October Extra Blog Post

Recently the students at my mentorship have been learning about the Civil War. They're learning about what events led up to the Civil War, what major battles occurred, and the outcome of the United States once this bloody conflict was over. This is all very interesting and neat, but what they are really looking forward to is that once the are done with the Unit. They get to do a Civil War reenactment, in which they invite Civil War Reenactors to the school and they teach the students what it was like to be a soldier on the Union or Confederate side. Even I myself am looking forward to this. I can't wait

Blog 7: Independent Component Approval

1.For my 30 hours I plan to take over my mentor's History class for a day and teach her students a section of the Unit of history they are on. I will plan the lesson and activity and teach the class for the day. Of course, I won't be doing it all by myself. My mentor can assist me in planning the lesson and provide guidance/tips when needed. If I struggle at all during the actual teaching my mentor will right next to me to help and push me forward with the teaching.

2. I will have my mentor take pictures/video of me teaching her class, and the powerpoint of the lesson I taught to the students.

3. This will help me explore my topic as it will help me learn and feel what its like to be a history teacher and what is the best way for a History Teacher to engage the students to focus on myself and  the lesson I will be teaching.

September Additional Blog Post

Over the past couple weeks at my mentorship, the students have been learning about the American Revolution. During this time my mentor and I brainstormed ideas for a project that they could work on. One of the ideas was to have the students make a passport. They would put a picture of themselves inside along with all their personal info so it could be like an authentic passport. With this the students would pretend like they visited the major cities in the Original Thirteen Colonies, they were cities like Boston, New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Charleston. For each city they, "visited," they would write down some facts about each city and talk about some events that were going on  in the city during the Revolutionary War. At the end once they were done filling out all the information about each city they would receive a stamp of approval so it seemed liked they actually visited that city. It was a really fun project to design and a lot of the students really enjoyed it. Below is a picture of Walnut Grove Intermediate, the school I am doing my mentorship at.

Blog 6-Second Interview Preparation

1. My mentor is Britt Linke, she is an 8th Grade Honors History Teacher at Walnut Grove Intermediate School in West Covina, CA.

2. The five questions I am going to ask are, "Where did you receive your education from?" "What degrees do you have?" "How long have you been teaching?" "What makes you different from other people in your field?" "Do you consider yourself an expert in your field. If so, why?"

Blog 5-Mentorship and Research Reflection

1. My experience in finding my mentor was rather easy. I emailed my former History teacher at Walnut Grove Intermediate School in West Covina if she would like to be my mentor for my Senior Project. She said yes and I got on with doing my mentorship. The only slight problem is that since she is a teacher I only have a window of about 2 hrs per day for the week, but I've been managing and have been working with my mentor at least 2 days a week.

2.I have to say the most important article I have read so far was an article called, "Engaging Students in Learning History," by Prof. John Fielding(Retired, 2002) from Queen's University in Canada. He is a very knowledgeable man and gave many helpful tips on how to engage your students in learning history. Some of these included Watching Films, Field Trips, Debates, and Tableaux. He stated that these are some of the most effective strategies to engage and have fun with your students while also learning History. No doubt, this has been my most important article so far for my Senior Project.

Research Source

Since my Senior topic is on, "Teaching History" it is actually a bit hard to find research and articles on the topic. Most of what i find while digging through books and articles are either sources about, "History" or sources about, "Teaching," never both. Ive only been able to find a few articles that focus on, "Teaching History." However, while searching the bookstore on my Amazon Kindle I was able to find a book that will surely help me with my Senior Project. Its called, "Teaching What Really Happened, How to avoid the Tyranny of Textbooks & Get Students Excited About Doing History," by James W. Loewen. This book will surely help because the reason why I chose to do "Teaching History," for my Senior Project because History is my absolute favorite subject in school and I feel that students nowadays find History to be boring and not really as an important subject in school. I want to prove to people that History can be exciting and is actually important to one's education.

Blog 4: Interview Preperation

1. I plan to interview my mentor Britt Linke. She is a History Teacher at Walnut Grove Intermediate School and has been teaching for almost 10 years. As my topic is focused on "Teaching History," she is a reliable choice to interview.

2. Some additional questions I am going to ask are, "Why did you decide to become a History teacher, and were there any influences that inspired you to pursue this career?." "How do you engage your students to learn a subject such as History." "Do you believe History is an important school subject to learn in school, and Why?"