This past week in my class room, the children learned about the Constitution and The Bill of Rights. These are both major concepts for the kids to learn and understand. They are both what are the foundation of our country. Actually, teaching these ideas is extremely exciting and something that I am passionate about. In an educational purpose, the Constitution was the work of many statesman, hugely cooperating to form the basis of our country. This concept is a great way to teach, to show the children how the people were able to compromise and create something together, that is still in tact today. The Constitution lays out the power that our government should have and the power that the people should have. Not only are the words of the Constitution important, but so are the principle ideas behind it. It shows the children how to come to a solution with more than just one person’s input, and how to lay a foundation of something that is worth keeping. Also, the Bill of Rights was another thing that they went over. The Bill of Rights is comprised of the first ten Amendments to the Constitution. These give the people more rights and more freedom. The Bill of Rights was the way in which they protected our individualism and our rights. Our founding father’s passion and determination are great things to show the kids at school. On Monday, the kids are going to be doing a scavenger hunt where they are seeking different parts of the Bill of Rights. I created different things that they are supposed to find in different people. For example, the founding father is known as George Mason, so they need to find a person whose first name is George. They also need to find a person who shares a birthday with the day the Bill of Rights were ratified.
Two other things that the children have been learning about are mathematical concepts. One being algebraic equations. They are learning how to divide and multiply decimals. This is a good thing for all of them to learn because they are able to apply it towards other things as well. Basic math is extremely important to teach children.
Finally, all the students are learning basic communication concepts. They are learning how to say hello and be polite to other people. Communication is another key concept that we need to teach children. Communication is a way in which all of us attempt to convey meaning in order to create a shared understanding of something. There is a little girl in my class who only speaks Spanish. I did not notice this until I tried to help her and she just gave me a blank look. However, we have together tried to form a basic understanding and attempted to convey meaning towards the same things and we have made several accomplishments. Her and I now share our own form of communication and I am able to help her work through things. All the students work on communication daily, and it is an important part of their learning progress at school.
Shelby, isn't it interesting to see the vast differences in communication between office coworkers and that of teacher and student conversation? Conversations between adults are so complex and distracted, we sometimes overlook just how much information we exchange, not to mention that a lot of us have changed our communication styles through texting, iming, and emailing. Communication within children is simple, the dialogue is not distracted, but there is an attention span issue to consider. They do not, depending on the age, know how to tie multiple concepts together. I remember my first day in the Pre-School classroom as the most eye-opening for me because I did not only have to change the way I verbally interacted with the children, I also had to change the way I thought about things in order to understand what the children were saying. I remember one little girl who was painting a picture of her family and home. She only had a few colors, red, blue, yellow, and green, and kept saying she wished she had purple paint. I spent 10 minutes looking for purple paint in the classroom art closet until I realized that I could help her make purple. I grabbed a new bowl for paint and showed her how a mix of red and blue paint makes purple. I have never seen someone so excited about colors and she thought it was wonderful that she could decide how light or dark to make the purple depending on how much red and blue to mix. I made the situation too complicated and overlooked a very simple, yet key, point about colors!
ReplyDeleteShelby,
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting that you choose to discuss the concepts that you were teaching and how the students were able to understand and apply the concepts of the Constitution and The Bill of Rights. I wanted you to show me how you can apply the concepts that you have learned through your coursework, but in turn perhaps you did something even better and analyzed how your students are able to learn and apply these concepts. :)
I think that it is awesome that you invented a game to help with the kids remembering the bill of rights. I personally do not remember even learning about that until high school so I am impressed they are teaching this earlier. I also like that you are teaching communication skils because a lot of problems can be avoided when kids are equipped with skills. I have been in the special education room for a few weeks and communication skills are something I am trying to estalish because it is very hard for some of the kids to communicate basic wants and needs.
ReplyDeleteI also find it encouraging that you are teachig kids how to apply math skills to real life scernios. This helps kids understand why they need math.
ReplyDeleteI find that in many areas of the country certain cirriculum is overlooked and it is great that you are focusing so much on these areas. Many students have studied the constitution and the early days of our country, but do not see the individual details that go into such compromises. It seems that your working with kids has brought you back to a basic level that most adults overlook; helping you to be more aware of what you're communicating. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have some sort of communication class for students starting at a young age.
ReplyDeleteShelby, I like how you are teaching children that sometimes the biggest accomplishments happen in a group effort. Just like writing the Constitution had a lot of compromises from many different people. It reminds me of our current situation with the hockey broadcast team. As a group there are four of us who work to make the best broadcast possible. There is the play-by-play guy and two color analyst, along with myself as camera/producer/editor; all are needed for a successful broadcast. Sometimes the egos get a little big as guys who are in front of the camera get all the publicity. But I think back to something one of the color commentators said, that we all have egos but it is Ryan who should have the biggest out of all of us and he doesn't have one. Regardless to me it is all about the final product the viewers get to enjoy. It is just good to see that being expressed early in life.
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