Chapter 13 is about Geography!

 Geography is a very important topic to teach to students.  While learning geography, students will learn about the surface of earth and physical and humans systems. Students will learn how people, places and events are placed and arranged by using their critical thinking skills. It is believed that students need Geo- literacy in order to make decisions that could affect where we live and will happen later on in the future. 

Geo-literacy is the skills and understanding necessary to make these decisions. There are 3 things that make up Geo-literacy. Geo-literacy consists of learning about both human and natural systems, the reasoning of geography and decision making. 

When we are teaching geography we have to make sure that our students are understanding how our world operates, how it is connected and how they should make good decisions. 

Themes within Geography! 

• movement 

• regions 

• location 

• place 

• Both human and environment how they interact. 

There are many informal strategies that teachers can use to teach geography! One example is that on the first day of school, teachers can design a board in their classroom where students within the classroom can place a post it note on where they live! When you are designing the board, you should make the background of the board, where they live! Another example is having a treasure hunt puzzle! Within the treasure hunt puzzle, you can incorporate geography questions possibly relating to capitals. 

When starting to teach geography to primary students, the first step should be to talk about places near them and that they are knowledgeable of. Some examples are; schools, homes and neighborhoods. 

Some fun ways of teaching geography include; songs maps, art,picture books, and virtual field trips!

Let's read chapter 12, regarding History!

 There are a number of reasons why children should be taught and educated on history. With teaching students history, they will have a better understanding of what our society consists of and the people within it. It can also show us how society was created. Teaching history also requires students to use their critical thinking skills and make them connect people with the past. 

How to make social studies more fun and enjoyable: 

• Talk about current events 

• Be enthusiastic and be creative with what you are teaching to your students!

• Make a word wall with vocabulary words regarding to the unit. 

• You can show artwork that is related to the topic 

• Use powerful images to teach. You can ask your students questions about the pictures. 

• You can do artifact discoveries! 

With teaching history, teachers may face some challenges. Some information and resources can be incorrect, children can learn at different paces, and history can be boring.

What is civics and how can you teach it to your students?

 Chapter 11 started off by stating what the concept of civics is. Civics is described as the "Government of the people, by the people, and for the people." This quote states that people should be able to control the government. Teaching civics will educate students on how the government is ran and what government role citizens play. 

Why teaching civics is beneficial: 

• Learning civics will strengthen democracy throughout America. 

• It will educate us on our weaknesses in our democracy. 

• Will educate students on civic equality. 

• It will decrease the amount of students dropping out of school 

In order for students to be considered responsible citizens there are many standards. Students need to understand the meaning of democracy and they need to understand issues throughout the public and community. Students need to be apart of communities, participate in group problem solving and present moral and civics virtues. 

Informal Civics Instruction: 

• Teachers should not keep all of the power to themselves, they should share with their students. 

• class meetings 

• Projects that help students throughout the school 

• Resources should be shared with others 

• You should not share ideas that are not related to civics. 

In section 3, there were examples of how teachers could have shared power throughout the classroom. Some examples include; students can take care of the classroom environment, put up work created by the students throughout the classroom, and as a teacher you can put children into groups to solve problems together. 

To teach civics, you can use the Jigsaw strategy!! 

The Jigsaw strategy is an example of cooperative learning. Your students will be in groups which require them to work together in order to complete an assessment. Students work in heterogeneous groups and each student is given a role that requires them to look over content or do research. Students then go into the "expert" groups which allows them to go over their work, fix whatever is wrong, and then practice presenting what they will be showing their heterogeneous group. Students will then present their work and every child is assessed individually. 

Formal civics instruction will allow the students to understand; civic life, politics, government, the responsibilities of citizens and the participation throughout the government. 

Important topics: 

• Government  

• elections 

• voting 

• politics 

• current events 

• national symbols 

To help students become better critical thinkers and problem solvers is by getting them ready for voters and citizens! 

Political cartoons can be used when teaching your students civics because cartoons can contain a message. Using political cartoons can also allow the students to really use their critical thinking. 

To teach upper elementary school and middle school students about students, teachers can incorporate current events into their teachings. Examples of current events include; newspapers, televisions programs, and maps. 

