What a week.

It is so hard to believe that we are already in our 3rd week of classes. This class has flown by and I have learned so much from these meetings, it's hard to believe we are still capable of this much. Also, from this week of school, I have learned how heavily we rely on the internet. I was talking to someone on the way to class and they said "internet: you can't live with it, you can't live without it." And I agreed very much with this.


But through this class, I have learned, well honestly, I am still learning, that this is not the mindset I can have with new anything. Our world relies heavily on the internet and technology and to be so intimidated by it will get me nowhere at all. And children can sense fear. I don't know how, but they can see it in a person and if a teacher is at the front of the class showing such a distaste for "new things," it can't be helpful for the students' learning. Rather than show a dislike for change, learn to welcome it and show that it can be effective and helpful. After all, these children will go through many transitioning periods in their life and giving them a model of how to deal with "new" is a great way of teaching.
In the article I found ("Social Studies Strategies: How to Develop Concepts") I read about the breakdown of concept based instruction. I got the "what, why, when and how" of this teaching and developed a better understanding of what it looks like in the classroom and how to implement it. Concepts are used to cluster information to better link facts and generalization. I also learned the difference between concrete and defined concepts. Concrete concepts are ones that students can see. For example, a mountain range or a family. A defined concept is abstract and usually requires a little more imagination. For example, freedom, citizenship, or justice.

But even after reading this article, I learned that the actual implementation of this concept based teaching is typically more difficult. I interviewed one of my prior elementary school teachers, and I found that concept based instruction is rarely practiced. Due to testing demands, even in second grade, my teacher finds it very trying to teach concepts when tests seem to demand traditional teaching. According to her, teaching topics and facts is the only way children will get good test scores. After I learned this, I grew a little frustrated at the education system, once again. For now, I just pray it gets a little better before I get into the schools. But even if it remains the same, I hope to teach children in a way that actually makes sense to them. I hope that I can help make a difference in their many years of schooling and show them the lessons taken from social studies, rather than just demand facts.

References:
http://www.saisd.net/admin/curric/sstudies/gopdf/howto_conceptdev.pdf

Much love,
Brittany Kertesz