When time drags on...and on...and on.

This may seem like an odd title but I assure you that is it accurate. This week they are reviewing the main concepts and events that they were supposed to learn last year. They are making a "timeline" in their notes of the main events and they are discussing and writing some details of these events. I was bored to tears. This is not to say that my CE was being a bore. She was teaching in a very interactive way (allowing students to come up to the bored to write, find countries on the huge map in the front of the room, and discuss with each other) but I still felt like time was dragging on. I was not the only one, some of the students kept looking back at the clock and were becoming wiggly as well. It might have just been the rainy weather but the clock seemed to be crawling. This being said, I realized how important it is to review things that students should have learned before moving into new material. As they were moving through these major things that they should have previously learned, there were some events or people or concepts that the students did not remember learning. Everything they were reviewing are things that are essential that they know so that they can understand the history that they will be learning this year. I think that sometimes teacher take for granted that their students remember something that they have learned in a previous year and forget to take the time to review important things and that is when students get behind. It made me think about the lesson plan template that we will be using, particularly about the part that talks about misconceptions that our students may have going into the lessons. I also think that we need to take into considerations the misconceptions we have about how much background knowledge students have about a certain concept or topic. For example, 7th grade social students starts in the year 1492 and as a teacher I would assume that they had learned about the world and about what is going on in the years leading up to columbus's exploration (which was in 1492). I now understand how important it is to build a background for what I teach, even if I think the students should already know the material. I am responsible for teaching them the material in my curriculum but how can I expect them to understand the concepts and topics I am teaching if they don't understand the background to what I am talking about? I have also been thinking about ways that I can review and provide background without wasting too much time. After all, I still have to teach the curriculum for my grade.

Last week, my CE did a mini lesson on culture (which once again is an example of providing background knowledge to be able to understand the material). The students learned about what culture is and it's different elements. They expanded on the element of culture which is religion by making a "Religion Handbook." This is a book made out of four folded pieces of paper. They had to pick 4 or 5 religions and designate a page for each and tell about the religion (with the guidelines she gave them) and also draw a picture that represented the religion. They also had a show and tell day, which all the students were really excited about. They had to bring in something that represented their culture. They had to tell what they brought, what element of culture it was (music, art, food, clothes, etc.), and how it represented that element. The students surprised me and brought in some really neat things. This one girl brought in some pureed pumpkin with cinnamon and nutmeg. She said that it represented the food and tradition element of culture because this is something that her family always eats at Thanksgiving. I thought this was a neat activity to get the students to understand how what they use and do everyday is an example of their culture that they were born and raised in. This "project" also showed me how rude some students can be. The pumpkin that the girl brought in was not popular among the students. I thought it was really good but one of the boys acted like he was going to throw up and it hurt her feelings. She had worked really hard and he was ugly. He got in trouble, but her feelings were still hurt. Middle schoolers, and all age children, can be so mean sometimes and as the teacher we have to step in and try to fix it the best we can. My CE told them to be respectful because she worked hard but some children are just not nice.