancing ceremonies and the clothes they wore. I loved hearing about all of the other tribes my classmates presented. It is amazing to learn about cultures that are so different from your own.


Here is the link to our PowerPoint!

Final Remarks--A Few Things I've learned

A few things I've learned this semester: Fall 2015-- SS Methods


1. Go out of you're comfort zone once in a while...it's not always a bad thing.

2. I need to be more comfortable using technology.

3. I need to practice interviewing.

4. Hard work WILL pay off. So as hard as it is in the moment, do it!

5. Teaching is fun! More fun than I imagined it would be.

6. Working/teaching in a group is a difficult task, but worth it in the end. 


I can't wait to teach. When i am a teacher I will look back on my journey I will remember this course, what it has taught me, and how it has prepared me to teach.

Thoughts on the Course

I can not lie...this course was challenging!! I am not tech savvy, and this class forced me out of my comfort zone of paper and pen. I was forced to use technology more than I ever would have wanted to. However, this was a good thing. I know that as a teacher, I am going to need to incorporate technology into my lessons on a daily basis. In this class i learned many ways to incorporate technology into teaching Social Studies. One of my favorites was Kahoot. An interactive online quiz where you can make up the questions and answers. Not only is this fun for Social Studies but other content areas as well. Another fun use of technology that my group used while teaching at Bishop Dunn is Voki. This allows you to create a character that can speak, and you decide what the character looks like and says. This is a fun way to introduce a topic to activity to the class. I will be using both of these when I am a teacher and I have a class of my own.

I am grateful for the experience that I have had in this class. Especially my first experience with teaching. It was even better that I got to teach with friends : )

Mock Interviews

Being involved in a mock interview today in class was very intimidating. I felt like I was in a actual interview! I was not prepared for the types of questions that I was asked. I realize that I need a lot more practice with answering questions. While my group members were quick to answer questions, I sometimes had to think about my response before answering. In a real interview, I will be expected to  answer questions quickly, and have a response at the ready. Having an immediate response presents you as more knowledgeable. 
Some of the interview questions were very fun and abstract. These, I enjoyed answering. One for example was: If you could go back to any event in time, what would it be and why?

I struggled with questions about assessment. I need to be more informed about this topic. Others, were very challenging. A few times I had to ask for the question to be repeated because I did not understand what the question, or because it was wordy.

This was a great, eye-opening experience. It put me in a position to see what my strengths and weaknesses are as far as being interviewed. 

Choosing to be Grateful

"Acting grateful can actually make you grateful."
It would never have crossed my mind that if individuals practiced being grateful they would in fact become happier. However, this makes perfect sense. I think there are so many things in life that are taken for granted. Even i am guilty of taking everyday luxuries for granted. I don;t realize how lucky I am to wake up in a bed until i see someone sleeping on the streets. Or, that I am able to eat three meals a day until I see commercials on the television(another thing) that remind me of those not so lucky who go days without food. 
there are times that remind me of how lucky I am, and I have the feeling of being grateful. But this feeling is not as frequent as it should be. I need to make it a point to enjoy the little things in my life, which when I think about it are actually big things. When I am a teacher, I hope to influence my students to be grateful for what they have.  I will remind them how lucky they are to be sitting in the classroom, and that they are lucky to have books to read. I would like to be able to do a project in which my class collects books/school supplies to be donated to countries that are not lucky enough to have classrooms and books. This will be an eye-opening experience for students and will make them feel that they are helping other children around the world. 

Artifact Bags

In class, we learned about how teachers can use Artifact Bags as a tool for teaching Social Studies. I think this is a very fun activity for students and also teachers. This activity is hands on and interactive. It allows students to work together in groups and promotes inquiry. Artifact Bags give students the opportunity to draw conclusions about a who or a what based on clues in the artifact. 
I think that this can also be used in different content areas...not just S.S. One could also use this when teaching Language Arts as an activity for figuring out a book or a character. This is an activity that could be fun for all ages. This is a great tool for elementary and adolescent teachers to have in their tool boxes! I can't wait to use artifact bags in my future classroom!!

Teaching Economics

I have discovered that there are a variety of fun ways to teach economics to students. 
I remember that I didn't really start learning about economics until I was in high school. In my senior year, I was required to take a class called "Economics." In this class, the students in the classroom made up a community. We all got assigned different jobs, which we had to apply for. I was the Tax Collector. We had to come up with each individual's salary, taxes, etc. The class was fun and this was the first time that I was actually understanding a real-life situation that I would soon be living. The fact that this was hand- on and students were the decision makers made it even more fun.This is an excellent way to teach economics to older students.
When teaching younger students, there are a number of interactive websites that can be used. Many involve students answering questions about economics in the form of a game. This way, students are learning and having fun at the same time! Another way to introduce students to the concept of money is by having a store in your classroom. Students will learn to save money for something that they want, and they will learn that money has to be earned. I will be using this idea in my future classroom!

My classmates and I created a PowerPoint presentation about teaching economics. Slides 39-46 are full of valuable resources to use for teaching economics!