April Extra Blog Post

This month for Senior Project I have been working on everything, from my 2nd Independent Component to my Fourth Interview, and my Activity. It has been really stressful but this is just the final push Forward unto the Light Brigade to the end that awaits us at Graduation. I really hope I do well on my Senior Project Presentation. I look forward to teaching all my classmates and Juniors things they didn't know about what it takes and how you can Teach History effectively.

Blog 19:Independent Component 2

Literal
(a) "I, Alonso VIllanueva, affirm that I completed my independant component which represents 30 hours of work."
(b)-Sanders, Jody S. "Teaching Students to Recognize Bias." Middleweb.com. N.p., 02 Feb. 2014. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.

(c) My Senior Project Hours Log has been updated. The link is on the right.

(d)For my Independent Component 2, I mostly worked with a teacher Mr. Leighton at the school my mentor works at. For this component I investigated many widely used History textbooks that many schools use. Including the one I mentorship at. Despite these history books claiming not to be biased, I wanted to see if they actually are. 

Interpretive

For my 2nd Independent Component I worked with my 2nd mentor VinceLHe is a social studies teacher at Walnut Grove Intermediate School. What I wanted to do was examine and investigate some of the more widely used History Textbooks and see if there were any biases with them. This mainly has to do with my Third Answer that states, "Having reliable primary and secondary sources is one of the best ways to effectively teach a History class." And one way a primary and secondary source, such as a history textbook can become unreliable is if they're biased. From what I found in my research, books like Prentice Hall's, "World History: The Modern World," leave out some key points. Such as in Section 3, Chapter 11 on the bombing of Pearl Harbor and America's response to the attack and how we entered World War 2. It leaves out and doesn't even mention that one of Roosevelt's responses to the attack was Executive Order 9066. The order that forcibly evacuated over 100,000 Japanese American Citizens into Internment Camps. Even though this was a mistake on the government's hands at the time and something America really doesn't like to talk about. Its something that needs to be learnt so that it may never happen again. Another thing I noticed was that quite a bit of history textbooks in the Southern United States particularly the states of Louisiana and Mississippi. The textbooks in these regions barely even touched and skimmed about the treatment of African Americans living in the South in the Post Civil War Era. They don't even mention the thousands of public lynchings that were preformed in the decades that followed the conclusion of the civil war. There's not even a word about the Jim Crow laws that restricted the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of African Americans. All of these events in time are a very important part of American History, and these books just flat out don't include them. No matter how shameful it may look now, our children still need to know about and learn these things as ugly as they are to talk about. I know I'm blabbering on, but History is something I am very passionate about. The  lat thing that grinded my gears was the totally biased and over glorification of the controversial decision to drop the atomic bomb. Now the history books I looked into did a decent job of explaining why we made the decision to drop the bomb. However, it completely leaves out any counter arguments or skepticism or different perspectives about what other people thought about the dropping of the bomb. They just basically state that the bomb was a good thing because it saved millions of lives on both sides as a result. It really bugs me that many History books just spit out plain facts, they don't make the reader think about the decisions people made in the past. There's no aspiration of curiosity for the readers to dig deeper into the material. Thankfully though there are teachers like my mentors who inspire their students to ask questions about these events and make them wonder what if things had been different.

-This is one of the books I investigated and examined. One I found to be biased.

-This is my 2nd mentor Vince Leighton. He is the 7th Grade World History Teacher at WGIS

Applied

-This component helped answer my EQ by greatly helping me strengthen and back my Third answer. Having reliable primary and secondary sources is essential to teaching History effectively. Having biased sources truly undermines the source material you have to go off of as a teacher. Its like having a book with many pages of it missing, you'd miss out on key points of it. The same goes for History textbooks, because of their biases a lot of important things in our students Historical education is missing and it is a real problem. That is why in one of the best ways to teach History effectively is by having reliable and un-biased primary and especially secondary sources to teach History the best to your ability as a teacher.

March Extra Blog Post

This month I have been doing quite a bit of investigating for my Senior Project. I have been researching and examining for of the most widely used History books in the state of California's school system. The reason as to why i've been looking into these books is that I want to see if any of them are biased in any way. This may include not staying true to the historical events, or maybe shedding a different light on an event or person, or even maybe not including all the facts. The book i've been looking into the most right now is Prentice Hall's World History: The Modern Era. So far it has proved my suspicions about this source being biased despite it not suppose to be. This will just strengthen my third answer that having reliable and truthful sources are important to teaching History.

Blog 18: Fourth Interview Questions

1. What is the most effective way to teach a History class?

2. Do you believe History is an important subject to learn?

3. Why do you believe some people have a negative view towards the subject of History?

4. If so, why?

5. In your opinion can bringing enthusiasm into the classroom be beneficial for teachers and their students?

6. One thing I came across while doing my research is that some History textbooks are biased. Do you believe that they are, and if so why?

7. Have you ever used enthusiasm as a teaching method, and if so has it been successful for you?

8. To you, is History an essential subject to our childrens education?

I

9. Why did you decide to become a History teacher?

10. Do you ever have any problems trying to get the focus of your students?

11. What teaching methods do you use to get their attention?

12. My First Answer is, “Using enthusiasm is one of the best ways a History Teacher can effectively teach his class?” What do you think of it?

13. My Second Answer is, “Teaching the Importance of History is one of the best ways a History Teacher can effectively teach his class?” What do you think of it?

14. Do you have any ideas what I can have for my third and final answer?

15.  Do you have any ideas or suggestions for what I can do for my activity?

16. Are there any special methods or techniques you use when teaching your class?

17. Which method has been the most effective in your class?

18.How do you make your history class more fun?

19. What makes a good History teacher?

20. Why do you think History is one of those subjects that the students just sometimes don't want to learn?

21. Why should they learn it?