The End of a Wild Ride!

My learning experience in Dr. Smirnova's Social Studies Methods class has come to an end. I have learned so much from this course and feel as if I have grown as an aspiring teacher. This class was a great opportunity for me to get more experience in teaching.

At the beginning of this class, I knew this was going to be a challenging class for me when I read the "words of wisdom" from students who already took the course on the first day of class. It definitely scared me a little. Before this class, I was never really someone who participated in class and during the first day, when I was called on multiple times since our class was so small, I struggled with reflecting on certain things presented in class. This class definitely helped me learn to how to reflect on things and create opinions when in class. The fieldwork experience was a huge challenge for me since I haven't had much experience teaching so when I heard that we were teaching to a whole class, I got very nervous. I've learned many things during my fieldwork experience. I learned the different types of instruction: direct, inquiry, and cooperative and how to engage students in these lessons. At the end, I felt satisfied and learned how rewarding it is helping students learn. It was also interesting seeing our lessons in action in a classroom. We learned different ways to teach economics, current events, geography, and more. We also learned projects like jigsaw projects and artifact bag projects that are effective and that we can use in our classroom. We learned how to incorporate technology in the classroom and how to make social studies powerful for students using the 5 elements including meaningful, integrative, value-based, challenging, and active. 

I struggled many times including in fieldwork since it was my first experience but I've learned from my mistakes. This class also helped me gain the confidence in presenting to a class since I am very shy and struggle with that. I also struggled with creating lessons but the resources we were given helped myself learn how to create effective lessons. 

When I become a teacher, I would want my students to have an efficient learning experience and get the most out of my teaching. I will make sure I engage my students as much as I can and also incorporate the five powerful elements of teaching social studies. I believe that students learn more when they are doing and being involved. I want to bring social studies to life in my classroom where students can visually see things instead of being taught about it. I am so thankful for being given this opportunity to learn how to effectively teach and I can't wait to become a teacher. It's been fun blogging my experience. Thank you!

Mock Interview Experience

On Monday, I participated in a mock interview. Three classmates, who would be the interviewers, were given questions that they were instructed to ask the rest of the class. The interviewers played a role as administrators and interviewed everyone to see who they would hire as teachers in their given schools. Each administrator had a different type of school: a direct instruction-only school, an inquiry instruction-only school, and a cooperative instruction-only school. Their questions were based off their provided instruction.

Before going into the mock interview, I didn't know what to expect and I was really nervous. It's nerve-racking to get interviewed by your peers. I've never been on an interview before so I didn't really know how to act. I knew I had to dress appropriately and come prepared knowing the information that we would be presented on. 

I was first interviewed by Christine, who was an administrator of a cooperative learning-only school. One question I liked from her was "What kind of dance would you relate cooperative learning to?" I had to take a minute to think but I said slow dancing with another person because in order to have a successful dance, both people must contribute and follow the right steps, and they have to work together, like cooperative learning. 

I was then interviewed by Kelli, who was an administrator of a direct instruction-only school. One question I thought was challenging from her was "How would you engage students in a direct instruction lesson?" I struggled with this question at first. I replied to ask questions for the students to answer to have them talk rather than only the teacher talking. I also said that when a student gives an answer, I would do the "thumbs up/thumbs down" strategy to make sure every student is understanding. Looking back at it now, I would also engage the students by giving them guided notes or graphic organizers to follow and take notes when given new information. I liked this question even though it was challenging because it is important aspect of direct instruction. 

Finally, I was interviewed by Lindsay who was an administrator of an inquiry instruction-only school. One question I liked from her was "If you could relate any type of music to inquiry instruction, what would it be?" I immediately tried to think of types of music that had lyrics that were challenging and made you think. I then thought of rap because I personally need to think more about rap lyrics rather than others and use critical thinking, like inquiry.  

Since it was my first time being interviewed, I struggled with coming up with answers on the spot and trying to stay professional. I also kept using "like" and "uhm" a lot which I also need to change. I found tips to have a successful teaching job interview. Overall, this mock interview was helpful because it gave me some experience as to what it would be like to be interviewed and how I should act.

