Blog Post #6

Synthesis of Course

This semester has gone by so quickly. It is bizarre to me to think this is the last real semester of "typical coursework" that I will do before I graduate. However, this class has been very beneficial to me. I feel that I have been able to do a lot of reflecting for this class on what kind of teacher I want to be, what strategies I will use, and what strategies I plan on never using. So the rest of this post will be my scattered thoughts on what I have learned from this course

Probably one of the biggest lessons that I learned from this course is that students are like snowflakes. There are no two student (or humans for that matter) that are alike. Everybody is different and contains strengths and weaknesses. It is crucial for teacher to pick up on what strengths students have and magnify them to give them confidence and success. It is also crucial for teachers to be aware of weaknesses and cater to the individual needs of every student. Every student that wants to, has the right to succeed. It is the teachers role to provide them with what they need in order to success, no matter the challenge.

For some reason, critical literacy was the type of literacy that struck the biggest chord with me. I think that students learn many things while in school, but learning who they are and that they have a voice that is valued is one of the biggest accomplishments students can take away from school. Critical literacy is a way that teachers can help students find their voice. Bringing tough discussions into the classroom, while providing a safe/respectful atmosphere is key in any school setting.

I think that strengthening students literacy, no matter what form and by what means, will have a lasting impact on students for the better. It will prepare them for college, it will help prepare them for carreers, and it will help them mature into a respected and valuable member of a community. By helping students become more literate, us as teachers will help them open many doors to their future.

I am excited to be a teacher for many reasons, but selfishly I believe that by helping students reach success, it helps us as teachers feel vindicated in our career path. I look forward to applying many of the things that I learned this semester.

Self Selected Project: Book Club

Book Club Members: Thomas Williams, Jill Baker, Rusty Mendenhall, Kayla Youngs, and Jessie Jackson.

Books Read: Maus I, Maus II, and John, Paul, George, and Ben

I loved Maus I, but nobody else did. I liked how it covered so much of what it was like to live during the holocaust. It gave a real personal touch to it that history books do not give. I also loved the animations for it, they were very well done. The relationship that Art had with his father father was very unique. They didn't seem to get along very well. The book portrayed the father as a ignorant and not conscious of others feelings. His new wife was on the verge of leaving him. It was a unique perspective to see a holocaust survivor that was not very tolerant. You would expect a holocaust survivor to be a very loving and respectful person, but I think that is a big misconception that the book does a great job tackling. The book showed that the holocaust was the source of much baggage for the father, and his life was complicated. I do not think I would require my class to read this book for our class, but I would allow suggest this book for more mature students. It has heavy themes and might be hard for some students.

I did not read Maus II, but those in the group that did liked it better than Maus I. I will most likely be reading it over Christmas break. Those that read Maus II in our group said it dives deeper into the fathers present life and into the concentration camps. These were two topics the first book did not cover very much. I am anxious to read this book.

John, Paul, George, and Ben is definitely a children's book. However, it is funny and it proves an important point. Not all history that we grow up hearing about is factual. This book tells several short stories of each of these historical people. It tells what part of the story is fact and what parts of the story is fictional. It also adds a comical side to each story. I would read this short book in any history class to prove the point that not all history is accurate.

This was a fun project because I feel like I do not get to do all that much reading for books that I choose. Since I love to read, this was a rewarding assignment because I loved both of the books that I read. I would highly recommend both of these books to a friend!

Blog Post #5

Digital Literacy

I do not own an I-Pad, I-Pod, or an I-Phone. It's probably good that I don't either, or I would waste all of my time youtubing. I get online more than ten times a day. Depending on the day, depends on how much time I spend behind a screen. If I am at school and work most of the day I probably spend less than an hour behind a screen, but if I have a day off I probably spend over two hours behind a screen of some sort. It would be safe to say that I exchange around 70% of digital texts with family and friends. The other 30% would be with school and work people. I read a lot of Facebook statuses, I read tweets of my favorite bands, I read news typically on KSL (even though I think it is lousy compared to BBC or NY Times, I like to read local news), I read ads on KSL and Ebay, and I am constantly reading reviews of products on Amazon.

I think I will most likely use blogging in my classroom. I think a class blog could prove very helpful to a high school history class. I could post the syllabus, assignments, announcements, etc. I also really like the idea of having discussions on a blog. That could be a part of their grade, having the students make weekly posts and comments on a class material. I like that, because it gives every student the ability to use their voice. I could even post videos on it from youtube, that could teach an aspect of history. This could be a way of instructing them through technology. In order to do this in my classroom, I would take them to the computer lab and have a tutorial on how to set up a blog, and how to operate within the classroom blog. The only problem I see with this, is not everyone has access to a computer or the internet. If I did know that some students in my class may not have access to a computer, I could allow them to go to the computer lab, once a week to fulfill this assignment.

Discipline Specific Reading

I am a social studies composite teaching major. That means that I will be certified to teach history, geography, psychology, government, sociology, economics, etc. However, I feel like my emphasis is history and geography. The "typical" texts I read in these two disciplines are historical primary/secondary documents and maps.

The most unconventional reading I have done in college, was a graphic novel that I read part of, called Maus. It is about the Holocaust, but the Jewish characters are mice, and the Nazi characters are cats. The graphic novel is very dark and morbid. I had very mixed feeling on whether I thought it was beneficial or not. On the one hand, I felt like it was good that it helped take the edge off of the horrors that occurred during the Holocaust. But at the same time, I feel that the Holocaust should not be sugarcoated for students sakes. Students have the right to know exactly what occurred. I also felt like the use of animals created a sort of detachment from those that died in the Holocaust and students today. Overall, I think a graphic novel could be very beneficial to students that struggle reading typical texts, but I do not think I would use Maus to teach WWII.

