Connecting school and home experiences

There are three experiences that I vividly remember, while I was in elementary school. The first was a field trip to the John Sutter Mill. Which was the sight where gold was discovered in 1848. This was an exciting trip because we were able to see the place in person about which we have been talking in class. As we were there at the mill we talked about how the effects of the gold rush influenced California. The influx of people raised the population and California was admitted into the union as a state in 1850. Even the NFL team got its name from the 1849 Gold Rush (San Fransisco 49ers). We even got the chance to pan for gold in the river and learn of some of the hardships of mining and Frontier life.

Another experience was a field trip to Yosemite in sixth grade. We camped for two nights. On the first night we acted as characters in a reenactment of a period camp. I was Josiah Whitney and it was exciting to learn about him and what he actually did. (I remember telling everyone he did something with National Geographic, when we was really a Geologist. But hey I really liked the magazine.)

Another experience, although not as illustrious as the first two was in my Junior history class. Every day without fail I would come in and write down the notes of the days lecture on the board. As the teacher began his lecture, which followed the written plan exactly I would fall asleep within 15 minutes. One day we were going to watch a movie and he told the class (me) not to fall asleep. So naturally I fell asleep and when the movie was over he woke me up and gave me a quiz on the movie. "What is the name of the German Senate?" Reichstag was my answer (which was right) "What was the name of Hiltler's first secret police?" The Brown Shirts/SA I told him. The last question was "What was the name of Hitler's second secret police?" The Black Shirts/SS. All three questions I had gotten right so the teacher just got up and walked away without saying anything. But I felt pretty impressed with myself. That was the moment that I realized how well I had always done in my history classes and that it was something that I really liked to do.  

I know the field trips really helped me to see history as something more than what is read in the book. Yeah we got to see some cool stuff but for me I was able to see how particularly unrelated events were connected and influenced something, somewhere somehow. The subject I guess you can say "came alive" with each of the field trips I went on in the 4, 5, and 6 grade.

I know these experiences will influence how I teach history. Because I see these connections I want to try to get my students to see them as well. Dates, people and places will still be important but my experiences of classes on both sides of the spectrum will be a catalyst in the methods I employ for teaching. Using technology, even if it is clips from YouTube are a possible way to get students excited about the past.

Affective Dimensions of Reading

I do think of myself as a good reader, speed isn't everything but I can read quickly and have good comprehension of it. I know that is an area I would like to improve in is my actual comprehension. I have always enjoyed reading so a question I have is. Do you have to like reading to consider yourself a "good reader"? I am a huge fan of Gary Larsen's Far Side Collection, Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes, Charles Schultz's Peanuts comic strips. I still search out the comics in every paper that I get the chance to read. Online texts are world news and current events with a special interest in politics. Historical fiction books are hit and miss whether I like them or not. Lord of the Rings is as far as I got into the fantasy genre and Harry Potter has been something I have liked since page 1 I do not know the reason for these days but once a year in elementary school we would bring books of our choice and read the entire day. Those were my favorite in-school reading experiences because it broke the routine of school. I decided what i wanted to do that day based on the books that I would bring. I never enjoy reading for college classes for a number of reasons. 1) textbooks are not meant to be enjoyed, but learned from (personal opinion). 2) My history classes required from 20 to 100 pages read per week, per class which is something I never accomplished. Its having to rush to get done feeling i don't like when reading a book. Reading was something I just did on my own I do not remember being encouraged or discouraged from it by any group. Something I hope to do again outside of college when I graduate is read for my enjoyment about whatever subject interests me.

I think the greatest way that I can foster reading from my students is to have a library in class that students can come in during lunch and read. Maybe I can have a high school class that is supplemented with other books and format it like a college class where lectures and papers are due about those books. I think a key step about anyone gaining a perception about how they are as readers would be to point out how much they actually do it. Ask questions like do you read the paper? Tweets? any articles about anything online? Once a student realizes how much they read ask this open ended question. Of everything you read what do you enjoy? Then get them to read more of that particular text.  I have learned this in my education classes about education, as a teacher you lead them in a direction, give support and then what your students do is up to them.   

