Reflection Week #10

This week was technically spring break but more realistically was our prep time for our field experience. Technology came in so handy this week as my partner and I put all of our lesson plans on a Google document and communicated with our supervising professor via email. We had a question about a WebQuest we had in process for teaching the causes of The Dust Bowl and realized that, like I had kind of worried about, we were trying to fit our subject to the choice of media instead of fitting the media to our subject. We realized that a WebQuest was not the right way to go for our lesson exploring the causes of The Dust Bowl. The resources offered online had more to do with the people and their lives than with the causes and so a photo story (suggested by Dr. Cox) may be a better way to go because technology, in this case, might be best used to create the emotional connect which a photo story would offer.

I loved the video for the week. I love when pop-culture is used for education and that song is just more than perfect for teaching a brief run down of the 20th century in America (I've learned things!). I think, especially at the end of a fifth grade year, this video would be perfect. Some of the people and things in the movie are fairly simple and some are so important in our history and I think this kind of thing brings history to a more accessible level for students: history is not boring and hard, but just the invention of the television, a famous actress, a popular band, etc. There are disturbing things in the quick video and I'm sure parents would need to be made aware of them but what a great tool!