What Else is Social Studies?: Law Related Education/Civics Education/Social Action

In class, we were assigned a project called "What else is Social Studies". There are many other topics that are considered "Social Studies". We were each assigned a partner and a topic and I was instructed to work with Nicole S. on Law Related Education/civics education/ social action. We decided to use the website, Prezi, to present our research.



Prezi is a tool used to present information as a slideshow similar to PowerPoint. Prezi is easy to use and navigate and provides templates that can be appealing to the audience. For our presentation, we decided to use a template that resembles a map of the world. When working on our Prezi, we had some difficulties because it was a new tool we've both never used before but once we became familiar with it, I noticed that it is easy to use.


Our topic was Law Related Education. Before starting our research, I thought Law Related Education was just learning about the government but I've learned so much as a discovered what it includes and how to teach this topic. Law Related Education (LRE) is education that teaches individuals how to act as citizen and how the law affects them. It's used to develop an understanding of how to respond to the law and legal issues in society. LRE should be included in the Social Studies curriculum for four reasons: development of knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for citizenship, prevention of delinquency, growth of student interest in the Social Studies, and facts and concepts are necessary in order to understand history. To help students learn more about LRE, the class can be provided with programs, debates, mock trials, and activities that would engage the students about law related education. Another way to engage to have the students interact students with resource persons, including lawyers, judges, police officers, and legislators. This is helpful for the students to get an experience where they can see that the material is important in real world situations.

Here's a blog on Mock Trial Resources in the classroom. I will use mock trials in my classroom because it is a good activity to engage students in the material by role-playing. Students can understand the importance of the law and see how it works.

The next part of our topic was Civic Education and Social Service. In our presentation, we talked about social action and how it is defined as taking steps forward to change things in our society. We also talked about how civic education is education teaching how to participate in outdoor activities related to education, how to be active outside the classroom, and how to help the community. When explaining social service, we explained why it is important for students to learn the leadership skills. The reasons were: when working with someone or a group of people to achieve something, teaching someone, engaging someone to take a point of view, helping a group arrive to a conclusion, showing appreciation for a contribution, and finally, giving feedback. Here's a video in civic awareness to educate students:

We then provided the components to civic awareness which are: knowing the history of the US, the processes of the local, state, and national governments, and unique rights and responsibilities as citizens. 

Here are lesson plans for teaching LRE.

Here are lesson plans for teaching civics education. 

Overall, LRE/Civics Education/Social action is very important for students and be taught and explained in ways where students understand a real-life perspective and how important the topics are. 

Current Events Lesson

On April 20th, I conducted my Current Events lesson using QR codes. To teach our lessons, we were assigned to use to Newsela. Newsela is a website that contains articles that deal with issues all over the world. Newsela can be an effective tool to get students to read about certain topics over the world. The website has articles about war and peace, science, kids, money, law, health, arts, and sports. I liked using Newsela because it was easy to use and access articles. The articles on this website contain important topics that students should learn about and I would definitely use this website when teaching current events in my classroom. The website seems to get updated often with new articles and the articles an easy read for students. It's important for students to learn about what's happening in the world to be informed about different cultures and societies which helps make them well-rounded. Reading these articles can also increase students' comprehension and vocabulary skills. I am glad to have been introduced to this website and I will keep this as a resource when I start teaching.

For my lesson, I provided articles dealing with struggles students deal with in school. I struggled with coming up with an activity so Dr. Smirnova suggested to create a QR code treasure hunt activity for my lesson. I liked this idea because it was a fun activity to get the students involved and active in the classroom. To create QR codes, I used a QR code generator. You just simply type a question and it creates a QR code. You can download it, save it, print it out, and put them all over the classroom. To make it a treasure hunt, students can be given iPhones or iPads and search the classroom for the QR codes. When they find it, they can scan it to figure out the question, record it on their recording sheet, and answer the questions. This is a great activity to get the students out of their seats and provide them an activity to engage the students. I liked this activity because it is entertaining for students yet educational as they are learning about their given topics. 

Here is my presentation on my lesson.