Discipline Specific Writing Assingment

Throughout my college career, the papers written have been argumentative/research based. Pick a position, find supporting arguments and compile it into a 3 page paper. One problem that I would have while writing these papers is I would get into the pattern of narrating my argument. The professors I had would remind me to follow the model for each paragraph (intro, cite sources, explain how those are relevant and support your argument) College professors wanted us to produce papers so there was no alternative way we students could express our understanding. I do not believe a paper is a limiting expression for a History major. It is also interesting to note how much more in depth I understood that which I had written about. As a high school history teacher I will probably have one paper throughout the school year. Group and individual presentations are one way I am contemplating having greater freedom of expression in my class. My tests will be short answer/essay type so those students will use their logic and memory to answer questions, not filling in bubbles. 

Blog: Affective Dimensions of writing.

It is a very interesting thing that I do not consider myself a writer, yet my chosen major of history has made me write more papers than I can count. So maybe, although I am capable of writing, I do not seem myself as incredibly great at doing so. I choose to express my ideas principally through writing, and talking to myself. While I have never recreationally written, I do remember I did a lot of creative writing in elementary school in grades 4-6. I do keep a journal, its the only free writing that I do. The papers I have enjoyed in school are the ones that require a good amount of research, and you take that to create a thesis and defend it throughout the paper. (it has a specific name I just don't remember) I enjoy these types of papers because of the research aspects, you find things that may be new to you that you find interesting. Or you find that one source that completely solidifies the argument you want to make. As I got older I started to dislike the free writing done in elementary school. I would rather write about something specific than create something out of nothing. Maybe that is just me being lazy.  I will structure my student's papers to be research oriented and they create and defend a thesis and defend it.

My name is Keaton Papke, I will be teaching American History and Spanish. I am an avid sports enthusiast and will play any sport. My favorites are volleyball, bocce ball, cross country and skiing. My hobbies are a computer game called Civilization IV. Also I am a begining bonsai enthusiast. There are several species of trees that I have grown from seeds and will hope to train them in the next few years. I am an avid political observer, always have been.  An interesting fact about me is when I was born, the skin under my tongue was too long and restricted its movement. I still have the slit in the tip of my tongue from when that was cut. History to me is a clear way to see the world around us.  It is full of people and their experiences, those who have had the courage to change "the way things were" and we are a direct result of that bravado by coutless people and organizations." When it is said that if we are ignorant of our history it will repeat itself, it is actually true! That is what I want to convey to my students. History is the subject that I had always done well in throught my education, when I discovered I wanted to teach, it was only natural to me to teach what I am good at and enjoy.

Xtra credit

This standard comes from the ten  Utah INTASC standards, which are actively used in evaluating teachers. I believe all the assignments we have done this semester fall under this category. The three listed are my favorites.
Standard VI. Communication and Technology- Has a beginning knowledge of effective verbal, nonverbal, and media communication techniques to foster active inquiry, collaboration, and supportive interaction in the classroom.  

Prezi- Having just completed the homework assingment this is the freshest in my mind. It's uses will help me meet the above standard by adding another dimension to class lectures. The feature that allows you to paste the url of youtube videos and that video automatically plays is awesome! An earlier assignment we had was using download helper and mpeg streamclip, while that method  of including media definately works, the process involved with prezi is much more streamlined.  

wikipages- Any student that misses a day, can access our class wikipages and find the calendar for that class, and see a detailed list about what we did that day they were gone. When students find out what they missed from wiki pages their first quesion to me will not be "What did I miss?" the dialouge will go like this. "I have the assignment I missed the other day, I am not sure how to do it." The benefit will be how that students focus will change and teacher and student can collaborate on that work. 

GoogleDocs- I love the feature of this program when it comes to sharing documents! I can assign a project to individual groups, who can collaborate online to work on it. Their groupwork is sent to me as one document, which can be reviewed by me and sent back, all of it done online! The same process can be used for papers. In class guidance as well as online revisions will dramatically reduce the amount of papers that would otherwise sit in piles until graded and handed back.

These programs will not eliminate the need for a teacher in the classroom, but they will help me better manage those classes and effectively guide students to produce quality work, every step of the way. 

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