If You Could Design a Class...
Middle school is meant to be about exploration, yet our students don't seem to get that many options in their day at our school.  Why can't a student who has a passion for music spend three hours of their day in music?  If they love art, what would be wrong with them being able to have more of their day spent in art?  Same for the subjects of English, History, Math, etc...

I know there are arguments to be made either way, but that's not the point of this post.  The point is...if you could design a class that would allow you to be with kids who truly want to learn more about a specific subject/topic that you could teach, what would your class focus on?

For me, I would want to teach a woodworking class using hand tools from different time periods in history.  I'd love to bring back teaching students to be craftsman by using their hands and their minds (I'm pretty sure the term "craftsman" is politically correct in regard to gender neutrality...just like "human").  Let's build a project that you'd like to make.  We'll use hand tools like dovetail saws, planers, scrapers, chisels, files, brace and bit, etc.  Nothing plugs in.  I think some kids would really enjoy a class like this.  I'd bring in some local carvers, sawyers, etc. to teach students their craft. 

I'm a huge fan of technology, but I'm also a huge fan of things being done the old-fashioned way.  I could see having students upload instructional videos to YouTube or showcasing what they've created via class web sites.  This has me excited!

So, what would you teach?

"Less Me.  More Them."

This is my motto for the year. 

I'm one of those people who don't like to sit around and do nothing.  Yes, I am sitting around right now typing this blog post.  Yes, I'll be sitting around uploading some TpT products later this evening.  Yes, I'll be sitting and reading with my youngest daughter in a couple of hours.  Those are just technicalities though in regard to sitting.  Every one of those activities allow me to be actively "DOING" while I am sitting.  

Most students are no different - they want to be doing something.  I teach middle school, and the beauty of that is I every day I have students who are full of energy that just needs to be channeled in the right direction.

Today I channeled that energy of theirs into exploring the Presidents of the United States.  Instead of me being the one who is occupying the majority of the class period by talking at them, I ended up talking with them instead.  What a difference in how the day felt!  I created an activity where students explore the presidents first by seeing them. 

Well, sort of. 

Students are given a packet that has the eyes of all 44 presidents (Grover Cleveland was the 22^nd and 24^th president so he’s in there twice.)  They then use the web site http://periodicpresidents.com to look at the presidential portraits to try and discover which president those eyes belong to. 

Tomorrow we're going to go through the PowerPoint where the mystery presidents are revealed to see how they did.  Is it for a grade?  Nope.  It is so they begin to develop a background knowledge of the leaders who shaped our nation.

What ended up happening with this activity was that every student was engaged in their education.  They were saying presidents’ names.  They were able to talk to each other.  They were figuring out answers together.  It truly was less me, and more them, and it was wonderful.  

I’m looking forward to more days like this.

If you're interested in this product to use in your own classroom you can check it out by clicking here.

Until next Monday!

SURVIVING SOCIAL STUDIES TpT STORE

What Are We Complaining About?
I had a student say to me today, "Ugh...I hate Mondays!"  I responded with, "Well, I'm sorry to hear that.  You know, it does happen every seven days, which means, if you hate one out of every seven days then you're going to end up hating 1/7 of your life.  In 70 years time you'll have hated 10 of those years.  Are Mondays really that bad??"  This student had that puzzled look on their face like, "Why did he just tell me all of that?  All I said was that I hated Mondays."

I get that a lot.  

I spent this week trying to tune in to all levels of negativity to see what it is I hear people complaining about.  I knew what this week's post was going to be so I was planning ahead.  The things I heard people complain about were the following:

-No cell phone service
-Not having football practice cancelled because of the rain
-Slow Internet connection at work
-A deep sigh when the stoplight turned yellow (that one was mine)
-Having to wait in line at the ATM
-Being out of coffee creamer (also mine)
-Getting tasks to do in school
-Being too full
-Having to take the stairs
-Filling out a form
-Replacing the batteries on the garage door opener (...again...mine)
-Having to fill out a bathroom pass
-Not being able to decide what to eat
-Having too many choices at the bakery

I once had someone tell me that if you look for the negative in life, you'll find it.  As I kept adding to the list throughout the week it dawned on me that there really isn't that much to complain about if you've got access to fresh water, air conditioning, a steady source of food, and a safe, stable environment to live in.  

