Post 6

It's so easy for students to get information from the internet or their parents. Some students even come to school and tell me "my mommy/daddy taught me to do addition this way" and it's so confusing because the child doesn't understand the process. That's where it's up to us as teachers to show students what they can do with what they learn. It's about application nowadays and how they can use this knowledge in different ways. Even when I was in elementary when I learned math it was always about getting the answer, never about how or why this method works. Once I got to high school, in one math class in particular, I had to teach myself how formulas worked out. I would use the teacher edition of the book to get the answer and work backwards to determine how and why the answer was correct and applied it to anything else. That's what education is all about now. In my school inquiry based learning ties into our idea of STEM/PBL. Our goal is to make our activities relevant to students through real life connections, hands on projects/games/activities, and working within our community (sometimes by class, sometimes by grade level). It really solidifies this newly acquired knowledge for the students to be able to see how what they've learned applies to the real world.

I want to do my mini lesson on community leaders in the 2nd grade. The focus will start with Creek and Cherokee figures and branch off to other leaders, past or present, that students choose.

Lesson 1 Questions:

1. Who were the Creek?
2. Who were the Cherokee?

Students will work in groups to use textbooks, readers, and online resources to write down basics about the natives. Where they lived, what they ate, how they acquired food, and important people. 

Lesson 2 Questions:

1. Who were important people from these tribes?
2. Were there any other important people in Georgia at the same time?

Students will work in groups to use textbooks, readers, and online resources to discover who these important people were. We will discuss Tomochichi, Musgrove, Sequoyah, and Oglethorpe. Afterwards students will discuss why these people were important. 

Lesson 3 Questions:

1. What are traits/characteristics of a good leader?
2. Do you know any leaders, past or present, with these traits?
3. Do you know any leaders, past or present, without these traits? 

Students will work together to brainstorm traits then create a poster of one the leaders from lesson 2 or a new leader they verify with me. They will write down the traits they have decided then choose 2-3 traits and explain why these are important for a leader to have. Afterwards students will discuss with the class what they decided. 

Goals Updated

Looking back at my goals, I realize I don't need to necessarily change them, but I can expand on them using resources from our class. For instance, I wanted students to become lifelong learners who can effectively use the resources around them to solve problems. I learned that in order to do that my students need to have a growth mindset which honestly is something new to me. I hadn't heard it before growing up in school and I learned about it somewhat this past year. In Even Geniuses Work Hard it said that "Students with a growth mindset may tackle such work with excitement, whereas students with a fixed mindset may feel threatened by learning tasks that require them to stretch or take risks." (Dweck, 2010). That's the kind of mentality I want to foster in my classroom. I want students to expect mistakes and to grow from them instead of turning tail and running the other direction. In order for me to foster this mindset I know I need to have a growth mindset as well. I need to "let it go" and allow myself to make mistakes here and there and to allow my students more independence. Once I can comfortably do that my students will see that everyone needs to grow and they'll have to rely on their skills to complete certain tasks because they need to learn how to do that. This will have to be taught during the first weeks of  school and become a continuous part of our classroom. I have to make sure I have resources readily available and have taught my students how to use some of them (think dictionaries or technology) so that they can do it on their own. There is a lot to do on my part, but that's something I need to realize now so that my students can get where I want them to be. 

Dweck, C. (2010, September). Even geniuses work hard. Educational leadership, 68 (1). Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept10/vol68/num01/Even-Geniuses-Work-Hard.aspx