Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Social Studies and TPCK

Although I do not teach Social Studies I was able to adapt much of what I read to Language Arts and Math. Along with Social Studies, the three content areas I teach impact and enhance life in a democratic society. Dewey stated it best by stating “life in a democracy requires citizens to deliberate and reflect in communal arena where barriers to participation are minimal and individuals act in practical and meaningful ways to improve their own life and contribute to the progress of humanity (Lee, 140).” Becoming a democratic citizen means being able to communicate, problem solve, and think; all skills which are learned and practiced in reading, writing, and math. This chapter stressed the importance of using technology to accessing, select, and sift through information. Teachers should help students develop critical media skills and provide opportunities to apply it. All of this leads to the creation of a more authentic learning experiences for our students. These experiences are supposed to lead to excitement, curiosity, and further pursuit of knowledge by the child/children involved.
A key point that I took from this chapter was this quote:
“Well designed digital (historical) resources should enable authenticity and student interest, facilitate student interaction with a wide range of practical and authentic (historical) subject matter, encourage creative and public applications of students’ emerging (historical) knowledge, and aid students as the design learning opportunities and construct tangible artifacts that represent personal and shared (historical) understandings (Calandra & Lee, 2005)” In adapting this to my classroom I could expose my students to digital story books (for instance), allow them to explore storybooks of interest, and then ask them to create, and post, their own. Once I know more about the other Web 2.0 publishing tools such as weblogs and wikis, podcasting, news aggregators, file sharing, and online writing tools I can (possibly) start incorporating these into my writing lessons as well.
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6 comments:

  1. JennyMarch 14, 2009 at 4:36 PM

    Ahhh......I posted a comment during class and it's not here? Anyway . . .

    James-

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  2. JennyMarch 14, 2009 at 4:52 PM

    James- Great sites! Many of them led to lesson plans for English/Language Arts, k-6. I especially liked a few ideas from "Best Practices of Technology Integration" and from the Bowling Green Area School. "Pass it on Fairy Tales, and "Photo Stories" were two that I could easily integrate into my classroom. I noticed that many of the lessons plans incorporating technology on the Bowling Green Area site used Kid Pix as their main tool. This is definitely a program that seems easy enough for even kindergarten students to use. They used Kid Pix with their 100th day lesson, Alphabet books, shape, and springtime lesson. An easy way for all of us to dabble with technology with our students.

    One thing that continues to bother me is wasting time searching for things I cannot find. Under the Rockingham County site (for example) I went under a Kindergarten, English site that gave numerous other links (I thought to pertinent lessons on phonemic awareness and short vowels). Instead I found a coloring page, a shark game, and a link for shorts! All cool, but not what I had expected. I guess this is where patience, practice, and teaching students how to sort through good and not so good information comes in handy.

    Last thought- "Technology for Teachers" was a super site for Elementary teachers. It led me right to Kid Pix, smartboard, powerpoint, excel, kidspiration, and much more. Thanks James.

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  3. JennyMarch 14, 2009 at 5:01 PM

    Charmaine- Super sites! I definitely understood where you were coming from when you said (during class) how you are just starting to try things out with technology. After class I raced home to show my sons some of the games on your websites! We raced speedboats, cars, and spaceships all night long. Although they couldn't do the addition, subtraction, and multiplication, they were using the keyboard and clicking on the number that I was verbally telling them to pick. What a fun way for them to learn their numbers (0-100). I can also see my Title 1a math students loving lessons with this program. One of the first and second grade PLC goals is to quickly add and subtract. Our students are given timed worksheets to race through. I use to hate being times. These speed games would do accomplish this task in a much more engaging way.

    I played around a bit with classroom architect, KidsVid, Rubistar, and I loved 4Teachers.org.

    Thanks Charmaine.

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  4. JennyMarch 14, 2009 at 5:05 PM

    Oops....how do I go back and edit? I guess I need to reread BEFORE I post next time. Sorry James and Charmaine for the typos. I'm sure you understood most of what I wrote :) Jenny

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  5. Charmaine ReflectionsMarch 22, 2009 at 7:55 PM

    WOW! I hope you didn’t get a speeding ticket when you rushed home! Trying out all those new technologies is a scary process. I keep thinking, what if I break something? I’ll have to pay to fix it and my pockets got a hole in it. But seriously, game playing is a great way to learn a new skill because it is fun! ENJOY!

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  6. James BlackMarch 25, 2009 at 12:45 PM

    Like i said in other comments the limitless resources are there its just a matter of getting to them. It can be an adventure. I have yet to find a site that has a list of URLs for education well organized and search able.

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