Let's face it, if you're reading this, you've got some access to an electronic device with internet capabilities and you're probably not too far from a source of fresh water.  That right there puts you at a HUGE advantage over most people in the world to live a healthy life.  

Do kids in America know what it is like in other parts of the world?  Do they know what the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) lets them know about the overall health of a country?  Do they know what the literacy rate means in regard to the quality of education in a country?  Do they know how much the average person makes in a year in the USA versus in a third world country?  Maybe if they did, the little things they complain about during the day might not seem so drastic.  

I love teaching about the difference between first and third world countries.  The ease of the CIA World Factbook is so useful for students to find out information about countries.  Just imagine how much more they would be aware of if they knew what the terminology on this site means.  They'll also have a better idea what the statistics next to the terminology means too, and be even more knowledgeable when learning about the world. 

I've used the product below for years and years in my social studies classroom when learning about the geography of the world.  Give it a try and see what your students think - I'd love to hear how it went!

Will this stop students from complaining about the little things in life?  Probably not, but maybe this activity will help make 10 of the next 70 years of their lives not seem as bad on Mondays.  It has helped how I fell about my Mondays immensely.  

Especially when I have creamer for my coffee.

Until next Monday!

A week ago Sunday I had a super awesome surprise - I had my Articles of Confederation product featured in the Teachers Pay Teacher Newsletter!!  See it in the Newsletter HERE!

That was really cool to see!  So what made my product stand out to be selected??  Honestly, I have no idea.  However, I did enter products quite often to be featured, and I guess its like the lottery...somebody's gotta win!  

How do you enter?  Excellent question.  Let me show you:

1.  Start by clicking on My Tpt and then selecting "See it in our Newsletter" at the bottom:

2. Next, enter your information in the boxes and submit.  You can enter as many products as you'd like each day, so give it a try!  


I know, I know, what are the odds of getting picked?  Well, that's tough to answer.  I do know that if you don't try your chances are 0%.  If you try, at least you're in the game!  

Here are my stats for the week after having my Articles of Confederation product featured in the newsletter:

Followers: Before-302 / After-310
Product Views: Before-2,252 / After-3,742
Product Previews: Before-222 / After-292
Wish Listed: Before-42 / After-67
Products Sold: Before-105 / After-125

I did end up having my highest sales week since starting on TpT, and I know a lot of that came from the sales of the products linked in the description of my featured product.  I'm so thankful for that spot in the newsletter, and because of it, I'm on track to have my highest month ever.  So thankw, TpT!

I had a seller at the conference tell me, "Wait for the explosion...it'll happen!" 

Sounds good to me!

3...2...1...

Have a great week!  Now go submit a product for the newsletter!

Until next Monday...

Matt @ Surviving Social Studies

P.S. - Click my logo below to go to my TpT Store

Celebrate Constitution Day on September 17th!

A very small portion of the internet world might read this post about celebrating Constitution Day.  Tomorrow, it will vanish into the bottomless pit of internet blog posts only to be revived momentarily when it is tapped to be displayed somewhere in the 29,400,000 links in a Google search on “Constitution Day.”  Yes!  Made the top 30,000,000!!! 

Organizing my words for this little blog post puts me in awe at how challenging it must have been for Gouverneur Morris, the penman of the Constitution, to find just the right wording to stand the test of time.

His famous 52 words are the words in the Preamble to the United States Constitution and read as follows:

“WE the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

What Governeur Morris wrote, with the approval of the Continental Congress, has guided our nation through good times and bad for 228 years now.  Many people are at least familiar with the names George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Patrick Henry, and Samuel Adams.  Ask 10 people who Governeur Morris was and you’ll most likely get a guess that he was a governor of some state at some time in history.  Governeur was actually his first name, which might have helped steer him toward politics.  Who knows?

52 words.

Ask kids to memorize it, and they will.  Ask kids to explain who their “posterity” is, or what “general welfare” means, or what Morris meant by “secure the blessings of liberty?”  Chances are your students won’t have a clue. 

Yet. 

After Thursday, they should have a pretty good idea.  I use this Preamble Activity every year with my students on Constitution Day.  It gives them a clear and concise way to  break down the Preamble into understandable language.  They then explain it in a way that people today would go, “Ohhh…so that’s what that means?!”

