Peggy's blog

Do you ever do things in your classroom just to throw your students off balance a little and get their attention? I admit that I think it is kind of fun to watch student’s reactions when I try something totally new in class and they aren’t quite sure what to think. Although the topic of codes and ciphers is different and cool in its own right, you can make it even more engaging for students by immersing students in the subject from the beginning of the lesson.

“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” – Confucius

Some students easily grasp concepts in a traditional instructional setting with a teacher in front of the classroom explaining and demonstrating a particular topic. These students are often good note-takers and do not have a problem staying on-task and listening for an extended period of time. Unfortunately, not all students fit in this category. Many students need to DO things to get a deep and lasting understanding of a topic. Teachers attempt to engage these students by including hands-on activities and projects as often as possible, giving these Do-ers a chance to learn to the best of their potential.

"I never teach my pupils. I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn."
- Albert Einstein

This is a humbling philosophy to think about as a teacher. My job description says “teacher,” but now I’m supposed to be a creator of optimal learning conditions instead? It’s easy to assume that teaching something to your class means that the students all learned it. With the variety of abilities, learning styles, and needs in every classroom (and the possibility that some of the students MIGHT not be listening…) this is not always the case.

A few places come to mind when I think about uncharted frontiers: deep space, deep sea, and deep inside the tropical rainforest. (Deep, I know!) In a perfect world, our students would have the opportunity to explore these depths on extended field trips where they would get the opportunity make their own discoveries: authentic learning at its best. Since traveling to any of these environments with a class of 30 kids (or more) is nearly impossible, you will have to get creative to use the topics in your classroom. Fortunately, today’s technology can help you bring your students close to these uncharted frontiers without setting a foot outside the classroom.

If you are reading this, you have probably already noticed the all-new Gateway. I hope you are as excited as I am about all the new features! Like always, it is free to become a member of the site, and now you can choose to sign in through your Facebook account to make sharing and discussing resources with your colleagues even easier than before. (Don’t worry if you aren’t a Facebook junkie, though. Plenty of teachers are still using the Gateway without it!) Please take some time to explore the site to find some perfect activities for the new year. As you look around, please let us know what kinds of resources and discussions you are looking for. We count on your feedback to make sure we cover topics that are important to you.

Joann did a wonderful job of explaining the goals of our weekly columns, so I hope you read her post first! I would like to join her in welcoming you to the new Gateway and inviting you to make the Gateway an integral part of your teaching. As you explore, you will find tens of thousands of resources that include lesson plans, activities, units, and examples of best practices. When you choose a resource to use in your classroom, you will be able to see the alignment of that resource to your state standards, and share that resource with your colleagues. It's a simple way to find and share standards-aligned resources.

The year leading up to a presidential election is full of political advertisements and media coverage of political scandals. Students who are not familiar with specific propaganda techniques may form opinions on political issues and candidates without fully understanding the truth behind the advertisements. An informed citizen is able to think critically about things they see in the media to separate fact from fiction. This skill needs to be taught in the classroom. The saturation of politics and political advertisements in the media will make this coming year an ideal time to study political campaigns and advertising propaganda.

“Debt is like any other trap, easy enough to get into, but hard enough to get out of.”

– Henry Wheeler Shaw

In order for students to excel on standardized tests, most of their learning must focus on core subjects. Teachers are often most comfortable teaching in these areas, anyway, since they are the focus of most teachers’ formal training. Success in core subjects ultimately brings funding to schools.

Creating activities and units that effectively place students “in the shoes” of key characters in the past is what sets the best history teachers apart from the good history teachers.  Most people can describe events from the past to their students.  Many of them can even explain these events in a way that is meaningful and memorable.  Some teachers take it to the next level by introducing primary sources to their students, allowing them to see artifacts of the actual events so they can form a connection to the material they are learning.  The best teachers strive to create a bond between their students and the characters they are studying.