An effective practitioner is a life-long learner that is open to new ideas and concepts from all the stakeholders. Teaching and learning is a continuous process of taking in new information, applying that to their own background knowledge and developing new and unique conceptual thinking. I feel at this point that I have gained great insights into making my practice more effective and productive through great discussions, using digital technology, and researching, selecting, and analyzing primary sources with greater depth to meet the needs of my students. I must say I have a new appreciation for the role of online discussion boards. It was always my hope that my students would have good discussions, ask question, or provide some deep insights. Now I am aware that the topic needs to provide that platform, similar to what we did with Ansel Adams photo analysis from the Japanese –American relocation center,//https://www.loc.gov/collection/ansel-adams-manzanar/about-this-collection///. This really made me reflect on the importance of great topics that lead to critical and thought provoking discussions. Also, the role of the instructor needs to be present in the class while demonstrating, interacting, and scaffolding support, as necessary. The same can be noted for the use of digital technology. While I always felt somewhat comfortable with digital technology the way this course was designed it became natural for technology use to be totally embedded throughout the course work. There were times I did feel a little disequilibrium as I approached the task, but once I was done all was fine. The Voice Thread activity was a great experience and I think what made this such a success is that it was organized around a topic on a slave auction advertisement, 25 Sea Island Cotton and Rice Negros. In addition,there was prepared questions to answer when recording the Voice Thread. This made the task much more comprehensible. This course also excellent activities for researching, selecting, and analyzing primary sources, however, while I was searching I often had to check myself and my thinking about what group of students and with what lens I was selecting materials. As a professor of literacy, assessment, and social studies, I am responsible for teaching my preservice teachers the content plus methodology for social studies. We currently have two courses for teaching Social Studies, 1. Course that is for teaching content to meet the Florida Educators Accomplished Practices (FEAP’s), and 2. A methods course translating the concepts to practice with elementary children K-6, standards found at Cplams from the Florida Department of Education http://www.cpalms.org/Public/search/Standard. Therefore, at times when searching I felt like I had a split personality. When I did the Interactive module with the Blog, I chose the Blog, titled Making Interdisciplinary Connection with Maps and this could addressed in my methods class, whereas, the Save Analysis document I would use with preservice teachers in the content course. While, many of the activities done in the course to date could be used for both classes, I felt that resources for elementary students on the LOC were not as extensive as for secondary students, therefore I read the article by Evelyn Holt Otten (nd) titled, Using Primary Sources in the Primary Grades to gain some insights and strategies for using and finding primary sources. The first item I came across when reading this article was what are primary sources, and Otten citied Danzen and Newman (1996) that “early educators will use realia” (p. 24), similar to our Personal Display we are currently doing. Danzer and Newman (1991) go on to suggest that there are 5 different types of primary sources, they suggest; “1. Print documents, 2. Electronic media, 3. Arts-graphic and fine, 4. Folklore, and 5. Physical environment art” (p.21). The article then continued to discuss where you can find primary sources and Otten states everywhere- from your attic, to state archives, of course the LOC, and one interesting site I read about was the Peace Corps at www.peacecorps.gov. You can get teaching videos, resources, lessons, or volunteers. This was very interesting. Otten also advises that thinking about how to use primary sources with elementary be creative! So that is what I will do as I continue my own learning.
References
Danzer, G., & Newman (1997). "Primary Sources in the Teaching of History." In BRING HISTORY ALIVE! A SOURCEBOOK FOR TEACHING UNITED STATES HISTORY. Ankeny, K, Del Rio, R., Nash, D., Vigilante, (1997). Los Angeles: National Center for History in the Schools. ED 417 121. Otten, E.H., (nd). Using Primary Sources in the Primary Grades. Eric Digest. http://www.ericdigests.org/1999-1/primary.html
An effective practitioner is a life-long learner that is open to new ideas and concepts from all the stakeholders. Teaching and learning is a continuous process of taking in new information, applying that to their own background knowledge and developing new and unique conceptual thinking. I feel at this point that I have gained great insights into making my practice more effective and productive through great discussions, using digital technology, and researching, selecting, and analyzing primary sources with greater depth to meet the needs of my students.
I must say I have a new appreciation for the role of online discussion boards. It was always my hope that my students would have good discussions, ask question, or provide some deep insights. Now I am aware that the topic needs to provide that platform, similar to what we did with Ansel Adams photo analysis from the Japanese –American relocation center, //https://www.loc.gov/collection/ansel-adams-manzanar/about-this-collection///. This really made me reflect on the importance of great topics that lead to critical and thought provoking discussions. Also, the role of the instructor needs to be present in the class while demonstrating, interacting, and scaffolding support, as necessary. The same can be noted for the use of digital technology.
While I always felt somewhat comfortable with digital technology the way this course was designed it became natural for technology use to be totally embedded throughout the course work. There were times I did feel a little disequilibrium as I approached the task, but once I was done all was fine. The Voice Thread activity was a great experience and I think what made this such a success is that it was organized around a topic on a slave auction advertisement, 25 Sea Island Cotton and Rice Negros. In addition,there was prepared questions to answer when recording the Voice Thread. This made the task much more comprehensible. This course also excellent activities for researching, selecting, and analyzing primary sources, however, while I was searching I often had to check myself and my thinking about what group of students and with what lens I was selecting materials.
As a professor of literacy, assessment, and social studies, I am responsible for teaching my preservice teachers the content plus methodology for social studies. We currently have two courses for teaching Social Studies, 1. Course that is for teaching content to meet the Florida Educators Accomplished Practices (FEAP’s), and 2. A methods course translating the concepts to practice with elementary children K-6, standards found at Cplams from the Florida Department of Education http://www.cpalms.org/Public/search/Standard. Therefore, at times when searching I felt like I had a split personality. When I did the Interactive module with the Blog, I chose the Blog, titled Making Interdisciplinary Connection with Maps and this could addressed in my methods class, whereas, the Save Analysis document I would use with preservice teachers in the content course. While, many of the activities done in the course to date could be used for both classes, I felt that resources for elementary students on the LOC were not as extensive as for secondary students, therefore I read the article by Evelyn Holt Otten (nd) titled, Using Primary Sources in the Primary Grades to gain some insights and strategies for using and finding primary sources.
The first item I came across when reading this article was what are primary sources, and Otten citied Danzen and Newman (1996) that “early educators will use realia” (p. 24), similar to our Personal Display we are currently doing. Danzer and Newman (1991) go on to suggest that there are 5 different types of primary sources, they suggest; “1. Print documents, 2. Electronic media, 3. Arts-graphic and fine, 4. Folklore, and 5. Physical environment art” (p.21). The article then continued to discuss where you can find primary sources and Otten states everywhere- from your attic, to state archives, of course the LOC, and one interesting site I read about was the Peace Corps at www.peacecorps.gov. You can get teaching videos, resources, lessons, or volunteers. This was very interesting. Otten also advises that thinking about how to use primary sources with elementary be creative! So that is what I will do as I continue my own learning.
References
Danzer, G., & Newman (1997). "Primary Sources in the Teaching of History." In BRING HISTORY ALIVE! A SOURCEBOOK FOR TEACHING UNITED STATES HISTORY. Ankeny, K, Del Rio, R., Nash, D., Vigilante, (1997). Los Angeles: National Center for History in the Schools. ED 417 121.
Otten, E.H., (nd). Using Primary Sources in the Primary Grades. Eric Digest.
http://www.ericdigests.org/1999-1/primary.html