Loewen Chapter #13

The final chapter in Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me he bring the cold hard truth to his readers; that social studies is still being taught this way, making social studies the least favorite subject for students. Social studies teachers are stuck in the chapter by chapter, textbook routine. This eliminates opportunity for excitement, emotion, and creativity in the classroom. Loewen says, " Emotion is the glue that causes history to stick".  How could anyone not agree with that statement? I have talked about it once before in class, but I will never forgot the lesson my AP U.S History teacher did on John Winthrop and his significant quote, "For we must consider we shall be a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world".  This significant yet simple quote was projected on the board and we spent the entire 50 minute period discussing American exceptionalism, our highest points in history, and the legacies we have left on the world. What really made it stick was using the quote to be a model on how to live. Before we left the classroom he asked us all if we wanted to be a city upon a hill or stuck in a hole, What impact do you want to have on the world.
I think about that day often and I do not think I will ever forget it, and that is why bringing emotion into the classroom is so crucial.  We should teach social studies in a way that the information we discussed the day before will be carried on for years to come and not lost the day after.



"Lies My Teacher Told Me" was a very interesting book it is technically the first "textbook" I have read cover to cover. It has taught me many ideas that I had never thought about before. It brought light to the issues teachers face in the social studies classroom and it has given us great advice on how we can overcome those issues. The book also spends a lot of time discussing textbooks and the problems their content presents,  and the problems they present for teachers.




We need to remember that we have the opportunity to make this our students favorite subject and we want to see them running for your classroom everyday.

Pinterest has ideas for everyone for everything, but most people do not realize its thousands of ideas for teaching and lesson planning. Below I have a link for middle school social studies and one for high school social studies. One can also make a more narrowed search, for example: teaching g geography or teaching sociology.
http://www.pinterest.com/catanhistory/teaching-middle-school-social-studies/
http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=teaching%20high%20school%20social%20studies

Big Question: How can teachers stay creative and exciting every day?

Cantu Chapter #13

In Cantu's final chapter he dives into the discussion of the use of primate sources. His main focus was on the use and effectiveness of the Library of Congress. Primary sources can be utilized in an area of social studies, but most commonly used in history courses. The only courses in high school that I ever looked at or analyzed in high school was my AP US and European history courses. Those other classes really missed out on wonderful opportunities to teach. I have utilized primary documents already in my teaching, especially with photographs. With the LOC at your fingertips your instruction can go in so many directions.  I plan to spend a lot of time introducing my students to these resources, but then turning the tables and having them find these kinds of primary documents on their own. This will prepare them for future research and an improvment  When planning my lessons I believe it is sometimes easier to design the lesson around the resources or primary document you find.

The Library of Congress was one of my favorite stops on my 8th grade class trip to Washington D.C and I would have never guessed years later I would be utilizing its thousands of resources.

HERE is a link to fascinating facts on the LOC.




There are many other websites that you can find these kinds of resources on.
PBS has primary sources and websites for just about every topic in history.
Here is one on Slavery and the Making of America.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/teachers/primary-source.html

One can find a lot of primary sources on the National Archives website as well!
http://www.archives.gov/

Big Questions: What are fun and different ways we can ask our students to analyze primary documents?

Cantu Chapter #12

Cantu Chapter 12 discusses the behavioral sciences; sociology, psychology, and anthropology. These three content areas are the most overlooked and will almost always be semester-long electives. The sad reality is that these areas are extremely important!! What is also sad about this content area is that I have little experience working with it. Through my four years at Bradley I have not been required to take a psychology or anthropology course. I have had three sociology courses, so I am much more familiar with the sub-area than the rest.

I believe the study of sociology is extremely important to the umbrella of social studies. I also believe it should be a requirement for high school students.

I also believe the study of anthropology is an important part of social studies. I do believe it could integrated well into ancient history courses and brought up in geography courses.

Psychology is the sub-area I struggle with the most. As a field I find it extremely interesting and I know if I ever was to teach it I would be very excited to but, I do not think it relates to the rest of the social studies sub-areas.

