Week 8

Right now the grade 8 students I work with have just started learning about the War of 1812. One of the Social Studies teachers is using Google Sites to incorporate technology into her lesson plan. "Sites" is part of Google Drive which I have blogged about in previous posts. I believe this to be a great technological resource for education purposes and highly recommend it to others. This teacher created her own Site for the War of 1812, chose fifteen pertinent topics related to the war, and created a works cited page. Students are assigned a different topic in which they will share with students in other class periods instead of their own. Each student is to research their topic and find as much important information about their topic as they can. They then add this to their corresponding topic on the War of 1812 Site. The collaboration aspect comes into play when working with their peers in other classes that have their same topic. The goal is to not repeat any information and to have the entire topic covered to the best of their abilities. Then, for their assessment, they will be given a written test on the topics of the war and each student uses the Google Site to get the answers from. This way, the students must take ownership of their work because the better the information is on the Site the better it will help them on the test.

In regards to the history of the War of 1812, I learned today that New York and New England did not want to declare war on Great Britain and wanted to avoid war at all costs. There were even some citizens in these areas that wanted to secede from the rest of the US because of this reason. After the war ended, with the Treaty of Ghent, neither the US or Great Britain gained or lossed any land or territory. The only thing the US gained was fishing rights in the Saint Lawrence River. Time, money, and human lives were wasted for merely nothing. I can understand why NY and NE never wanted war in the first place.

Week 7

The Embargo Act of 1807 was, simply put, a big mistake. As great as the United States is, this is a chance to recognize how stupid can be as well. After the Constitution was signed and the U.S. had some peace and quiet to move forward, France and Great Britain continued to fight each other. President Jefferson did not want to get involved in yet another war and he definitely did not want to take sides with either country. What made this so difficult was impressment. Mostly British, but some French ships as well, were taking American ships hostage on the ocean, taking their goods on board and even forcing those men aboard to join their side. It was difficult for the U.S. to ignore this and not get involved. Jefferson eventually passed an embargo in 1807. All U.S. ports were closed to export shipping in either U.S. or foreign vessels, and restrictions were placed on imports from Great Britain. This was a big mistake that did nothing but simply hurt Americans. We as a country did not have all of the resources necessary to sustain ourselves without outside trade. Therefore this embargo simply made the U.S. lose money and caused some merchants out of their jobs. Our economy plummeted. In the meantime the embargo did not work against G.B. and France like Jefferson had hoped. They were able to maintain trade with other countries and could sustain themselves for the time being.

Two years later Jefferson would pass the Non-intercourse Act, allowing trade with other countries except G.B. and France. This would help us some but it was inevitable that we could not continue without trade with these countries. It was necessary for our economy. Eventually, three years later, under President Madison, the United States would enter yet another war known as the War of 1812.

Week 6

I was looking at the NH Curriculum for S.S. and found a topic that sparked an interest for this post. For U.S. History under Theme C there is the topic: impact of Westward Expansion on Native Americans. In my last post I spoke about the Louisiana Purchase and how that event somewhat sparked the beginning of Westward Expansion for Americans. Westward Expansion was a sign of opportunity, new beginnings, and a sense of adventure for the United States. Horace Greeley (born in Amherst, NH) is given credit for the famous quote "Go west young man, and grow up in the country." However, I like a different version better, which is "Go west young man and grow up in the land." Greeley stated this quote in regards to expansion westward or what it would eventually become known as, Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny was belief that it is the destiny of Americans in the US to expand throughout the continent. This is where I transition to the Native Americans.

All of this talk about Manifest Destiny is so positive for Americans. However, the exact existence of "being destined to expand throughout the continent" is a direct negative to Native Americans. The expansion and eventual settlement of areas west of the Mississippi simply equates to loss of land and culture for Native Americans. This had already happened to some tribes in the east to some extent, but would become much more devastating during the 19th and 20th centuries. It is simply sad that in the most basic sense, American colonists would gradually wipe out the Native American culture. 

One thing I have realized during the writing of this post, is that this topic of NH Curriculum is taught/learned in small snippets that are woven through other pieces of U.S. History. The "impact of Westward Expansion on Native Americans" is not typically, if ever, one unit of curriculum by itself. It is not usually taught by itself as one topic/event. Students may learn that during the Lewis & Clark Expedition, Native Americans that were encountered along the way were told that this land now belongs to the United States. Students may also learn about the Trail of Tears, in which thousands of Native Americans were removed and relocated to new territories. Without learning about this topic by itself, I think students miss out on a lot significance and magnitude of this impact and loss of Native American culture.

Week 5

The Louisiana Purchase is one of the greatest real estate transactions the United States has ever made. In one instance, with the signature of Thomas Jefferson, the US simply doubled in size of land it owned. The great expanse from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains was now ours. I still cannot believe today that Napoleon simply let this land go for such a cheap offer. This is what happens when you have to pay for war with Great Britain. 828,000 acres was purchased for $15 million which equals out to roughly 3 cents an acre. Almost immediately after, the famous Lewis & Clark Expedition would ensue to discover the land west of the Mississippi. 

