Shameless Self-Promotion

As many of you know, I will study abroad in India next semester.  In fact, I leave in 18 days.  In preparation for this exciting experience, I have begun a blog: Jennifer's Journal: India.  So, as the semseter winds down and our Pedagogy blogs become wonderful memories, feel free to stop by my newest blog intended as a method of sharing my adventure with anyone interested (my mother already has the blog in her RSS feed, so I know I'll have at least one reader!).  I may also continue use of Twitter on occassion and will obviously make frequent use of Facebook, but the blog will allow me to share more than the limited messages allowed on Tweets or status updates.  Who knows?  You may learn something useful for teaching geography or world history.

VoiceThread

Never heard of VoiceThread?  Neither had I until assigned to write a blog post about the Internet tool.  VoiceThread allows users to share pictures, videos, and presentations with a target audience, be it a small group or all Internet users.  Once VoiceThreads exist, users may comment on posts using video, voice, or text comments.  To watch a VoiceThread about VoiceThreads, watch this: http://voicethread.com/share/409/.  There is also an excellent summary of the product at http://voicethread.com/media/misc/getting_started_educator_mpb.pdf that is geared specifically to educators.

There is also an educational version of VoiceThread.  Unlike regular VoiceThread, Ed.VoiceThread is a secure network only available to teachers, administrators, and students.  The school or classroom receives its own URL, and default settings assume that conversations are to remain private.  Students have most of the rights of regular VoiceThread users but may not view or share VoiceThreads outside of the Ed.VoiceThread community.  This ensures that students are unlikely to encounter inappropriate content and allows students to publish material without worrying about privacy issues.

After watching a number of the informative VoiceThreads about VoiceThread (and the creators did an excellent job of providing information about just about everything related to the website), I found a number of strengths and a few glaring weaknesses of the product that a social studies teacher may encounter:

Strengths:

• Ed.VoiceThread is secure from various problems related to the more general site.  Students should not encounter inappropriate materials.  Just as importantly, student identities may remain safe through private discussions and existence under a teacher's classroom account (no ties to an email address or other identifying information).
• Students may hold discussion around a picture or document outside of the classroom.  Students who dislike typing may enjoy speaking their comments, while shyer students who feel uncomfortable voicing opinions in classroom discussions may enjoy being able to express their thoughts through text.
• While private conversations ensure that discussions may occur without concern for external viewing, teachers may intentionally set-up discussion with other students from around the world.  This may prove especially useful in a world geography class.

Weaknesses:

• Ed.VoiceThread costs $60 per year for an individual educator.  While it is possible to use a free version of VoiceThread instead of paying, the free version forfeits many of the benefits of the educational version.
• Due to many potential comments and a probable time gap, it is difficult to establish the back-and-forth conversations that often help face-to-face conversations to be effective.  Students are likely to post their assigned comment without exploring the variety of subjects that may stem from the given picture or document.

If a social studies teacher does decide that VoiceThread would be a beneficial tool for the classroom, there are a variety of intriguing uses.  For example:

• Use VoiceThreads as a medium to discuss controversial issues.  Using pictures, statistics, and other elements of arguments from both sides of the debates, VoiceThreads may facilitate discussion in which students can discuss issues one piece of "evidence" at a time.
• Teach students to create VoiceThreads like they would create PowerPoint presentations.  After presenting the VoiceThreads to classmates, students can comment on likes, dislikes, surprises, and more of each other's presentations.  This encourages students to pay attention to presentations and learn about presentation skills in a more interactive way than peer evaluation worksheets.
• Establish a relationship with a class in another community, either elsewhere in the United States or somewhere around the world.  Students can share pictures, projects, and perspectives to learn, for example, world cultures from students their age who live in these cultures.

Of course, a variety of problems may occur when using VoiceThread in the classroom.  Some students may not feel comfortable posting comments that peers may see as often as desired.  Fortunately, the text option may help some students in this situation.  In addition, a teacher may potentially allow for anonymous comments.  However, anonymous comments and the lack of comment recipients physically present may encourage inappropriate comments.  Teachers can moderate comments to ensure that such comments do not reach their intended destination, but the best way to approach that problem is through discussion of courtesy.

I am unsure what to think about VoiceThread.  It certainly has some excellent qualities that can help within a classroom.  In addition, the Ed.VoiceThread site addresses many potential problems that teachers strive to avoid in Web 2.0 tools.  On the other hand, I am not sure whether the benefits make the money and time involved in use worthwhile.  In the meantime, I plan to post a VoiceThread soon to explore the site more.

Accio Geography!