The Big Question: Do you feel school should offer these sub-area courses or should they be integrated within the core four(Civics, Econ, History, Geography) ?

http://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/topss/lessons/index.aspx


http://www.pbs.org/pov/educators/lesson-plans.php?search_type=subject&subject=sociology#.VHOLhPnF9S0

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/hotscience/int_anth.html

Loewen Chapter #12

In chapter twelve of Lies That My Teachers Told Me Loewen dives into the controversial issues surrounding textbooks. Textbooks today have many issues and controversy surrounding them and it is the job of the teacher to slowly stray away from the content provided and to bring in those rich primary and secondary sources.

One quote that frustrated me and made me think was right at beginning when Loewen quoted a Holt
Rinehart and Winston representative, " When you're publishing a book, if there's something controversial, it's better to take it out". Why should an educator skip a page or skip an idea because it is controversial? Controversy is where sparks fly and an new ideas are found. Controversy also allows the teacher to bring in many resources surrounding that topic.

This chapter could not have come at  a better time because in ETE 345 we are currently evaluating textbooks from our field. I have learned a lot about how textbook publishing companies are ran and how the process of creating the textbook works and it is pretty disturbing. We read an article about an individual who worked at a publishing company and on her first day everyone was freaking out because the book was finished, but they did not have an author yet. She discussed how textbooks are made from other textbooks and the most important information is grouped together.
Until this unit I did not realize the what I wanted to see in textbooks was really hard to come by.


Here is that article: http://www.edutopia.org/textbook-publishing-controversy

Big Question: Would textbooks be better off being written by an actual author? Such as our textbook written by Loewen.

Cantu Chapter #11

Chapter 11 moves from economics towards Geography in Cantu's digital book! Finally, my favorite subject! I would have never guessed one of my placements for novice or student teaching would be in a geography classroom! On the other hand. I know of teachers and schools who believe geography is lesser than the core social studies courses, especially history, but my argument to those people is that, how can you tell the story of history without knowing about the place or the culture of the people where it took place?  Like I have discussed with civics and economics education, it needs to be integrated in daily lessons! I believe a lesson should always begin with geography, so students can get that visual identification with the topic at hand!  Geography is extremely important to learn at an early age because our students need to be spatially aware of the world and how it has changed over time. As soon as your AP European history begins, there will not be much time spent dissecting the countries geography, students will need to have that prior knowledge.

The National Council for Geographic Education has their five themes which include: location, place, relationships, movement, and region. Cantu's book make sure its readers understand that Geography is not just focused on one aspect, like maps, but it looks at more in depth topics like weather and natural disasters. Many aspects of geography are happen around our students every day and it is easy to make those kinds of connections on a daily basis. It is extremely important for students to recognize their interactions with geography and the environment they live in and eventually have the make connections to other places around the globe!  In the geography class I am teaching now is currently writing letters to a middle school in Costa Rica and it is helping them make connections to others on a global scale!

Big Question: Should geography be its own course and be taught in different levels of schooling or should it just be integrated within other subject areas?










My favorite geography games website!!
http://world-geography-games.com/

Cantu Chapter #10

For chapter 10 of Cantu's book we continue dissecting the core areas of social studies, and for chapter 10 it is economics. There were many standards presented in this chapter that offer very unique perspectives. I think the standards help make economics seem simple and less scary to someone who does not have particularly the best skill set within economics. I know when myself and others hear the word economics they think politics, numbers, and scary terminology, but it really does not have to be that way!

I believe economics is an extremely important core of social studies, and unfortunately is often overlooked when high school students chose a social studies elective. There was always a joke between my friends and I that, "I may know the biological make-up of a cell, but I do not know how to do my taxes or make an investment". The frustrating part of economics for me is that I think it is very interesting, but I struggle with it. I was not given a proper economic education growing up and I believe that is to blame. I believe an economic education should begin as young as possible, so when graduation comes along teens can make positive economic decisions and have a great understanding of how the Global and U.S economy works.

My big question for this Monday is: even you are teaching in a school without an economic course, how will you integrate it into the classes you teach?

An unfortunate yet great tool we have as future history teachers is living through a recession. In most cases we will not be able to reach that far into history, we do have the Great Depression. A wonderful lesson you could teach would be to do an assignment or some kind of  project comparing and contrasting the two.

Some funny cartoons (:
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This link provides unique lesson plans and interesting information on economic education.
http://www.econedlink.org/