To start my lesson, I asked my classmates if they got a chance to read their assigned articles. If they didn't have a chance to read the articles, I let gave them a couple of minutes to read it. I also assigned them into groups of two or three. After they read the articles, I explained the activity to them. I also explained how a QR code works and what they were supposed to do. I created three QR codes of questions for each article and set them up in the classroom. I didn't get a chance to spread them all over the classroom so I just placed them on the desks. I also pulled up the articles for my classmates so they can look back for the answers. The goal of this activity is for each group to teach their assigned article to the class. I provided three questions that I felt were important to know for each article. I gave them ten minutes to answer the questions. During this activity, I realized that I should have included one question including their opinion of the articles. After they answered the questions, I had them present their articles to the class. Then, I had them fill out a peer evaluation form to evaluate their performance as a group.

Before this project, I never really knew how important it is for students to be taught current events. By learning about current events, students can be taught global issues and learn how to reflect and give opinions on the issues. Students, when learning current events, can see that topics that they have been taught happen in real-life situations and current events can be meaningful to students. To make current events integrative, I could have integrated geography by having the students research the places these issues took place. I failed to make my lesson challenging but one way to make current events challenging is to have opinion-based questions to establish thoughts on the issues and reflect on them. I made current events active for my classmates by providing a hands-on activity for them to be engaged in. Current events is important and should be incorporated in social studies. As stated in one article we read in the beginning of the semester, "social studies is used to promote civic competence" ("What is social studies"). Current events can also be used to promote civic competence as it introduces issues to students and they can reflect on the issues and understand what is good for the world and what isn't.

Overall, I feel like this would be a good activity to use for elementary students. As I mentioned, the only thing I would change is to incorporate opinion-based questions to get them thinking about the article and explain how they feel about these issues. When teaching current events, the questions would be different in each grade level. First grade students would get easier questions but could challenge them well enough. Six grade students would get more challenging questions and instead of having them present their questions, they could create a project to teach the class about their topics. I also would put more students in a group in the lower grades to have more students answer the questions and create opinions on the articles in less time. Also, I would provide articles containing issues that are appropriate for the grade level. Here are three resources for teaching current events. I found these websites interesting as I searched for an activity and I will use these again. I also like Dr. Smirnova's resource she provided for us. I liked this project the only thing I would improve was the selection of dates. My selection for what day I would present didn't process and I didn't know when I would present. I felt a little rushed when I was given a couple of days to create my lesson. Teaching current events can give students a deeper understanding of the topic being taught to them. "When a student has a deep understanding, the can explain in their own words, give examples that demonstrate knowledge, apply the knowledge to a concept that has not yet been studied, justify or support their positions, compare and contrast the material learned to previously studied material, use new knowledge in the context of the general subject area, and make generalizations related to the subject (Perkins. 2003). As a teacher, I would want my students to portray these understanding performances to fully understand the material. This activity can be very effective in the elementary education classrooms and I will use this activity when teaching current events to my students.

Works cited

Perkins, D. (2003). Deep and fragile knowledge. Smart Schools. Retrieved May 1, 2015, from http://www.learner.org/workshops/socialstudies/pdf/session1/1.DeepFragileKnowledge.pdf

What is social studies? (n.d.). Retrieved May 1, 2015, from http://www.learner.org/workshops/socialstudies/pdf/session1/1.WhatIsSS.pdf

Engaging Students in Learning Economics

What is Economics? 

Economics is a discipline of social studies how individuals make decisions that effect the distribution of scarce resources to meet their needs and wants. Economics deals with the management of goods and services and how they are produced. 

Economics Project

This week in class, we were each given a topic to research and had to create two slides on a class slideshow on what economics is and how we can effectively teach it to students. It was interesting to see what everyone came up with and everyone's information is very useful and applicable in the classroom. 

I presented my research on my topic which was using the five social studies principles when teaching economics. I was also asked to give resources for teaching economics and how to teach economics while teaching my unit plan. The five principles of teaching social studies are meaningful, integrative, value-based, challenging, and active. To make social studies meaningful, teachers should use real life problems to understand that there are real life issues in the world dealing with economics. When learning about wants and needs, teachers can have students bring in everyday items and classify them as a want or a need to learn how to make connections. To make social studies integrative, teachers should try to draw on more than one discipline. When talking about the production of goods, teachers can choose items to see where they are produced and they can be instructed to research that place. To make economics value-based for students, teachers can teach students the benefits of a good economy. To make economics challenging, teachers can have students role play. Role playing is challenging for students because they are forced to think as someone else but it also increases their understanding. Students can role play as producers, sellers, and consumer by making the classroom a mall and having students make, sell, and buy items. To make economics active for students, they should be involved and participate. Students learn the importance of money by doing an activity where students "pay" for different items with change. 

