If you're like me, as a high school US History teacher, not a lot of emphasis is placed on the Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War. (Indiana divides it into two parts: 8th grade focuses on pre-colonial to the Civil War; 11th grade focuses on Civil War to the present with a small review of 1754 - 1865). Because of this, the Emancipation isn't presented with a lot of heart, meaning, or substance. One day the slaves were slaves, the next day they were free.
Fortunately, it wasn't that simple, and a new interactive map from the University of Richmond details and aggregates tons of information into a visual reference.
Look here for the original article on the Chronicle of Higher Education.
How Does It Affect Education?
Anything that can be represented visually is great for teaching a generation that has a screen in front of them for 1/2 of the day. This is a good way to show that emancipation of the slaves did not happen overnight. There are also lists of the data the map is representing, so you can have students look deeper into the data if you wish.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Zone Out During Life? You're Not Alone
Well, at least I know I'm not the only one...
An article on the PsyBlog takes a look at several studies on the subject and found that people approximately zoned out 5.4 times in a 45 minute period. However, they weren't always aware that they were zoning out (ever read a page and not remember a thing you read?)
So the researchers devised a system to catch these people, and found that minds wandered about 13% of the time while reading. However, what is more disturbing, is that in another experiment, mind wandering occurred in almost half of the participants when they were asked in everyday general life.
How Does It Affect Education?
Well, it doesn't bode well for activities in the classroom, especially with the "need satisfaction immediately" generation we are teaching. If one in two of your students are mind-wandering, or half of your students are zoning out at any given moment, how can you keep students on task?
Some suggestions: keep activities fresh, focus on student-centered learning, and follow up with students about what they just learned.
Do you have any ways to keep students (or yourself) on task? Comment below!
An article on the PsyBlog takes a look at several studies on the subject and found that people approximately zoned out 5.4 times in a 45 minute period. However, they weren't always aware that they were zoning out (ever read a page and not remember a thing you read?)
So the researchers devised a system to catch these people, and found that minds wandered about 13% of the time while reading. However, what is more disturbing, is that in another experiment, mind wandering occurred in almost half of the participants when they were asked in everyday general life.
How Does It Affect Education?
Well, it doesn't bode well for activities in the classroom, especially with the "need satisfaction immediately" generation we are teaching. If one in two of your students are mind-wandering, or half of your students are zoning out at any given moment, how can you keep students on task?
Some suggestions: keep activities fresh, focus on student-centered learning, and follow up with students about what they just learned.
Do you have any ways to keep students (or yourself) on task? Comment below!
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Summer Book Club on Twitter #sschatbook
Some quick words of advice: if you haven't signed up for Twitter yet and you are an educator, do it. Start building your PLN. It was the best professional development I have ever done. I only wish it counted toward my Professional Growth Points as an Indiana educator. Sadly, they lag behind in the technology world.
Once you do get on Twitter, be sure to search for #sschat to connect with fellow social studies educators (there are also #histchat, #psychat, #mathchat, #scichat, etc. if you want to get more specific.). #sschat is having a book club this summer, and they are reading one of my favorites. I like it because it is essentially an educational psychology book, but it can be applied to everyday teaching!
Daniel T. Willingham's book "Why Don't Students Like School?" is a great look at how most teaching is not conducive to how the human mind works, and how to rectify it. I have read it before, but I plan to read it again as a part of this book chat. We are reading 1 chapter per week for 9 weeks. The first chat is on June 24th. See the promotional flyer on Google Docs.
Once you do get on Twitter, be sure to search for #sschat to connect with fellow social studies educators (there are also #histchat, #psychat, #mathchat, #scichat, etc. if you want to get more specific.). #sschat is having a book club this summer, and they are reading one of my favorites. I like it because it is essentially an educational psychology book, but it can be applied to everyday teaching!
Daniel T. Willingham's book "Why Don't Students Like School?" is a great look at how most teaching is not conducive to how the human mind works, and how to rectify it. I have read it before, but I plan to read it again as a part of this book chat. We are reading 1 chapter per week for 9 weeks. The first chat is on June 24th. See the promotional flyer on Google Docs.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
"Everything Comes Down to Poo - Toilet Psychology"
University of Melbourne professor Nick Haslam is pushing the bounds of psychology where it has never gone before...literally. In the June 2012 issue of The Psychologist, Haslam argues for more research into human excretion. Although disgusting (at least in this blogger's opinion), I do agree with the points he makes:
Check out Susan Perry's summary of the article in the MinnPost.
Give Haslam's article a read for yourself: it's pretty interesting (and free)!
How Does It Affect Education?