Ah, Geography!  I actually hated that word until last semester.  My elementary and secondary school teachers had always focused on map coloring and memorization aspect of geography.  Then, taking a college geography class, I learned that it included much more than simple tasks.  Geography includes location, place, region, movement, and human-environmental interaction.  This allows for discussion of culture, environmental issues, and more.  Here are some helpful websites for geography teachers:

• The CIA World Factbook provides a wealth of geographical information about regions and countries of interest.
• National Geographic Magazine is an absolute necessity when discussing geography.  Its website also includes a detailed page of information, lesson plans, and more for teachers.
• Many geography classes study the book and/or movie Guns Germs & Steel to learn about regional differences and the geographic roots of worldwide economic disparities.
• If students do memorize parts of maps as part of their class (I'll admit, it does help), there are online games to help with practice.  I found them to be a lifesaver when preparing for weekly map quizzes.
• For teachers giving map tests, World Outline Maps has blank maps for the tests themselves.
• Finally, no list of geography resources is complete without reference to Google Earth.  The program is indespensable in its many layers of resources: historical maps, labels of all sorts, links to informational web articles, and more.

Economics + Education = Econucation

The internet is full of websites that can help teachers to teach mid-level economics.  Most of what I found was lists of websites and lesson plans, but here are a few highlights of my search:

• I know it has been said before and shows up on almost every page of economics education links in existence, but EconEdLink is amazing.  It has literally hundreds of lesson plans and helps teachers to stay up-to-date on current national GDP, CPI, inflation rates, unemployment rates, etc.
• The Journal of Economic Education is not a specific website, but it publishes articles relating to the latest research on teaching economics, from grading to promoting student achievement in economics to gender differences in studying economics.  CSB/SJU has access to the journal articles through jstor.org.
• It may be a bit advanced for middle school students, but I absolutely loved the stock market competition in my economics class.  Students invest a certain amount of money in virtual stocks (my partner and I bought Apple and 3M) that gain and lose value as the corresponding real stocks gain and lose value.  This helps students learn how the stock market works in a very memorable way.  I will never forget beginning the game on a day in 2007 when the market began a sudden and significant nosedive!
• The American Economics Association and Internet 4 Classrooms both post lengthy lists of other resources for learning and teaching economics.  The links include lesson plans, organizations, blogs, and information about the subject itself.

I fear that the last bullet point has included enough resources to make any more suggestions on my part completely useless.  That being said, do you have any favorite Economics resources that, like EconEdLink, deserve top billing rather than merely existing on a lengthy page of resources?  I would love to hear about them!

Technology - eep!

We live in a world where technology seems to move by the minute.  Every few weeks, something requires me to create an account at some website or other in order to access information, share my ideas, or otherwise make the most of the internet.  So it really only makes sense that future teachers create professional learning networks to help with learning how to teach.  At one level, it helps me to learn what technology is available.  I knew little about blogging and had never used RSS feeds or Twitter until this semester.  Now, I easily recognize the value of these sites in bringing technology into the classroom (although I am not completely sold on Twitter yet; we'll see how it goes).  Twitter and professional blogs have also swelled my list of useful websites to help with preparing extraordinary lessons or simply preparing ordinary graphic organizers.  At another level, my PLN has helped me to see "through the eyes of a teacher," so-to-speak.  Some of the professional blogs that I follow offer insight into teachers' lives, rookie mistakes, and simply the joys involved in teaching adolescents.  I look forward to one day having my own blog that qualifies as a "professional" viewpoint!  I thoroughly enjoy blogging and only wish I had more time to do so.  Timing has been my only noticeable problem so far, as I never seem to quite meet that 5pm on Saturday deadline for weekly posts.

I have subscribed to a variety of professional blogs:

• History Tech is one of my favorite blogs that I am reading.  Glen Wiebe posts a few times a week with links to websites that help with teaching history.  He also reviews the sites so that teachers can enter them with an expectation of what they will be able to do.
• Outside the Cave shares various thoughts from the perspective of Stephen Lazar, a social studies and English teacher in the Bronx.  He talks about what works, what does not work, and various difficulties related to teaching in an inner-city school.  His posts are sometimes heavily opinionated, but they also contain some deep insights that reflect true challenges in schools.
• So You Want to Teach is the blog of an experienced band teacher who is currently working with two first year teachers.  Through this interaction, he has reflected on what skills he sees as successful in teaching and what "rookie mistakes" he observes, especially in classroom management.
• The Scholastic Scribe still confuses me a bit.  Melissa posts often, but posts frequently relate to subjects other than education.  To that extent, I think it is an entertaining blog to read but not necessarily helpful as part of a PLN.
• Tween Teacher was a cute little blog that posted some intriguing thoughts about teaching and working with middle school students.  A few of Heather Wolpert-Gawron's posts leave me still pondering her questions a month later.  Unfortunately, she has not posted much in the past month.