I provided two resources for teaching economics. One website had games and blogs. Another website had useful games and lesson plans. When teaching the American Revolution, I provided two activities to incorporate economics. The first activity was to write a letter to students explaining that they have to pay taxes throughout the day to understand what it was like for the colonists. Another activity was to role play as tax collectors, the king, and colonists. Students will get a better understanding of what taxes are and get to experience what the colonist felt. 

Nicole S presented her research next. Her topic was microeconomics and macroeconomics. She presented her information into columns and also provided an image of the differences of them and an example of each. I liked that she provided this to get a better understanding of what both terms mean. 

Christine presented her topic, which were the concepts of economics and economic decision making. I like how she provided many pictures of different graphs and tables. She also provided two lesson plans that go along with the concepts of economics which I would definitely use when I teach economics. 

Kelli's topic was to explain why scarcity and decision making are considered the key to economic understanding. Kelli provided a good explanation of scarcity and also a picture book about economics. I liked how she provided that to teach economics through literature  for a different type of learning. 

Lindsay talked about how to teach and use the economic decision-making model with students. She provided the steps for the decision making process and a worksheet for the students. I liked how she provided examples for which students can use the decision-making model. 

Nicole B explained how economics influences the lives of all people, communities, and nations by providing multiple graphs. She also provided a video of a teacher teaching the importance of economics. 

Ainsley identified ways in which economic education into the social studies curriculum through such topics as career education, geography, history, community studies, and consumer education. I like how she provided examples of each topic and she showed us the Skype in the classroom to learn about different cultures' ideas and issues on certain topics. 

Everyone's information and research is very useful when teaching students economics. Economics is a very important topic to learn about and I will use the resources presented in this slideshow. 

Artifact Bag

This week in class, we were assigned to make our own artifact bags on our unit plan. Artifact bags are bags with objects of the past that relate to a certain topic. This activity can be efficient in teaching an inquiry based lesson to get students to use their reasoning skills on guessing what the artifact is and how it can be related to the unit plan. My artifacts symbolized important events during the American Revolution. I decorated my bag to make it American themed to relate to my topic. 

My first artifact was tea bags. I used tea bags as a symbol of the Boston Tea Party. Students can understand that they actually used tea to dump into the Boston Harbor and they can also get a better understanding of the Boston Tea Party. 

My second artifact was a two dollar bill. On the front of the bill was Thomas Jefferson. On the back was the signing of the declaration of Independence. Students can understand the importance of Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence.

My third artifact was the Treaty of Paris. Students can visually see the treaty to learn more about it and understand how important it was since it officially ended the American Revolution. 

It was very interesting to see what everyone else brought in and how it tied to their lesson plans. This is a great lesson for students to get a hands-on and minds-on experience. I will use this activity when I become a teacher!

Teaching Geography through Cooperative Learning

What is Geography? Geography is a discipline of social studies that studies the world and it's features. Geography is a very important topic for students to understand where countries in the world are and what is happening in the world. Learning geography will create good citizens who can understand the major issues in the country and the world and how to handle these issues. The five themes of geography are location, place, human and environment interaction, movement, and region. There are several ways to teach geography.

Geography can be brought up in several ways when teaching social studies. The 103 creatively simple ways to teach Geography is a helpful slideshow to teach geography with technology. One of my favorite ways is Idea 3: Google Earth Trip, where students use Google Earth to imagine themselves going on a trip to any place in the world. Students love to use their imagination so this would be helpful in having students understand where different counties are in the world. Another idea I like is idea 23: Bingo!. Students love to play games so having them play Bingo will increase the chance of the students learning geography better. I also like the Idea 24: Model. This idea has students create physical features with clay. This can be efficient in teaching geography since students can have a hands-on learning experience about physical features in the world. There are many ways to teach Geography and I will most definitely use these ideas when I become a teacher. 

My Experience Teaching in Fieldwork

This week in Fieldwork, I taught 3 types of lessons on the American Revolution to the 4th Grade with Ainsley. Before teaching, I was very nervous. This was my first experience teaching to a whole class and I had low confidence in myself. I faced several challenges away but was surprised with myself and I had built confidence throughout the week.