It’s only 52 words, but I love these 52 words that Governeur Morris wrote.  

228 years later we might not have all the wrinkles of our country ironed out yet, but we can look back at those 52 words Governeur Morris wrote like a geographer looks at a compass…for guidance.

Happy Constitution Day! 

See you next Monday!

Surviving Social Studies

It’s Labor Day!

When you’re a teacher and it is Labor Day that means one of two possibilities:

1, You’re either relaxing with friends and family or doing some recreational activity with them

2. You’re at home or at school working on lesson plans

Teaching really is a “Hercules of labor,” meaning it is a task of grand proportions.  When I first started teaching U.S. History I remember thinking, “How am I going to remember all of the people in history and what they did and when they were around to teach my students?”  The truth is, I couldn’t remember every single person, what they did, exactly when it happened, and what it had to do with the next event.  I know these names were delivered to me in a lecture-style format in college, and that wasn’t my way of learning, but that’s the only way it ever was.  The mentality of “If I tell them about it then I’ve covered my responsibility of helping them learn.” 

Wrong.

Middle school students don’t want to be lectured!  Who does??  Then it dawned on me that I needed the students to be in charge of their learning.  History isn’t about being able to recite minuscule facts that really only come into play when you’re playing Trivial Pursuit or watching Jeopardy.  History is about discovery.  

I'll admit, relinquishing that “control” was uncomfortable at first because I felt that my students weren’t ready for it.  They’ve been trained to have information spoon-fed to them their whole lives so they can spit it up later and I was about to break that tradition.  

I decided to just go for it though!  If we’re learning about the American Revolution then let’s find out who was there and why their names are known by scholars of history.  I assign students to one person (so we don’t leave anyone out) and then I let them pick four others of their own choosing to research.  Could I have just told them about each of them via lecture?  Sure I could, but my voice would turn into the voice of Charlie Brown’s teacher quite rapidly to them. 

I, at first, shakily handed them the torch of learning.  Now, it is just the way things go in my class.  Are kids quietly working on their own?  Nope.  Am I still covering the curriculum?  Yes, but with them.  Do they sometimes get off task and need redirection?  Of course, they’re middle schoolers!  Am I enjoying my job more?  I am. 

If you’re not sure if letting your students “do” while they’re in class, just think about how you feel when you’re at a staff meeting.  That’s how they could feel 7 hours a day. 

I’ve got a new bundle uploaded if you teach U.S. History and are looking for a way to help students learn about the different figures in history from the Age of Exploration, to the American Revolution, to the Civil War, to the Industrial Revolution, and the Progressive Era. 

Let them be in charge of learning about some of these people.  I assign my students one person and then let them pick any other four that they're interested (from the 32 cards from that unit).  Use your library, computer labs, ipads, or whatever you can provide your students to let them labor for their education. 

It’ll be alright, I promise.

See you next Monday!

Not Everything Has Changed...

I am about to embark on my 17th year of teaching middle school.  We'll, the next five days are inservice first.  Yes, five.  I've got a few more wrinkles, a few (ahem) less hairs, but I've never been more experienced.  I was talking with a teacher friend who has the same amount of years who said, "I've never been better at my job while at the same time I've never been farther away from being 13."  We talked about how we are at a point in our careers where we are teaching kids who:

Weren't even born on September 11th, 2001
Who have always had the Internet
Who have never used a VCR
Who have never had to wait to hear their favorite song
Who have never pushed "Play" and "Record" at the same time
Who have never had a landline phone
Who have always had Netflix available...

...and the list can go on and on. 

However, we came to the conclusion that even though they are exposed to more, a 13 year old today still goes through the same emotions, social awkwardness, and self-discovery today as we did when we were 13.  Every generation will say, "kids aren't the same as when I was that age."  Nope, but the true core of being a kid at any age, is.  That's why being a teacher keeps you young at heart.  Even though we've maybe taught a specific grade level for years and years and might have lost some of the novelty of the "newness" of it all, it is good to remember that it is still brand new to our students.  

Have a great year!
Matt @ Surviving Social Studies
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Surviving-Social-Studies