The reading I did in college that had the greatest effect on me was The Slave Ship, written my Marcus Rediker. This book is filled with primary sources of many differing parties that participated in the slave trade. The book also had excellent insights written by the author, who is without doubt an expert on slavery. The book was so well written, and had so many great primary sources, that it opened my eyes to the horrors of the slave trade.

The most unpleasant reading I have done in college was reading The Cold War. I already mentioned this in an earlier post, but I really hated the book. I felt like the book was way out of my comprehension level, and we never talked about it in class. The teacher had us read it, write a paper on it, then turn it in. We never did any more than that. This book was also an example of a text I did not understand. I felt like I had no background knowledge of the book prior to reading it, therefore, nothing made sense when I read it. It also was a very dull book, and I had a difficult time paying attention to what I was reading.

Something that has been a huge help to me in reading texts in my classes, is what we did in class a few days ago, GROUP DISCUSSIONS! I feel like when I read many things, I only understand certain aspects, but group discussions really help me explore the other sides that I may have missed. This will definitely be a tool I use when assigning reading. I will also try and assign readings that are at the same level as the students I teach.

SCED 4200 Blog Post #3

Affective Dimensions of Reading

Am I a good reader? Yes and no. I have a problem with my attitude when it comes to reading. When it's something I actually have a desire to read, then i'm a good reader. I am able to read quickly and efficiently. However, if i'm assigned a reading in something which i'm not interested, I have a really hard time concentrating on what I have read. My mind tends to wander. This causes me to have to read and re-read to understand it. I like to read books.

I like to read fiction, adventure, western, young adult, and horror books. My favorite author is Cormac McCarthy. He wrote No Country For Old Men and The Road, two of my favorite books. I also love audio books. Ever since I was in elementary school my parents would take my siblings and I to the Logan library to get books, movies, and audiobooks. This instilled a love for reading books in the years to come. My family would go on long road trips, and we would listen to audio books the whole time. I loved that as a child, and I still love audiobooks.

When I was a senior in high school a english teacher assigned my class The Grapes of Wrath to read. He gave us a strict reading schedule, and I stuck to it and thoroughly enjoyed the book. Reading it helped me gain an appreciation for fine literature. I loved the vivid descriptions and the "real" people from the book. That was a time when I truly loved reading.

Two years ago, a history teacher assigned our class to read a historical book on the Cold War. It was the hardest thing for me to read, because I had little background knowledge on the war, and I had little interest in the subject. The teacher asked us to write a paper on the book, and I received a poor grade, because I failed at thoroughly understanding the key aspects to the book. That was a time in my life when reading was tedious task.

I never felt like my friends or family thought reading was nerdy or stupid. I feel like I was surrounded by people that read so much, that it made me too want to read a lot. In able to get students interested in reading I think that students need to see others doing it, and enjoying it. I love going into schools, and seeing the teacher has a paper on their door that states what book they are currently reading. I think this is a good way to show students that reading is an important thing, and can be a major source of entertainment. In order to build a students view on themselves as a reader, I think the teacher needs to start with book that is at their level, that they will like. This will give them a taste for success. The teacher can incrementally increase the amount and level of books for the students, and by suggesting books in their interest area, this should help them gain a desire to read.

SCED 4200 Blog Post #2

Connecting School and Home Experiences

(question #1)

My mother is a folklorist for USU. She loves oral histories. I have very early memories of my mother transcribing audio recordings that she had taken from people she interviewed. She was always interviewing people for work and for our family. I am very grateful that she interviewed people like my great great Grandma Sarah and Grandma Maurine. These are women that were very important in my family, but I was young when they died, and never had the privilege to know them in person. However, because my mom interviewed them and had it recorded, I am able to listen to them and get to know these wonderful women that made up my family. I never thought about these oral histories as being historical. I always just thought of them as being cool stories about my dead grandmothers. However, when I was in the 11th grade, I had a brilliant history teacher that taught U.S. history in a way that made it come alive to me. No longer was history just a boring subject you read out of drab textbooks, but it was stories just like those of my grandmothers, that made the subject suddenly so exciting to me. After that connection that I made in Mr. Soffe's class, I have been passionate about History.

As a teacher, I hope to do the same as Mr. Soffe did for me. I want the students to be able to connect with history, or even people from history. A way I could do this is to have students put themselves in the shoes of a historical person, and give them a writing prompt on what they would do or say. I believe when students make these connections they will learn, as I did, to love history too.

SCED 4200 Blog Post #1

Hello,

My name is Thomas Henry Williams. I am a 24 year old student attending my final year at USU. I am from Logan, Utah. On August 19, 2010 I married Lauren White from Plain City, Utah. I love all sorts of animals, and have a cat and a gecko. I have swam most of my life, and I love it. I also love skiing, hiking, climbing, and skateboarding. I love to listen to music, and make music. I have been in a band named Buffalo the last 3 years of my life. Below is a link of us playing/singing a song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtkCThJTS5g&feature=related

I am studying Social Studies Composite Secondary Education at USU. The subject that I want to teach more than the others is geography and history, although my major certifies me to teach government, psychology, and sociology. I love geography because the earth is an amazing place with so much beauty. I love maps and and GPS, and learning about different cultures. I love history because I love stories, and thats all history is, millions of mini stories that make up Earth's history.

I never had a doubt that social studies was what I wanted to teach. Social studies courses were the ones that I always felt more inclined to, so it seemed only natural to teach social studies when I decided I wanted to teach. My father was a geography teacher, and he would always bring home maps, movies, and activities that he used in his classes, and this may be the reason I love geography so much.