Thoughts from 7/10

Our second class seemed to have a better flow. We began class with a discussion of the readings. There were great quotes pulled from the Foreward and Introduction of Seeing the Whole Through Social Studies. Many students remarked about the importance of centering our teaching around our students. We must look at our class and realize that they are all different individuals. Great teaching involves seeing the whole of each child and helping them engage in their own learning.

After our discussion we moved on to examining topics for the unit assignment. As people perused the frameworks and the web, ideas began flowing and it was great to see excitement developing around these ideas. Looking over the list of topics and grade levels is quite impressive! We have first and second grade topics on immigration and community, third grade coverage of local and U.S. History, fourth and fifth grade coverage of explorers and native peoples and sixth grade coverage of Africa. This will be an incredible resource available to the class upon completion.

We didn't get to the George Lucas Educational Foundation piece on Geo-Literacy, but we'll be covering that in class on 7/12. This class will also feature our first look into teaching with Primary Sources. There's much to be examined here and this will get you started in creating your first lesson plan due next week.