Did you know that the 1960's brought about...

Did you know that the 1960's brought about Doritos, Lucky Charms, Sprite (and the Pop tab!), Mo Town, the British Invasion, the Twist, and Woodstock! One of my favorite things this semester was our decades project. We split up into groups and each group picked a decade. In our glass we had the 1950's, the 60's, and the 80's. My group did the 1960's and it was such a blast! We presented our information in the lounge and we had to try and persuade the people walking through to vote our decade as the best. THis would be a great way to introduce the different decades in your classroom! By having the students do the research, they are getting involved and hands-on information. They can then go around and see what the other groups have done out and learn new information about the other decades.

The 1950's:

The 1980's:

My group, the 1950's:

Trade Fair

At the end of September, my class had a trade fair. For this project, everyone had to try and make something or bring in something to trade with. I decided to make a pair of earrings and a "Teacher Survival Kit." I traded with Erica M. my "Teacher Survival Kit," which included lotion, paper clips, thump tacks, post its, candy and so much more, for the lanyard that she had traded her Pinterst inspired clipboard for. The lanyard was very pretty and Emily must have spent a lot of time on it. I traded my earrings for a scarf and a book from my professor.

Here is a link to were I learned to make my earrings from.

Here is where I was inspired to do the "Teacher Survival Kit."

Creating a Family through Food

At the beginning of the semester, my professor asked us to each bring in a recipe that we use in our families. Whether that be a recipe passed down through our family our something that has come about in recent years, we needed to type it up and describe when we would use it and what it means to our family.

For my recipe, I chose to do our traditional Polish Kifli recipe. This recipe is from my mom's step-dads family. when his family came over from Poland, "on a ship," he would always tell us, this recipe came with them. It is a recipe that we only make once a year, sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas. All the women in my family, that are important to me, come together to make these and we give them out to our friends to say "thanks" for all the have done for us throughout the year.

Campbell Family Kifli Recipe

Dough

-          4 cups flour

-          1 lb. Butter

-          6 Egg Yolks

-          8 oz. Sour Cream

            Mix ingredients well and store overnight in refrigerator.

Nut Mixture

-          2 lb. Walnuts (chopped fine)

-          6 Egg Whites (beat before adding to nut mixture)

-          1 lb. Powder Sugar

-          1 tsp. Vanilla

-          1 tsp. Rum Extract

-          1 tsp. Lemon Extract

Mix all ingredients together, making sure that nuts are finely chopped and egg whites already beaten and store overnight in refrigerator.

Directions

-          Preheat oven to 350degrees.

-          Roll dough into 1-inch balls and coat with flour

-          Roll out dough balls with rolling pin into thin rounds and put a tablespoon of nut mixture in middle, then roll into crescent shape.

-          Continue process until complete.

-          Bake 12-14 minutes (until edges are slightly brown)

-          Let cool completely

-          Dust with powder sugar. 

What would you take?

Back in September, we were asked to bring in 5 artifacts that describe you or are important to you. Were were also asked to bring a shoebox filled with things that you would grab if you had a fire in your house. For most people the objects that were brought in for the first objective, were also included in their shoebox. It was interesting to see what everyone felt was important to them and I also learned a few new things about my fellow classmates. Based on the bibles that were brought by a few of the girls, I realized how important their faith is to them, Also the amount of books or kindle/nooks brought it was surprising. We are all teacher candidates, so reading is a part of our lives, but to see how much people enjoy it and would want to keep their books was fascinating.

The 5 Artifacts that I brought were:
 - My Kindle
 - My iPod
 - A picture of my immediate family
 - A picture of my best friend/cousin and her husband/my friend
 - A picture of my cousins little girl, who is very important to me.
 - I also brought a bone to symbolize my dog who I love. (I brought 6, whoops)

"What's the capital of Ohio?" - "O!" *

In our first quiz of the semester we were asked the question, "What do you think is the biggest challenge to teaching Social Studies [in your upper elementary classroom]?" One answer that everyone could agree on is time. How do you allot enough time to cover the subject adequately? How do you integrate all the subjects into the day and cover them in a way that is beneficial to your students? This is one of my biggest fears about teaching but I also worry about knowing the subject and its content.

How do you know all that you need to know? There is a lot of information to cover and how do you cover it in a way that your students enjoy, while still getting to all that you need to? Children can get on a subject that they enjoy and what if you don’t know the answer to their question? I know you can tell them you’ll look it up and get back to them, but what if that makes their interest wane and discourages them from the topic?

Children can think of all kinds of things that, to them, is the right answer to a question, as exemplified in my title. With misinterpreted questions and their quirky, if well meaning, answers I find that I question my own understanding of topics and my coordinating background knowledge. Do I have what it takes to become a great teacher? Will I be able to encourage and guide my students through their own challenging educational journey, while still getting everything done? 


Hopefully throughout my journey, I can discover what I need to know and how I can implement it in a way that is beneficial to everyone, the students, myself and the parents. 

*Title is taken from the Glee Season 3, Episode 2 trailer.