Discussion

Each week there will be a discussion topic. First post your contribution, then respond to at least two people. This could be the most dynamic part of the class. If possible please respond to others who have not receive replies rather than responding to the person who has had many replies.

Join the class discussion at: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/social-studies-2015

Weekly Discussion Topics:

• Week 1 Why did you choose to teach Social Studies?
• Week 2 Introductory video due. Introduce yourself, where, who and what you teach. Tell why you are in this program. What's your aim? Comment on each other's videos.
• Week 3 Online Class Meeting
• Week 4 “I believed, and still believe, that teaching is a separate skill—in fact, an art that is creative, intuitive, and highly personal.” - Salman Khan. Can people teach anything, as long as they know the material?
• Week 5 Most students who are struggling avoid assessments at all costs. How can you use evaluation and assessment to meet the needs of students at risk of failing English? How can assessments be made to become learning events instead of just showing what they don't know or haven't learned? Post your response then read your colleagues' posts and then reply appropriately.
• Week 6 Online Class Meeting
• Week 7 Most teachers want to make a difference in this world. No one gets into it for the money. Many of you are in TFA because of social justice! Please relate personal experiences along this theme. You may relate something that happened to you or your students.
• Week 8 "Quicker isn’t necessarily smarter and slower definitely isn’t dumber. Further, catching on quickly isn’t the same as understanding thoroughly." - Salman Khan - Explain how this has been true in your own life and then read classmates' posts and reply to them. Perhaps education/the classroom should think less about time and more on comprehension - is that feasible?
• Week 9 Online Class Meeting
• Week 10 Students are "the victims of Swiss cheese learning. Though it seems solid from the outside, their education is full of holes." - Salman Khan - Provide and example and explanation of how your own education is full of academic holes
• Week 11 ."Formal Education must change. It needs to be brought into closer alignment with the world as it actually is; into closer harmony with the way human beings actually learn and thrive." - Salman Khan - If you could change how we educate K-12 students - what would you change and why?
• Week 12 Online Class Meeting
• Week 13 "In a traditional academic model, the time allotted to learn something is fixed while the comprehension of the concept is variable... What should be fixed is a high level of comprehension and what should be variable is the amount of time students have to understand a concept." - Salman Khan - How could this be implemented in our school system?
• Week 14 (Thanksgiving Break)
• Week 15 (none)
• Week 16 Video Presentation of Unit Plan