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Originally Posted by kootenayguy9
As a High School Social Studies teacher I would be interested in what your thesis is Cerebral. The High School SS Curriculum is starting to change next year and the focus will change in Grade 10 from Canada to Globalization. So how would you make it more relevant to Junior High Kids? Get rid of Russian and Brazilian history?????
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Well, I stressed within my paper the importance of using current affairs and inquiry as vehicles with which you can establish relevance. I feel that topics like Brazil and Russia are often taught in essential isolation from the real world and this really tends to lead to student apathy. Why in the world will a student feel enticed to work on something if he/she feels there is absolutely no relevance to it? Heck, I just finished teaching a unit plan on the Russian Revolution and the biggest thing I worked on was trying to stress why learning about the Revolution is important.
I actually did a lot of work with the students on critical thinking and perspectives - I got the students to look at Russia today and to essentially trace it back to 1917 to get a sense for how things have changed/how things have remained the same (continuity and change). This was difficult for many students but some kids managed to actually do some really strong analysis.
The new grade 10 curriculum is golden in terms of establishing relevance, there is just so much that you can do with globalization (it's actually a little overwhelming when you consider just how large in scope the topic area is). I'm planning on teaching Junior High but my background is in Political Science so I am obviously very interested in the new grade 10 curriculum.
The new grade 8 curriculum is really neat as well, Brazil has been completely scrapped and the students will now look at Japan, Renaissance Europe and the Aztecs. Given that my minor was in Latin American military history, I am absolutely stoked to get the chance to talk about the Aztecs. Heck, I'm fairly confident I could teach a full unit on the Aztecs tomorrow just based on much of the work I have already done.
While I'm not sure if Japan and the Aztecs are really any more "relevant" for students than Brazil, there are a lot of exciting things to talk about in each of the units that should keep things interesting.
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Originally Posted by LomboGirl
Congrats on finishing, Cerebral! I feel your pain... my independent inquiry isn't due until Wednesday though. I am in my 2nd year of Education at U of C. I am so sick of inquiring...  |
I'm probably going to snap if I hear the word inquiry again.
It's funny, I had six classes in my last semester of my undergrad and I had a span of a week where I had six papers due. It was certainly a very stressful week but I had no problem getting all six papers done.
Fast forward a year and I struggle to get even one paper down on the computer. This lack of marks business really messes with my mind as my motivational levels drop to the floor at times when it comes to the university work (and it is the complete opposite when it comes to my work effort in regards to my field school).