The first day, we taught a direct instruction about the battles of the American Revolution. We provided review before our lesson from what Lindsay and Nicole taught them to help them remember where they left off. We provided a slideshow of information to teach them and we gave them a guided notes packet. This packet had blanks for them to fill in to help them follow along and pay attention. I noticed that this was efficient in helping them focus on learning the information and just fill in one of two words per slide. Next, we had the students play a game called "Name that Picture" where students guess 5 pictures displayed on the slideshow. After that, we had the students play a Kahoot Quiz. The kids were very excited and got very happy. They were very loud and I didn't really know how to control them. I could have clapped and had them repeat the clapping pattern or raise my voice a little for them to hear me. I could have also said to them that we can't play if we are loud. After the quiz, we had the students answer 3 questions for an exit ticket. After reading over the questions, I noticed that we had a little error in the question that stated "Explain why the Battle of Yorktown was a turning point in the war". Many students were confused and I didn't know what to do at first. I told the students that both battles were turning points for different reasons, even though it only says that the Battle of Saratoga was a turning point in the war. After they completed the exit ticket, we gave the students independent practice for homework where students match the battle or event to the correct date and then they had to fill in the events on a timeline. Some students were confused with the timeline part. I could have explained the homework better or gave an example of what they were supposed to do.

The next day, we performed an inquiry lesson. Before the lesson, we reviewed by putting up pictures of battles we taught them on Monday. After the review, we explained the Scientific Method. First, I asked them what the steps were and then I provided more details about the steps. After I explained the steps, Ainsley explained the activity. We put the students into 5 groups and gave them 5 paper bags, a word, a picture, and an handout. Each group was assigned a person or group. In the paper bags are clues. The students must read the clues to figure out who their person or group they have. The word and picture were connected to their person or group. On the handout, the students had to write their hypotheses on who they think their person or group was. After that, as a class each group opened each bag together. In the bags were two or three sentences and a question about the sentences. The answers to questions were the clues so they had to fill out the clues on the handout. After the opened all of the bags containing the clues, the students got to open one last bag that contained the person or group's picture and name. Students got to see if their hypotheses were correct or incorrect. After they finished, the students got to present their hypotheses and clues to the class. This activity overall went pretty smooth. I believe that the activity was pretty straightforward. Students got to use their inquiry and reasoning skills to guess who their person or group was as they read the clues. After the students presented, we gave them their independent practice which was to write a letter as the person or group to anyone explaining the American Revolution during their time and their contributions to the war. The students did get very loud at some times during the lesson, so I tried to get them to lower their voices. The students seemed to have enjoyed this activity. 

Our third lesson was a cooperative lesson. For review, we had a matching activity. The matching activity was a SmartBoard activity where the students had to come up and drag a word to the correct definition or description. This failed a little since it took longer than expected and students were struggling with dragging the word. The students as a class got confused between two definitions and I didn't know how to tell them that it wasn't correct. Next time, I would ask if the whole class agrees or disagrees before we go to the next word. After the review, I asked the students what teamwork and working cooperatively means and provided more detail for them. For our activity, they were to work in groups and each person in the group had an individual role. We provided the roles on the board and gave them tips on how to act and behave in a group. After that, we gave them assigned roles. Many students wanted to switch roles but it was probably best if they didn't. One student was very upset with her role and I realized that it was probably best if we let them switch since we don't know their strengths, weaknesses, likes, and dislikes. For the activity, we gave the students cards , pictures, and descriptions of seven different people. The students had to read the descriptions and make trading cards of the seven people. The students had to use the pictures to glue them on the front of the card and then on the back, they had to include the name of the person, date of birth, the place of birth, and 2-4 sentences about that person. The roles were a timekeeper, researcher, illustrator, group leader, and editor. Overall, the students completed their roles and successfully finished their cards. After they finished their cards, they presented one card to the class. After every group presented, the students filled out a group and self evaluation. The only thing I did notice is everyone else finished their roles expect the researcher and writer and the rest of the students helped them. Next time, I would have had them complete 5 instead of 7 cards so everyone does their individual role and finished around the same time. I was impressed at how well they worked on this activity and how well this activity weird. 

