I am so amazed at how much I have already learned and it's only week three. I think one of the main things that I have learned this week are generalizations. This is what you do after you have chosen your concepts. Generalizations are what connect the concepts together and create the overall idea of the unit/lesson. Generalizations are not what you specifically tell the students what they are going to learn, but they are the main focus of what they are going to learn. I also learned about some really cool websites and apps to use. Some of them are, cnnstudents.com, near pod, kahoot and several others. These are very cool ways that I can use in my classroom. Being able to learn new things has been very exciting for me and I can't wait to use them in my future classroom.
Now, to my research. This week I found an article about keeping students active in school. The website is The Guardian and the title of it is, Inside the schools fighting childhood obesity with fitness. I think that it is very important to keep students active in school and help them with their fitness. I know this doesn't have anything to do with social studies methods but I think that it is something that should be a main focus. I am currently in PHED 300 and we are learning that it is very important to integrate health/physical education standards into the everyday classroom. Students aren't getting the exercise that they need during the week at school because they only go to P.E. like once a week and recess for only 30-40 minutes a day. After reading this article I realized that schools and teachers need to be more aware of students daily physical activity. This article mentioned some schools who were trying to change some things to help with students and their fitness. For example, one school now give the students four breaks within the day. Yes, that sounds like a lot but it gives the students a chance to be active and it give them a chance to give themselves a brain break. Two of the breaks, the students are allowed to go outside and play and the other two breaks are used just to stand up and move around the classroom. I think this article made some very interesting points. It made me realize that I can help with students health by just having them stand up and do activities while we work and learn or give them a brain break. This is something that I will defiantly try to incorporate into my future classroom.
I think that this article would fall under the fourth teaching standard, Teachers Facilitate Learning for their Students. It is important that teachers relate the materials that they teach to being active so they can have a long and healthy life. If teachers integrate these things into their lesson, they can inform students the importance of healthy living.
I also feel that I am learning so much already from generalizations to conceptual lenses. I took PHED 300 a few semesters ago, and I, too, learned how important it is to keep the class physically active throughout the day. The class should be provided with various activities to prevent them from just sitting all day. I read this one activity that I really liked. The teacher would have a jar filled with popsicle sticks. On each popsicle stick was a quick, fun activity (like do 10 jumping jacks, run in place for 15 seconds...etc.) to break the monotony of the students sitting in their seats. Whenever the students look bored or restless, the teacher would just pull a popsicle stick from the "Activities Jar." It is a fun way for the students to be active, and it helps to burn some of their energy. I definitely plan on using that idea for my classroom.
ReplyDeleteLacey,
ReplyDeleteGood job with connecting your learning to multiple classes. You are right - students in 2016 NEED to move frequently. The classroom teacher can easily integrate this into their classroom - BUT - this will test the teacher's classroom management abilities.
Glad you are learning in the class!