SocialStudies7

Social Studies 7

 * 7th Social Studies || 7th Social Studies Summary ||



21 Century Skills
 // What are the 21st century skills that need to be taught? //  // Will these skills require changing some of the things educators do? // //· //// Yes, it will require looking at how we build student learning from start to finish. // //· //// It will also require knowledge and willingness to use different tools into learning. // · // Collaborating with other teachers supports ideas and supports student learning. This includes a willingness to learn new methods and ask questions if we don’t know how. //  // How do we incorporate them into our lessons? //   // Designing problem based learning/inquiry lessons that incorporate real world situations while still aligning with the standards //   // What tools do we use and how should we use them? //
 * Content in terms of context Allowing student to explore and delve deeper into problem solving.
 * Communication and collaboration student to student, teacher to student, teacher to teacher and community to school.
 * Ability to synthesis and process information from various sources, bringing the outside world in while making personal connections.
 * // The use of technology such as smart boards, movie maker, wikipages, flipcams, digital images. //
 * // Main ideas are items that extend the learning. //

 // What do the educational experiences and learning environment look like? // // In a 21st century learning environment, students will be solving problems and //// feeling //// the lessons as opposed to being told what is important. Students will be able to synthesis and make “memories” as they learn the content. //  // How do we measure the achievement of these 21st century skills? (not just the content standards) // // Measurement will look at the skills such as self evaluation, collaboration, problem solving, time management, connecting lessons learned and synthesis. //  // How will we respond if we find students haven't learned these skills? //  // Reteaching and constantly embedding learning/skills into lessons that review older concepts is one step along the process. Also having student work within a comfortable learning environment, where they feel as part of a team instead of a lone student adrift.


 * February 13 Professional Development Outcomes:

Today Noah and I spent most of the morning in the "Sandbox" learning how to convert audio from the digital voice recorder into mp3 format. Ultimately we plan on using this technology for future lessons along with incorporating podcasts into our 7th grade wikispaces.

Our afternoon consisted of revising our Wikisite for our "Mock Trial" that will take place in a couple of weeks. We plan on having our students post video, audio, and transcripts so others can view their opinions along with staying current with events leading up to and during the trial itself. We also plan on having a select group of students create a newscast from the past that will introduce the Mock Trial to each of our classes. This year we plan on taking a more global perspective, so the newscasts will be shot to include regional perpsectives that we have learned about during our unit on the middle ages (Mongol Empire, Japan, Europe, West African Kingdoms, Byzantine Empire, and Native American Empires.

Visit our Harmon E-Trial: http://harmonmocktrial.wikispaces.com Visit our 7th Social Studies site: [|www.harmonsocialstudies7.wikispaces.com]

We also developed a differentiated Tic-Tac-Toe assignment board for our Renaissance Unit. Each student as a famous Renaissance figure will be required to complete three different assignments. One choice integrates technology such as MovieMaker, podcasts, Video, Microsoft Publisher and Photoshop. Other choices include a creative writing piece and their participation to role play their character at a Renaissance Ball Here is a link to a WebQuest I created for a class through Ashland University. [|Veteran's Memorial to the Punic War]** //