Overall, I've learned many things during this experience. I have gained more confidence and it was interesting to see the students complete our lesson plans. Teaching the American Revolution was very rewarding and I'm glad to have experienced it. 

The Types of Instruction Presented in Fieldwork

We teach lessons using three different types of instruction: direct, inquiry, and cooperative.

Direct instruction is when students are learning facts about a topic. The goal of direct instruction is academic. Here is an example:

The next type of instruction is inquiry. Inquiry instruction deals with having students complete activities where they use their cognitive skills. The goals of inquiry instruction are academic and reasoning skills. Here is an example: 

The last type of instruction is cooperative instruction. Cooperative instruction is having students work together in a group to accomplish one goal. Each student in the group has a specific role as they complete a project or activity. Here's an example of a jigsaw activity which is a type of cooperative instruction activity: 

Each instruction is effective having students use academic skills, reasoning skills, and social skills while they are learning information. 

What is Cooperative Learning?

Cooperative learning is used in the classroom when students are put into groups and they have to work as a team or group to accomplish one goal. There are five basic elements of cooperative learning: positive interdependence, individual accountability, group processing, social skills, and face to face interaction. After observing the class working together using the Jigsaw method and making slideshows of the five basic elements, I feel like I understand these elements well.


   1. Positive interdependence: Every member is dependent on each other to achieve their goal. If one member of the group fails to do their part, then the whole group will fail to achieve their goal.

   2.  Individual accountability: Every group member should be equally contribute to the group's goal. Every student in the group takes responsibility for their part of the work.  

   3. Group processing: The group works together and reflect on each other's ideas. Every member rates their performance and their group members's performances after the completing the task.

   4. Social skills: The students use their communication skills in the group and learn how to work with each other. Students should help each other complete the task and remain positive when working in a group.

   5. Face to face interaction: The students in the group interact with each other to accomplish their goal. Interacting with each other can result in students teaching and helping each other.

When using Cooperative learning, each group member should have an individual role. Some roles include a researcher, timekeeper, team captain, writer, illustrator, and many more.



One type of cooperative learning strategy is the Jigsaw method. This is a method that has home groups and expert groups. Every student gets put in a group which is their home group. Each member in the group is assigned a specific role or something to research about. Every student that researches the same thing in the class meets their expert group to research together. After researching, the students report back to their home groups to explain to their group members what they learned. Here is an explanation of the Jigsaw method.

The Jigsaw method is very efficient and something I would use when I become a teacher. Students can learn the five elements of cooperative learning in the jigsaw strategy and learn how to work and behave well in a group.

Goal vs. Objective

Did you know that goals and objectives are two different things? During Week 2, we discussed the difference between a goal and objective. Goals and objectives are used for writing lesson plans.

A goal is a statement of a purpose or intended outcome. It is expressed in general terms or verbs like understand, grasp, learn, know and more. 

An objective is a more specific statement.  There are three components of an objective: behavior, condition, and criterion. The condition is the setting, the behavior is the action is expressed by the verb, and the criterion is the expected performance level. The formula is "Given (a task or materials) the students will (verb) with (an expected level of performance)". 

Effective Ways to Assess Students

During week 2, we learned how to assess students and different types of assessment. Assessment is the collection of data over time and is used for checking for understanding. Assessments always include a rubric. There different types of assessment are diagnostic, formative, and summative. 

Diagnostic assessment is used as a pre-assessment to find out what the students know.
Examples: KWL charts, brainstorming, graphic organizers, pre-tests, etc.

Formative Assessment is used when to keep track and check up on the students. 
Examples: Observation, Journal, Note-taking, Check for Understanding, Thumbs up/ thumbs down, quizzes, exit tickets, ect. 

Summative Assessment is a cumulative assessment used to measure the success of the unit and to make sure the students understood the material.
Examples: Projects, portfolios, presentations, essays, unit tests, etc. 


When I become a teacher, I will use KWL charts to get students to brainstorm about a topic before learning information. 

KWL gets students to use their prior knowledge for the K (What I Know), brainstorming skills for the W (What I Wonder), and their knowledge of what they just learned to the L (What I Learned).


