Welcome Back! Week in the Classroom the First Month 2015
My family life is still…complicated, but I am still working and I feel the need to try to write about what I’m doing in the classroom. I hope that it will prove interesting and intriguing to you too.
I have moved to fifth grade (from sixth). The change is slight in some ways, but big in others. Because this class is generally at a pretty good level academically, the difference there is not big. Emotionally they are, on the whole, less “mature” than the sixth graders. I’ve brought a lot of what I’ve done with sixth graders down to fifth grade, but not everything, and not all at once. As an example I’m having them write notes on the history and science lessons, but I’ve held off have them do the full end of chapter packets with independent work activities (of their choice). I also haven’t had them do end of unit “projects” of their choice (plays, comics, etc.) I will eventually get to that, but I’m taking it slow for all of our sakes. Here’s what we’re doing:
History
We’re studying American History, and it starts with the folks who were already here. A colleague talked about skipping this part, but if I had to, I’d prefer skipping the part I’m in now, which is the causes leading to the Age of Exploration. Why? When you don’t study the Native American part, then they will not get the point that folks were already here when explorers from Europe “found” the new world. If you skim over it, they won’t know how developed those civilizations are. I do try to teach my kids many of the more current issues about what happened before and as this clash of cultures took place. Even teaching them about the take over of Constantinople by the Ottomans, etc. is pretty complex to convey to the kiddos (they get the disease and displacement aiding European colonization Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » Welcome Back! Week in the Classroom the First Month 2015: