Just reading the title of my post gets me excited. I love traveling and I especially love traveling in Europe. I frequently use pictures and other artifacts I have gathered from the different European countries I have traveled through. My students have always been fascinated by the pictures and artifacts. In fact, the same question comes up every year when I start to show the pictures. This year the question was phrased as this, "Ms. Ruder, you are so amazing, you have done so many things and traveled everywhere! Why are you a teacher?!". This is sort of a side issue I guess but it amazes me every year when the students ask this. Many students have this idea that they should not have fabulous teachers who have amazing experiences to bring to the classroom and their teaching. I think that this idea is partially due to the fact that I have always taught in urban areas where many students never have the opportunity to leave their neighborhood, let alone their city or state.
Anyways, as you may have guessed, I looked at Insight and decided to use a European Vacation Lesson plan. This lesson is geared towards grade 8-10. I originally searched for a lesson under foreign languages but there were only two options and I wasn't excited about either. So I decided to search social studies because World Languages focuses on 5 C's, communication, connections, comparisons, cultures, and communities. Many people assume that teaching Spanish means that I just teach the students to speak when in reality I teach a much broader topic than that. I want my students to have a good idea of the "big picture" you could say. I would narrow the students' travel project to any Spanish speaking country. In the project I love all of the different aspects involved with the research and presentation. The students would need to track their expenses in a spreadsheet and use Powerpoint to present their trip itinerary. The project involved a wide variety of skills as well. A middle school team could easily make this a "team" project by involving a math class, social studies, and Spanish or other world language class.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
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I agree that it seems that our students so often believe that because we are teachers we live this sheltered life that we go to school and then go back to our cave and that is our life. I'm not saying that my students phrase statements to me as "Mr. Boylen you are so awesome why are you a teacher", but I do often get comments to the effect of "Mr. Boylen, so if the starting salaries are so good for this and you are as good at it as you are. Why in the world are you a teacher?" They just don't seem to understand that their is more to life than work and money and that our pay difference comes in the form of bettering their lives. I think it is awesome that you are able to bring life experiences to your students, but I also agree with your statement that many of the students you would be teaching in the inner city wouldn't have the first clue what another state truly looks like let alone another country and the ability to utilize technologies to present videos from another country must make your job so much easier and more efficient.
ReplyDeleteNice work being flexible and you did not settle on one of the limited choices in the foreign language area and expanded your search. Just as you have in you life outside the classroom, bringing ideas and experiences to your topic.
ReplyDeleteI have to be honest and ask the same idea but slightly tweaked: You have so much wordly experience, why do you settle in this country? Like Ryan, I agree with what you're saying, but for me it's not typically the students who ask this. It's the parents, and it's not always why are you teaching but why are you teaching in a CATHOLIC school when I can make sooooo much more money at the public. And now that I'm working toward my Master's, I'm being asked this question more and more. I like to joke with people and tell them I teach at a Catholic school because not only is it easier to boss my clients around but that I can easily make them feel guilty. In all seriousness, I cannot imagine a more perfect career where your real-life experiences compliment what you do for a living. I can only imagine how great your lessons must be with all your travels. As one who would love to see the world, I'm very jealous. Have you been able to make connections with people on your travels? Have you been able to include any of them in your lessons? How fun would THAT be!
ReplyDeleteI enjoy that you brought several technology ideas together, not for the technology but because they enhanced a lesson which you enhanced and made your own. Bravo
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