In my mind it is easy to see why the Louisiana Purchase was so beneficial. First and foremost, it doubled the size of our country. This was done in a peaceful manner, while most land/territories in the past all around the world were gained through war. It eventually allowed the US to add more states to the union. It created a whole new and different area of resources, especially agriculture, which we would come to find in the future was great for growing crops and raising animals. It also simply allowed the American sense of adventure/discovery to blossom as Westward Expansion would boom during the 1800s.

Week 4

Last Thursday I walked into our special education classroom for grade 8, since I am the first to arrive, I turned on the lights upon entering. The only thing was...they didn't turn on. A few moments later I find out that the school is out of power and are running on a backup generator. The elementary school, which sits right next to the middle school, was completely blackout because they don't have a generator. So the day began, just like any ordinary day, except...no lights, no Wi-Fi, no checking email, no using the projector, Smart board, and pencil sharpeners. I figured we'd only be out of power for a few hours but before I knew it, it was time to go home. Today, Monday, was day 3 of not having power. They finally found the break in a wire that was underground this afternoon and can now fix it.
The real focus of this post is about how power, electricity, affects schools. It affects it greatly! Yes, school can go on, we can get by without it, but 3 days of no electricity makes your realize how beneficial and efficient it really is.

So what did teachers do, how did they improvise? The Social Studies teacher of one of the classes I am in "did it old school" today. She took a lesson that happened to be coming up anyways and decided to teach it today in class. The reason she did this was because the lesson involved no technology and was just plain "old school." We are getting towards the end of the Constitution unit in History right now. The teacher explained that the approximate 10-15 years between the Constitution and the Louisiana Purchase was a period of down time with not much going on, therefore she goes over it very briefly. One Day briefly. The students just answered some questions relating to Chapter 8 in their book after the teachers spiel. Since they were going to be doing this soon anyways, and the activity doesn't involve technology, she just did it today.

Week 3

The last two days at school the 8th grade students have been taking midterm. Yesterday they took the World Language/Reading midterm and today they took the Math midterm. During the time they were not testing we watched a movie called October Sky. This is a movie I have seen multiple times in the past and I really enjoy it. The students seemed to enjoy it as well as they laughed at many different parts. The movie follows the true events of the "Rocket Boys," including the main character Homer Hickam, Jr. After the launch of Sputnik 1 by the Russians, Homer becomes interested in rocketry and eventually some friends join him in creating and launching their own rockets. Homer Hickam is a real person that eventually went on to work at NASA as an engineer and helped train astronauts.

My "ah-ha" moment came today as the movie was ending and I realized that earlier in the day I had read a headline in a newspaper that today is the 28th anniversary of the Challenger disaster. I thought to myself "wow, this is really ironic." Now I can't say that I remember when this happened (I was in my mother's womb) but I did grow up knowing and learning all about it. This event is especially infamous in the school I work at in Bow because it is a community of Concord, where Christa McAuliffe taught Social Studies at Concord High School. I still can't believe this coincidence but what stands out the most to me is this connection that I made. That is what school is really all about. When students make connections between one thing and another, they have their own "ah-ha" moment. I hope that when I become a teacher I can assist many students in having many "ah-ha" moments.

Week 2

A few weeks ago a Social Studies teacher whom I work with asked for my input on an idea she had for a classroom activity. We are currently studying the Constitution in class and her idea was for the end of this unit. She calls it Constitution Station. The basic framework was to have students in groups go from station to station looking at pictures that hint to certain Article and Sections of the Constitution. The students need to figure out which part of the Constitution each station's pictures hint to. My input was that I really liked the idea. We continued to collaborate and discussed the process of the activity, which parts of the Constitution we wanted to focus on, and what the pictures and the student's worksheet would look like. This teacher asked for my help in creating the rest of the activity which I was eager to do. I spearheaded the operation.

The teacher picked out eight phrases from the Constitution that she wanted to focus on/wanted the students to know about. Then I found three to four pictures for each of the eight stations, there are twenty-four pictures in all. Each individual picture hints to a specific word or part of a phrase pertaining to that specific "station." The teacher created a blueprint of the worksheet the student's will fill out and I made a few changes in order to accommodate the activity. We both decided on a final version. During this process I told the teacher about this course I am currently taking, which involves teaching with technology, and realized it only makes sense to incorporate technology into this activity. Our school recently adopted Gmail, therefore Google Drive has become popular among teachers and students. I decided to simply create a Google Presentation for each of our eight stations with the pictures on them. Previously, we were going to just print the pictures out on paper and place them at each station. I made eight different Presentations and an answer key document for the activity and used Google Drive to "share" everything with this teacher. On the day that we are going to implement this activity the teacher is going to open a different Presentation on eight different laptops and the students in their groups will rotate from one to another, filling out their Constitution Station worksheet.

I am so glad how everything has turned out so far, it really wasn't too difficult and it didn't take very long to create everything. This activity has certainly come to fruition and I look forward to the day the students take over. The last idea I had about this activity for this teacher was the option of developing this into a project. Students in groups would be given part of or a phrase from the Constitution and would have to create their own "station" with appropriate pictures. Groups could still rotate from station to station or could present their station on a Smart board in front of the class and the other students would have to piece the rest together. Each group would then present in this same fashion.