Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Awesome Internet Resources for High School Social Studies

The Cornell Law School Website:
This is a must for anyone teaching government to teach students about the judicial branch. Also comes in handy for running a judicial branch simulation so that students can research cases that they will try before a court of their peers. The Oyez Project is another website that helps in understanding the constitutional issues surrounding any supreme court case. The Cornell site is much more user friendly and is organized for better understanding. However, the Oyez Project has a podcast on iTunes so that you can listen to a buffet of constitutional law. The Cornell site can be used for more than just High School government class. I have also used it when talking about specific Supreme Court cases in American History and Alaska History.
PBS:
PBS has many great stories and lesson plans for teaching about American history. The pest one that I have found and utilized was their segment on WWI. The Great War gives a very in depth look at the build-up, conflict, and the aftermath of the first world war. It helps to paint a detailed picture of the past in a way that makes the second world war as well as many curent conflict make sense. I was able to teach this lesson this winter when tensions in Israel were on the rise and conflict was turning bloodier by the minute. This was a very good tool for the kids to understand the conflict surrounding the holy land.
Alaska History:
The state of Alaska offers a very good website that is designed for home schooled students as well as a credit recovery program for the Alaska History standard for the state. This website has been a very valuable resource for me to brush up on Alaskan issues in a timeline manner that includes: Native History, the Russian period, American Territorial period, and Statehood. There isn't much for lesson plans here, but it is packed full of good information that you can use in conjunction with the Alaska Flipchart lesson plans in my IEP that can be used to teach an entire semester of Alaskan History.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

My I.E.P. for Adobe's In Design

My IEP project: For my individualized educational plan I decided that I needed to learn how to use Adobe’s In Design. I have been creating worksheets and other informational handouts using Microsoft Word for most of the year. I have learned to utilize many of the different functions within Word and found ways to create some fairly good handouts for my students. After receiving the In Design software and watching Mr. Lehnhart turn out handout after handout using In Design and watching the students engagement in a piece of paper, I knew that learning how to master In Design would be essential to garnering the same response out of my handouts.

My “baseline” knowledge of how to use In Design was not very extensive. I wanted to be able to:

§ To create visually differentiated text in a way that will clarify learning outcomes

§ Layer graphics and text in a way that allows handouts to flow and more clearly spell out learning outcomes for lessons

§ Learn to be proficient enough with In Design that I am able to successfully complete a handout with minimal support.

Lesson #1: Economic Stimulus

Designed using Microsoft Word, this handout lays out some of the plans for the economic stimulus bill along with additional information that will be needed to further understand the bill so that students will be able to adequately understand the bill for in class discussion and debate as well as acting as a catalyst for student input on the bill itself. Interesting handouts can be created using Word, however, Word lacks creativity. In Design makes the process easier and does not constrict you to preset formatting and Word functions. Thus, In Design allows for more creative freedom…if you can think it you can do it with In Design.

Lessons #2-6: Alaska History Flipchart

Designed using In Design, this lesson is designed to follow in line with the important time periods within Alaska history as they correspond geographically and thematically with the history of human occupation in Alaska. As far as the designing of the handouts this was a fairly simple process with In Design and a very good “beginner” lesson in using In Design for lesson planning. There is an explanation of the format describing how the lesson should be put together.

Lesson #7: What Am I?; 20th Century American Inventions

This lesson was designed using In Design and is designed to get students to investigate and teach about specific inventions that were created in the United States during the 20th century. This lesson is a step up in sophistication from the AK Flipchart lesson and shows progression in understanding how to utilize In Design in the classroom.

Lesson #8: American History; The Cold War through films

Designed using In Design, this lesson is designed as part of a weekend project for each student to watch and analyze a film that depicts some aspect of the Cold War. This is a far more complex handout to design and should further cement my command of In Design.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Article Assessment: The Overdominance of Computers

In this article Monke goes into depth on the omnipresent use of the computer, coming in various forms, in education and in the home lives of adolescents.  Monke contends that Children are being so inundated with technology that they are growing up lacking the fundamental life skills that are needed to be a functioning and valuable member of society.  Monke is not against all computer use, just the manner in which technology has been implemented into the educational lives and the homes of today's youth.
 First children need to be taught these fundamental core values that contribute to students becoming better citizens latter in life.  
Monke says: "[...] it is the lack of qualities like hope, compassion, trust, respect, a sense of belonging, moral judgement, stability, community support, parental care, and teacher competence and enthusiasm that keeps so many students imprisoned in ignorance."  
Along with the disconnect of these core values Monke finds that children who engage more frequently with the digital world have also have a disconnect with reality that can be quite debilitating.  With a perception of reality that is based in the digital world children will never be able to contend with the monumental tasks that will be left for them by our generation.

Dealing with global climate change, energy independence, the global financial crisis, the possibility of nuclear disasters, and many others will be virtually impossible for children at this stage.  

Ultimately Monke says that better preparation in technology education needs to begin at the elementary level and carried out at home as well to avoid the need to make corrections in student understanding later in life.  "How can young people develop the wisdom to judge high technology if they are told from the moment they enter school, implicitly if not explicitly, that they need high-tech tools to learn, to communicate, to think?"

Monk notes the following as important educational experiences for children:
  • Close, loving relationships with responsible adults.
  • Outdoor activity, nature exploration, gardening, and other encounters with nature.
  • Time for unstructured play as part of the core curriculum.
  • Music, drama, puppetry, dance, painting, and other arts, both as separate classes and as a catalyst to bring other academic subjects to life.
  • Conversations with important adults, as well as poetry, storytelling, and hearing books read aloud.
These experiences help to bring students more in touch with the real world, but to not exclude the use of technology to further student understanding.  Technological inputs to this educational process need to remain simple and should not widen the gap between student understanding and the real world, but should enhance that understanding.