Thursday, February 25, 2010
Welcome
This will be an exciting experience to visit the historical sites of early United States history, read about John Adams, and integrate the literature of the times with the content. What do you hope to gain out of this experience and how do you hope to incorporate this into your students' learning?
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This experience will give me an opportunity to meet with colleagues throughout the state. I currently teach 11th grade English integrated with United States History. I am anxious to learn new ways to present relevant ideas to my students.
ReplyDeleteI have found that when I get the opportunity to visit a place it gives me a connection to the history as well. If I am enthused, that enthusiasm spreads to my students. I am always looking for new ways to make the curriculum meaningful for my students. The better I understand something, the better I can teach it.
ReplyDeleteMy dad is a retired professor with a phd in American History. All of our family vacations involved experiences like this....going to a site and having him give us a history lesson on what happened there. As a result, history came alive to me. I loved going to these places and learning from my dad about what happened. I. however, missed out on my family's trip to Boston, because I was serving and LDS mission at the time. I have wanted to go there for years, but have been unable to arrange it for my family. I am glad that I will be going on this seminar, rather than on my own for my first time to Boston, so that I can have the accompanying professors give additional insights to the area that I have not learned in my own study of history and literature. I love teaching about the places I have been to. It makes me feel more passionate about the topic. As the middle school where I teach implements teaming, I am excited to work with the language arts teachers at my school to develop cross-curricular unit plans that will benefit the students.
ReplyDeleteI hope to gain some insight into the history and literature we are reading so that I can make some meaningful connections to the sites we will have the opportunity to visit. I was able to spend a week in Hannibal, Missouri last year at a seminar on Mark Twain at the museum there. I was able to gain some real understanding of the experiences, people, and places that influenced Mark Twain's writing. I was even able to stand at the wheel of a riverboat on the Mississippi River. I hope that I will have the same kind of experiences as those as I read the prose and poetry assigned to us and then stand in the historical places. Nothing can replace being there and feeling the spirit of the place. It makes it so much more meaningful when I share the history with my class. They become enthused and catch a part of the vision I try to share with them. I can't wait!
ReplyDeleteI read "Walking" again last night. I was reminded of the importance of slowing down and noticing the simple, important things. I walk to school every day, about a mile and a half each way, today I walked it without my ipod. I contrasted today's bright, sunny walk with last Thursday's that was covered in fresh, crisp snow. The song "You Get to Know Things Better When They Go By Slow" kept running through my mind. There are so many things to see and hear when most of the world is still indoors.
ReplyDeleteI also recollected the book "Into the Wild" and how Walden was inspiration for Christopher McCandless' extreme and fatal life style choice. What an unfortunate turn to the inspiration within the book.
One of the key aspects to gaining a love for history is to get past the dates and names and find out about the average person of that time. This opportunity provides me with an opportunity to enhance my student's understanding of historical concepts by allowing me to visit and take pictures of life as it was instead of just facts and dates.
ReplyDeleteI am so very excited to go to Boston! What a great experience this will be for all of us. I am looking forward to gaining first hand knowledge of historical events, being in the place where it happened, and giving myself up to the experience. The challenge will come translating all this information into comprehensible bites for my 7th graders. I teach Language Arts and History together in an 84 minute block. I'm looking forward to Judy's strategies that I can integrate into my lessons. I hope there are other 7th grade teachers on this trip that I can collaborate with.
ReplyDeleteI am so excited for this trip. I can't wait to walk in the footsteps of our founding fathers. I want to see the sights.
ReplyDeleteThanks to LHM and Zions for making this happen.
I feel like a professional.
The opportunity to visit the historic site of our country's beginning is a dream come true for me. The men and women who dared to take a stand for the idea of freedom and liberty for all people are my heros. These folks stood against the super power of their day regardless of the cost. I want to absorb all that i possibly can from this experience. I hope to inspire my students to develop an adoration for our country, its exceptionalism, and its greatness. I hope that they would embrace our freedoms and liberties and guard them well so they may pass them on to the next generation.
ReplyDeleteVisiting the historical sites that we have read about has given me the background knowledge to actually understand what I see. For example, when I see John Adam's house I will be connecting what I read from the book to his home. So many times you go on a tour and you are fed so much information at once- you forget most of what you hear because you are focused on all the history around you. I'm excited to go to Boston and actually see the places I have read about and share the experiences using power points, primary sources, and artifacts with my students.
ReplyDeleteAs the trip gets closer, I am getting more excited to learn history and literature in context. What a fantastic experience to be able to share with our students. I also look forward to meeting with all of you and trading ideas and strategies.
ReplyDeleteI am getting really excited as well Ashley. Just finished my report a few more articles and then time to pack, whoo hoo!
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