I am also following 5 professional Twitter accounts:

• glennw98
• jdthomas7
• mooresclassroom
• mr_johansson
• TheSwish

Variety: A Heavy Word

Variety: A social studies teacher's biggest goal, help, and trouble all in one word.  Sound simplistic?  Well, I can think of many different ways just off the top of my head in which variety is important to middle school social studies classrooms.  Variety comes in many forms in this kind of classroom.  A variety of students fill the desks, with a diverse set of backgrounds.  They come to learn a subject that seems to run the gamet of topics, from history to economics to psychology and more.  To add further variety, students learn the many of the other "core" classroom subjects within social studies lessons (historical responses to Darwin's theory of evolution and Uncle Tom's Cabin as an influence in abolitionism, to name a few).  I see the biggest impact of the word "variety" as three roles:

First, teachers strive to achieve variety in intentional lessons and assessments.  This helps to address students' varied learning needs and strengths.  For example, some students prefer to listen to teachers speak, while others prefer small group discussion as ways to learn and explore new information.  Vonny, a physics teacher, surveyed students to find that student preferences include all types of learning and review, suggesting the value in many different methods.  Similarly, assessing student learning through a variety of methods (tests, essays, presentations, various performance assessments, informal assessments, etc.) help to ensure that each student can faces an assessment that meets their strengths.  Some students are excellent at memorizing facts but not at creating something new from the material, while others can write excellent essays but find multiple choice tests tricky.

Another way variety fits in the middle school classroom is in Social Studies' natural tendency to include variety.  I know my middle school social studies classes included units on geography in addition to history.  It only makes sense that the teacher would use different methods to teach the fifty states than he would use to teach the creation of the U.S. Constitution.  If I remember correctly, the former involved more memorization, while the latter involved the creation of a class constitution.  This variety also increases motivation, as it is easier to sit through the "less interesting" material when there is hope of a more interesting subject or sub-subject to come.

Finally, has the potential to create problems when students change schools.  Since standards in MN currently apply to ranges of grade levels, different schools and districts may decide when to teach each subject or topic.  This means that a student coming from outside the district may have already learned some topics planned for the upcoming year and missed some topics that the district teaches in younger grades.  My school had that problem because its middle school attracted students from a wide variety of parochial and public schools in the East Metro area of the Twin Cities.  Some students learned Geography in sixth grade, while my school focused almost exclusively on Minnesota history prior to middle school.  How can a school/teacher catch a newcomer up on prior knowledge and include the student in regular lessons without overwhelming or boring said student?

This has been a very long ramble, and it seems fairly unusual.  Why, after all, would I choose variety as such an important concept to discuss?  Well, probably because it created my love of social sciences years ago and frightens me now.  I loved the ways in which social studies allowed me to learn about history, today, math (economics), science (psychology), literature, and more.  My families took me to many museums, which emphasize the many different ways in which social sciences play an active role in many aspects of life.  On the other hand, variety means that I as a teacher will need to be constantly on my toes.  I'll need to pay constant attention to my students needs and simultaneously act upon these observations.  So, in spite of the many details of social studies, one generalization currently stares me in the face: Variety is essential.

Banned

In the wake of Banned Books Week, it seems necessary to zero in on the concept of banning or otherwise forbidding the use of certain texts.  To be honest, I have mixed feelings on the subject.  I understand that parents may not want their children to read certain texts.  On the other hand, many banned books contribute to literacy and understanding of difficult subjects.  For example, the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, number one on the ALA list of most banned books of the past decade, motivated many children to love reading beyond texts required for school.

You may wonder why I bring up the subject of banned books in a blog focused on teaching middle school social studies.  In response, I'll name another book on the aforementioned list.  My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier tells about the difficulties families experienced during the American Revolution.  The narrator, Tim, must decide whether to support the British with his father or to join the rebel troops like his brother.  I remember reading this book in middle school class and can easily see myself encouraging students to read the book.  For that matter, a carefully selected chapter from the text could make an excellent reading assignment in a social studies class to help students better understand the human story of the American Revolution.  Unfortunately, this book has been banned in some communities.  Students lose this opportunity to discuss the book.

Books are not the only texts subject to disapproval.  Social studies teachers use many primary sources.  If authorities ban Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (another book with potential use in a social studies classroom), they may discourage speeches central to the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates and other speeches that include similar "issues."  In a geography classroom, a teacher may wish to use the Guns, Germs, and Steel videos to discuss the history behind different cultural interactions and the values inherent in some "primitive" cultures.  On the other hand, many parents and authorities may dislike the videos, citing the violence and clothing as inappropriate for middle school students.

So this leaves me with a dilemma.  Should a teacher intentionally censor history, geography, and other social studies classes to appease parents?  Or should a middle school teacher use controversial texts and other resources because careful reflection suggested that the students are developmentally ready for the ensuing discussion?  As much as I would love to achieve a clear conclusion, said conclusion escapes me.  Therefore, I must ask readers to continue the discussion: how do you think a teacher should approach controversial texts?