EDUCATION NEWS

Las Vegas, NV
2013 Volume 1, Issue 1

We do not learn by being exposed to a

concept only once. Rather, we learn by being exposed to a concept a number of times, in different ways at successfully more challenging levels.

Interesting Quote

Big Idea
It is important that we as educators do not confuse challenging learning experiences with quantity or complexity of a lesson. We need to help our students think deeply about a few things versus generally about several things. This means our focus should be on quality.

Making Connections in Elementary and Middle School Social Studies

A. Johnson, 2010 p. 6

HOT TOPIC IN EDUCATION TODAY

One of the things that I constantly hear from educators and from the school district is that work must be rigorous. My confusion leads to the understanding of what rigorous truly means. To me, it means having students provide a higher level of knowledge and provide depth to assignments. What I have come across as a pre-service teacher as well as a parent to a fifth grader is that commonly the term rigorous seems to make people think more work. This leads back to the old age argument of quality vs. quantity. Obviously, quality is almost always the better choice, so I believe quality is what is meant by providing more rigorous work to students. Everything must be thought provoking, even if the students assignments are not that long.

Social Studies defined

Social Studies is an integration of geography, history, government, and sociology that help young people develop the ability to become active and informed citizens.

Page 2 Teaching Social Studies is important!

I believe that social studies is a necessary part of education because it helps students grow up into informed citizens. Teaching children social studies increases the possibility of their becoming more aware, more responsible as human beings and ultimately responsible citizens of their nation. Teaching social studies increases chances that they will adhere to ethical and moral values in life. The study of social sciences is necessary, if we want a brighter future for our society.

This Weeks Highlights

The Four Social Studies Strands Civics deals with the rights and duties of citizens Economics deals with description and analysis of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services History - a chronological record of significant events and usually includes an explanation of their causes Geography the description, distribution, and interaction of the diverse physical, biological, and cultural features of the earth's surface.

Importance of Parent Involvement

I plan on encouraging family involvement in my classroom in a few ways. First, I think having parents come in as chaperones during the virtual field trips would be excellent. Parents could help students with explanations and add some of their knowledge to the tour. I also would like to invite parents into the classroom to watch students do presentations. I feel that project creation is an important part Advantages of collaborating of learning in social studies, and I with peers also think that parents rarely ever get to experience their childs full There are many advantages of collaborating with other teachers. First, no teacher is the perfect teacher. Everyone can always learn a new strategy or get a new idea from someone else. Second, collaboration allows for all the teachers at the school to be on the same page at the same time. Doing so will not only benefit students if they are moved around in the school, but it will also provide the teachers with an outline to get all of the standards taught in the school year. Another reason is the idea that two heads are better than one. Granted, there are usually more than two teachers collaborating, but the idea that more people thinking about the same thing will commonly lead to a better outcome.