And We're Off..

Congratulations classmates we have made it to the second week of social studies methods. We are well on our way to being technology connoisseurs. We are tweeting, blogging, videoing, and viewing all types of information that will help us to become a great asset to 21st Century teaching and learning.
I must admit that i have found some interesting things on from the tweets that I have been following for the Ttotw. Does anyone else get excited when they see something about a concept that we have learned or are learning?! The words PBL (Project Based Learning) or CBI are not foreign abbreviations anymore. I think we are off to a great start. Keep it up guys!


So what have I been learning? 
We have focused on concepts vs. topics this week and boy I must say, it is an eye opener. As a child you don't really know what is the right or wrong way your teacher is supposed to be teaching. You are just the receiver of all the topics, facts, and information that they believe will make you knowledgeable. Sometimes it's easy for teachers to get stuck in teaching what's required so the students can pass the test, meet the standards, and get the funding. But what about what happens after the class? What imprint are teachers leaving after the lesson? How did teaching/ learning that topic help alter a students view or perspective of the "their " real world? 

These are the questions, I now realize, the old way of teaching neglected. Much of teaching back then came with no intent other passing the test. To teach with intent is called " intentional teaching". When I was in school it was very few teachers that I realize was intentional. I can count on one hand how many of those intentional teachers were Social Studies teachers. Intentional teachers do not just teach topics. They are the teachers who educate their students and center their topics around the concept they are intending to teach. 


So what are concepts? Concepts are the "big idea"  of the lesson. Concepts are abstract, timeless, transferable, and universal.

On the other hand, topics are specific events or information that is conscious of time frame, centered around subject, facts, a small picture,and limited to one region.
Concept Based teaching helps teachers teach with the students needs in mind- centering topics around the " big idea" that they want students to grasp at the end of the unit. I plan to use this type of instruction within my own classroom. It will allow me to make my lessons centered around my students, and remove the old way of teaching from the book out of my class. I never plan to do anything in my class that does not have the best interest of my students in mind. I am an intentional teacher.


So what are the standards?? 
So each of our lessons come with some reference centered around the teacher candidate standards ( because our teacher is intentional). Everything we learn from this class makes a better teacher as well as more marketable for our career. So from this lesson I can connect it to standard 1c- teachers lead in the teaching profession and 4b- teachers plan instruction appropriate for their students.  21st Century teaching changes the mold of how we were taught and the old fashioned way of teaching. We will lead by sharing these strategies with other teachers and making a "imprint" in our students,school and community. Planning our instruction appropriately for our students indicate that we do understand how learning takes place in our classroom. We take time to plan our lessons that will demonstrate learning taking place in our students. We focus on the concept and make it center around topics that are relevant to the real world of our students. We are intentional.