Decades Extravaganza

Learning about other decades is more fun than what we imagined. Our great project for this semester was creating a decades display that would catch the eye of those who were walking by. Agai in teams, we decided on a decade to research. We were to investigate about the music, food, and fads and fashion of that decade. Then we took all of the information gathered and created a powerpoint and poster for our decade. We were to set up a display and make it attractive so that other people would be attarcted to it. There would be a poll on which decade present was the best.  In addition to the display, we also had to have a costume to go along with our decade. The decade that my group decided to research and represent was the 70's. We decided to go with a costume not of the fashion of that decade, but a popular series of that time, School House Rock. There were many people that did not know what we were dressed up as, but once they were told, they completely understood the theme. In the end, our decade did not win the poll, but we had a lot of fun completing the project and watching others.
This project was one that I really enjoyed completing. We were able to teach others and learn ourselves.

Pictures to come soon!

Our World: Slat and Flour

Salt and flour maps is something that is very accessible to teachers and students and is fun to work with. Creating salt and flour maps brings out the creativity in everyone. In groups, we were to create a salt and flour map of a country of our choice. We also used food coloring and sprinkles and other cake decorations to give the finishing touch to our maps. Our group decided to do the country of Itlay. While creating the map, we also learned many new things. We had to do some research in order to be able to complete our map and put in extra features that would make our map look better. Some members of our team even learned that there are volcanoes in Italy! Amazing. When we finished working on our maps, we got to share them with the rest of the class. We were able to learn about our country and also about the countries that were chosen by other groups. This activity did not talke a long time, and proved to be very educational. The materials involved were not many and they were not expensive. Making salt and flour maps in the classroom is something that would be available at a low cost to the teacher, if students are not able to provide their own. Below are pictures of the Italy map that my group created.

For more information on how to create salt and flour maps, click on the link below.

Dough Maps

Our Geography

Geography, another part of social studies. For this lesson, we were to take a picture of our neighborhood. When we got to class, we saw a great diversity of landscapes. We taped the pictures up on the wall so that we were able to get a better view of all of them. When they were all together, we were able to see many similarities and differences. Some of us live in the country, others live in the city. Some of us have big front or back yard, and some of us have none.
Teaching students about geography has to start at home so that they do not get overwhelmed. What a better way to start than by comparing the neighborhoods where they live. If students are not able to get a picture of their neighborhood, there is always google maps where the teacher is able to get a quick map. Once students relate these differences and siliarities in close neighborhoods, they will be able to undertsand differences among states and other countries in the world

Click here for more resources for teaching geography

Artifacts to Define Us

Learning about history and culture is something that can be very boring to students. Especially if this teaching is made through lecture. But in class, we participated in an activity that would make us think about the artifacts that are left behind by others. For one class, we were to take in 5 atrifacts that describes us. For some, the assigment was easier than for others. To the left are pictures of some of the artifacts that classmates took. There were some people that could not leave their technology behind, while others took with them objects related to their hobbies. For the next class, our assigment was to place artifacts in a shoebox that we would take along with us if we had 10 minutes to pack before we had to leave and move to another place. This shoebox could not be extremely big, as we had to really think about what we wanted to include. When we arrived in class, we were to share our box with others. We discovered things about our classmates that we did not know about. Things that are not apparent at first sight, but are truly important to that person. There were also many people that decided to take along with them objects that they would need for survival. With this activity, we were able to build yet more classroom community. We were able to learn so much about objects that might not be valuable to some, but are significant to others. In the end, we reached one conclusion, most of us cherish moments more than we cherish tangible objects.

Paper Clipping our Past

Another film that we viewed in class was "Paper Clips". This film is about how one social studies class was able to make a difference around the world. It all started with one simple question...What is six million? The class had been studying the Holocaust. When the class was told how many people had died from the Final Solution, one student could just not picture what 6 million people looked like or was. To help the students understand, the teacher decided to make a class activity. They were to collect 6 million papaer clips, each would then represent one person that died during the Holocaust. The outcome of the project was something that the teachers had not imagined. People from around the world started sending paper clips and soon they exceeded the amount they were out to collect. The project then started to become personal. Students wanted to learn more about the Holocaust and the people that were affected. The students got a lesson that they would never be able to get inside the classroom. They received a lifelong lesson that they will never forget.
Having students involved in real world experiences will make students more interested in learning. If the students at Whitwell Middle School had not asked one simple question, they would have never been able to talk to survivors in person and have the experience of seeing a box car that was used for transporting the Jews.
This lesson became much more than just the Holocaust. It was about the human lives that were lost and the people that we never had the chance to meet. Like the video stated, we might have had the person to discover the cure for a disease die during the Holocaust, we just will never know.

Below is a blog about teaching tolerance and acceptance to children.

Accepting Others

What Color Are You?

One of the most life changing experiences that I have had is watching the film "Starting Small". This film is about teaching tolerance to students and the importance of getting them exposed at a young age. Here is a picture of the cover.

The film talked about how a teacher explained color differences to her students. The task was to find match the color of their skin with the paint colors that the teacher had. Although many of the students were white, their color was not white. This helped students see that not everyone is the same color and that every person is unique. The moment that stuck in my mind was when one of the boys in the video got angry at another boy that had just joined the classroom because he said that he was white. He told him that he could not be white, no one in the classroom was white. When the young boy got introduced to the concept of skin color, he then found out that indeed he was not white, he was a blend of two colors, none of which was white. This is something that I always have present and will never forget. I want to be able to show my students that we are all unique and that we are all special in our own way. I want to be able to show them that we should not discriminate beacuse others say someone is one color. It is very difficult to find someone that is our exact color. In class we did an actvity trying to find our color with color pencils that were provided and not two people that I saw used the same colors. We all had our own unique blend of colors.

Be sure to check out the blog below for more details on Starting Small.

Starting Small Blog

Games Around the World

One of the activites that I remember a lot from the previous semester is Games Around the World. For this activity, the class was separated into groups. Each group had to then choose a country and research games that are popular in the culture of that country. The groups then had to explain their game to the rest of the class and we even got to play some of them. There were some games that were played outside and others were played inside. Here are pictures of some outside games.

Not only did we have fun playing all of these games, but we also learned a lot. Every group in our class had a different country and culture. We came to find out that although the names of the games are different, the games themselves were very similar. There were various versions of tag, for example. This comes to prove that although we might be different, there are always things that bring us together and makes us alike. The weakness of one person is the strength of another. We need to all share our strengths and abilities. This is something that we are able to transmit to our students.

To learn more about the importance of teaching students about other cultures, click on the link below.

Teaching Culture