I will also use exit tickets. Exit tickets are efficient in seeing what the students learned that day and seeing if they are confused or have any questions. Teachers can benefit greatly from exit tickets to see if the students are on track with understanding the material. Here's an example: 

I like this exit ticket because it gets students to think about what they learned that day. I also like the question section to see if they are confused with anything. It's really important to make sure the students are fully understanding and many students sometimes won't ask their questions so this is a good idea to get their questions out. 

What Are Some Websites That Can Be Used to Design Tests?

In week 2, we learned about assessment and how to create tests online. There are a few websites that can be used to design online tests. 

1. Googledocs Form 

This form is Google Drive and it's very simple. This test can be used to individually pre-assess or post-assess students. This website has all different types of questions like multiple choice, fill in the blank, short answer and many more. You can also choose one of many cool templates! This website saves time and is very effective! 

2. Kahoot 

Kahoot is an entertaining strategy to assess students in the classroom. The students would need to use technology to answer the questions. This can be a group assessment or an individual assessment. The teacher will put the website on the SmartBoard and the questions will be given on there along with a shape and color for each choice. The students on their technological devices are given the shapes and colors and they have to read the questions off from the SmartBoard. I believe that this is effective for assessing students since they get more involved when they are doing something that entertains them and also teaches them. 

Why Learn Social Studies?

During Week 1, I have learned how to define Social Studies and the importance of teaching it to students. Students learn Social Studies from kindergarten to twelfth grade. I never really understood why Social Studies was a subject. Social Studies is defined as the study of individuals, the world, and society to promote civic competence. Social Studies consists of many disciplines including geography, history, sociology, anthropology, and many more. Each discipline provides different aspects of humans and society that can be applicable in the real world.

The main purpose of learning Social Studies is to develop civic competence to become involved in and learn about our society. Civic competence leads to becoming a better citizen in our democratic republic. By learning Social Studies, one can make contributions to society to improve our democracy. Understanding the ideas and values our democratic republic government can create and contribute different ideas. It is very important to improve our performance as citizens to make the world a better place.

About Me Project using Glogster

To get to know each other in our class, Dr. Smirnova assigned an About Me Project. For this project, we were instructed to introduce ourselves digitally and we were to select a media tool from a given set. Dr. Smirnova's set included Pinterest, GlogsterEDU, word cloud, MoveNote, Animoto, QR codes, and many more. I choose GlogsterEDU which is a media tool where one can create posters. I found this media tool very interesting because there were many templates and it was very easy to use. As I was looking through the templates, I noticed that this website can be used for many projects including presentations, book reports, experiments, autobiographies, and timelines. You can select a template and change it the way you want it to look. It was easy to add pictures and videos and I thought it would be a good tool to introduce myself to the class. 

In my poster, I put a variety of pictures, including a picture of myself, a person exercising, puppies, Taylor Swift, and a teacher in a classroom. I could use these images to explain my likes and dislikes and my future job. When I presenting, I first introduced myself to the class by saying my name, my year, and my major. I shared my hobbies, facts about me, my personality traits, my likes and dislikes, my favorite singers, and my goals.  

It was interesting to learn about my classmates and see the tools they chose to introduce themselves. This project introduced us to technology that we can use in our classroom. It also helped the class break the ice and feel more comfortable with each other. This project was useful in getting a some experience teaching to a class and it was easier since the topic was about ourselves. Overall, I enjoyed this project. 

What Other Tools Can Be Used to Present Information Besides Microsoft Word and PowerPoint?

During the first week, we presented about ourselves using technology. We were given 15 different tools to use to introduce ourselves to the class. This provided us practice using technology which is important in the future. The tool I used was GlogsterEDU. This website is a type of presentation using a multimedia poster.

There are different templates to use that are very creative. This can be a good tool for students to present a book report, a biography, or testing an hypothesis using the scientific method. The poster tool can also be used for extracurricular activity posters and upcoming special events at school. All you do is pick a template, add pictures, and add different text boxes to add notes on the poster. This tool is an interesting way to present something and very simple to use!

Another tool I enjoyed looking at was Prezi. Prezi is a presentation software. It is similar to PowerPoint on Microsoft with a few differences. Users can navigate to each important part of the presentation and also use creative templates that make viewers more interested. This software can be used to present anything. Teachers can use it for lessons and students can use it for presentaions. It's free and easy to join!