Well, this might be an interesting way to grasp students attention at the beginning of a unit. There are multiple units that can open with this as Prof. Haslam has used multiple examples of how excretion is tied to psychology.
“In 30 years of studying the field I rarely came across any recognition that human beings are creatures who excrete. Much of what we psychologists care about is on the mental side of the mind/body divide, but even when we go corporeal we eliminate elimination. Psychologists have examined the psychobiology of eating, sleeping and sex at great length, and devoted numerous journals and professional associations to them. We have investigated how substances cross from outer to inner but largely ignored traffic in the other direction.”He also argues that some gastrointestinal disorders are linked to psychological abnormalities, how excretion is linked to social attitudes, and how men and women view excretion differently (men are more open to discussing it, women tend to keep it hidden).
Check out Susan Perry's summary of the article in the MinnPost.
Give Haslam's article a read for yourself: it's pretty interesting (and free)!
How Does It Affect Education?
Well, this might be an interesting way to grasp students attention at the beginning of a unit. There are multiple units that can open with this as Prof. Haslam has used multiple examples of how excretion is tied to psychology.
Wordpress vs. Blogger vs. EduBlogs
As evidenced by my lack of a library of posts, I recently decided to begin a blog about education. Currently, I am planning on implementing this task as a goal for my school next year. I feel it will force allow me to stay current on trends in education, read/comment on other blogs about US History and Psychology, and be reflective on my own experiences in the classroom. BUT...there are so many blog sites out there. Which one to choose?
Steven Anderson (one of my favorite blog reads and Twitter follows) recently posted an entire article about it on his blog, which I found very helpful and motivational. His first point of note confused me to no end, however. I wanted to go with one of the big boys, but which would I choose, Blogger or Wordpress? Plus, a Twitter follower told me he had recently started blogging on EduBlogs.
I decided to set up a blog on both of them and see which one I liked. Here is what I found:
Blogger
Steven Anderson (one of my favorite blog reads and Twitter follows) recently posted an entire article about it on his blog, which I found very helpful and motivational. His first point of note confused me to no end, however. I wanted to go with one of the big boys, but which would I choose, Blogger or Wordpress? Plus, a Twitter follower told me he had recently started blogging on EduBlogs.
I decided to set up a blog on both of them and see which one I liked. Here is what I found:
- Pros
- VERY simple to use (owned by Google)
- Already use Google a lot, so this fits in seamlessly
- WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) interface - no coding required.
- Completely free with the ability to monetize through Google AdSense
- Cons
- No official iPad application (but there is one for iPhone?)
Wordpress
- Pros
- New interface is very user friendly.
- iPad app is very useful
- Opensourced (if you're a techie and can use that stuff)
- Automatically link to social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, etc) to write links to your newest post
- Cons
- HTML code is intimidating
- Basic service is free, but it costs $$$ if you want to upgrade (themes, no ads, etc. all will cost you)
EduBlogs
- Pros
- School friendly (could be used with students)
- Cool iPad app similar in design to Wordpress
- Uses WordPress engine to run its blog.
- Cons
- Free iPad app won't let you post unless you are an EduBlog Pro user, which costs $$$
Even though Blogger does not have an "official" iPad app, I felt strongly enough to start my blog on that site. But now, how does one use Blogger on their iPad?
Blogsy (available in the App Store for $4.99). Time and time again, this is considered the best app for blogging on the iPad. It has cross-platform capabilities, so even if you decide to go with another site to host your blog, chances are Blogsy will support it.
So there you go! Now that I have settled on a decent space to write a blog, be on the lookout for more and more posts!
Friday, June 1, 2012
Majority of Students are Bad Researchers
Sarah Kessler on Mashable.com recently posted this article on students' research habits according to popular bibliography site easybib.com. After reading the research papers I received in my government class (which I am no longer teaching next year), I can confirm that the majority of students follow this trend.
How can we correct this as social studies teachers? I assign research papers in my US History class and I am planning to in my new Psychology course. In the rubric, I state that sources must only come from reputable sources. BUT...if the student thinks that some of these sites are reputable, then this is a problem. How do we teach them otherwise during their last two years of high school? In my opinion, it needs to start in the last few years of primary schooling.
The infographic from the article is below:
How can we correct this as social studies teachers? I assign research papers in my US History class and I am planning to in my new Psychology course. In the rubric, I state that sources must only come from reputable sources. BUT...if the student thinks that some of these sites are reputable, then this is a problem. How do we teach them otherwise during their last two years of high school? In my opinion, it needs to start in the last few years of primary schooling.
The infographic from the article is below:
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