First Day of SS

     Since we had the extra long weekend, I kept feeling like today was Monday. So, it will be interesting to see what it feels like when Friday rolls around.

     I started my Civil War unit in social studies today. I believe I got them stimulated. I wanted to have something that they can relate to while going over the causes of the civil war so before we got into discussion (little did they know, they were discussing the issue already) I told half the class that they would be doing the homework of the other half all during the civil war unit. It got pretty heated, but under control. Once they all expressed how they felt about it, I was able to connect to the issue of slavery and economics. They were able to see what the appeal was to the slave states and the moral issue that the abolitionists were fighting for. I gave them another example of a student running a pizza shop and all the costs that go into it, and how the owner could make so much more money if she didn’t have to pay for labor. Now, the real beauty of this discussion was that I didn’t have to do much talking. Most of my talking came from restating ideas and asking why. The kids were making the connections themselves. At the end of the lesson, when we summarized, I asked “Was slavery and economics related? Explain.” I asked three different children, and received 3 unique, but equally correct responses. The gist of the three answers was that plantation owners wanted to have slaves because they knew they could make more money that way. I was thoroughly impressed with their discussion capabilities and critical thinking skills.

     We filled out behavior evaluations today. It was a basic 1-5 rating for different areas, and you total the numbers you circled at the end. It was very revealing to actually sit down and think about the behavior of each child. I think it was an even more powerful experience having someone to consider and discuss how to score the kids. I feel these kinds of things are really good to have multiple perspectives for. Even if each evaluator agrees for the most part, it’s still good to have that support and confirmation before scoring a child.