Chapter 10- economics

 Schools throughout America are facing economic problems. There is an issue with money in the schools,  a lot of school districts are facing budget cuts. People are worried that with the budget cuts are gonna result in less improvement in the achievement of students. Class sizes are increasing and support services are decreasing and due to that, it is resulting in negative effects on students in poverty, second language learners and students who live in rural areas. As the number of students are increasing, the stress is increasing because of the economy. As a teacher, you can determine the stress of your students by seeing if they are having trouble focusing, depression, sensitivity, agitation, and withdrawal. 

Macroeconomics: The larger state of the economy, region, a nation and the world. 

Microeconomics: How people and businesses are affected by economy. Taxation is involved in microeconomics and how governmental policies are affected.

Everyone is affected by economics and when teaching economics, it crucial that that each and every student is actively engaged and that the material being taught is not too hard or too easy. The economics that is being taught should also relate to the economic state of their setting and community. "Hooks" can be used when teaching economics that are hard. "Hooks" can increase engagement! You can use humorous economic songs or something that could possibly increase your students. Other examples of "hooks" include; charts, pictures, and graphs. Teaching economics can make students make wiser choices regarding to what they NEED and what they WANT.  

Students should understand: 

• The definition of scarcity 

• Opportunity cost 

• That they are responsible for the choices that they make. 

• The resources that are available. 

• That they should do research on how to make good economic choices. 

Topics that we as teachers can include are: 

• Earth Day 

• Endangered species 

• Global warming 

• Recycling 

• Reducing  

• Reusing 

We should talk about entrepreneurs because our students should be educated on how products are made.

What do you think about technology in the classroom?

Chapter 9 

 Incorporating technology into social studies can be fun and eventful but it can be scary. Technology can result in students becoming more motivated and it can act as a tool for students when presenting and more! Technology is constantly changing and evolving as time goes on. It is important as a teacher to be educated on technology because it is becoming a big part of teaching. Teacher's must find reliable sources on the internet because the information on the web is not always true. A teacher can tell that if a website is reliable or not by looking at who the publisher of the website is. A website is reliable if it ends in "edu", "gov", or ".com".  For research, teachers can use Search engine. Search engine contains a lot of websites that can be used as reliable research tools for teachers. 

Classrooms used to contain chalkboards and now due to the increase of technology usage and advances in technology, now there are computers, projectors , Promethean Boards and smartboards. One of the pros of using a Smartboard is that it allows teachers to have access to a lot of resources. A Promethean Board is used by projecting a computer!

M5 Geography poem 🌎

                                                                   HUG THE EARTH

Walking along feeling free 
Feeling the Earth here with me 
And I love her. She loves me 
I hug the Earth, the Earth hugs me. 
She's our friend, 
We'd like to be together forever. 
The Earth is our garden 
It's a beautiful place 
For all living creatures 
For all the human race, 
Helping Mother Earth 
We can peacefully roam, 
We all deserve a place 
We can call our home. 
Food is a treasure from soil and the sea. 
Clean fresh air from the plants and the trees 
The warmth of the sun giving life each day 
Turns water into rain, it’s nature's way. 
And I would like to thank you, Mother Earth, 
I like to see you dressed in green and blue  
I want to be by you.

Lorraine Bayes

This poem is about earth. Us humans live on earth and it is made up of humans, wildlife, plants and many of other things. Earth is our home and on earth we walk around and live our daily lives. Without it makes me wonder, where would we be? Would we be here today? On earth, our food comes from the soils and everything on earth affects one another. If we did not have plants and trees, we would not be able to breath. If we did not have soil, we would not have food! 

Let's talk economics

 Skype: 

Skype can be useful when teaching economics because you can video chat with people all around the world. In the video on eclass, it made me realize how beneficial using Skype can be. Teachers and students can connect with all different kinds of people and it can act as a virtual field trip all around the world! I found it AMAZING easy it is to talk to people. I loved how the classroom in the video sponsored someone from across the work and they were able to video chat with them. Using skype makes global learning possible. 

Skype in the classroom!

 

Do you know what economics is? 

Economics is about scarcity, how to use resources, production of good and services, and the growth within production and welfare.