Final Reflection

It just seems so surreal to be sitting down and about to begin my last blog that contains the final wrap up of the semester. I remember when I first heard about Economic for teachers being offered this semeseter; my first thoughts included anxiety of just thinking about another economics class and a personal challenge to complete the requirement for my major. I did not know what to expect since Dr. Putko had mentioned that it was the first time the course was going to be offered and we were going to be the "guinea pigs" to try the class out.

After the first day, I was realized that the course was not just centered on economics (graphs, formulas, textbook) but on economic content and how to teach it. I had previously taken both micro and macro before this class two years ago and was afraid of not remembering but as the class progressed it seemed that I had underestimated my knowledge, I feel as if i know the basics of economic principles as tested in the final exam. I was also glad to find that out that I was not the only one in my major who dreaded econ, i think the rest of my classmates shared the same phobia of not wanting or preferring to teach an econ class in the future. I loved the lectures when Dr. Imazeki tought us techniques and different ways to teach econ for example using music lyrics, emphasizing active learning those where very helpful since most classes I've taken have focused on material whether of how we can teach it in the classroom. I believe a teacher can be the smartest person but that does not matter it they can not get the students to listen and engage in the subject. I dont consider myself the smartest but with these great tips I know I could pull it off and not be to Boring! (I hope =) )

As I am reflecting, I feel as if I have gained confidence in myself due to this class. Not only do i feel more confident to take on a job that requires me to teach an economics class but with the high competition in the job market, I would wouldn't mind offering myself to teach an econ class in my job interview.

I have to be honest, this class was not easy! Yet it is very self fulfilling, the assignments in this class took me a long time to complete, therefore they were very time consuming. As a procrastinator I found it very hard since the beginning of the class to put off my work. I began to look into and just think about the assignments one or two weeks before. I would have never thought that my book reviews would be 8-9 pages long!! Or that it would take me about a 5 days to a week to read the actual book for the book review talk about time consuming huh? well that's because I am slow and I take my time in what I am doing. Overall, as hard as it is to admit the book reviews would have had to be my favorites. I greatly enjoyed the books I read "A Deadly Indifference and Freakonomics" eventhough some people might not agree with me, I learned alot and discovered two books that I would highly recommend and use in my future classroom.

The lesson plans were also an anventure in themselves. I thought it was an important assignment, as future teachers we will doing lesson plans all the time. Therefore, it was a great way to prepare us and get us thinking about it early on before we get into the teaching credential. The only thing that i didnt like was the form we presented it to the class. It seemed that we just went up there and just read it outloud, maybe for the next set of students they can actually teach one of the three lesson plans. (but then again i understand there is a time issue). I think the most challenging lesson was the third one. I worked on it as a group and it was hard to get together, I got to a point to which I was rady to work my myself but that was just part of the learning experience. One must learn how to cooperate with others and be open to all ideas. That was a valuable lesson, therefore I think it would be a good idea to have a group lesson plan required next semester. I mean as future teachers we will need to work with other teachers so this is a great way to prepare us for the workfield. Not to mention I was really happy with our lesson and I felt really good that we worked as a team all the way through.

Last but not least JA, wow! I see the purpose of the requirement and I honestly I felt it was enriching BUT it was too much. First, I would have liked to have known about this requirement prior to the enrollment of this class. It was a hassel trying toget a hold of the JA people, it seemed so unorganized, therefore we had to go seek our own placement. I even had to get out of work early and loose hours to go teach my lessons. Long hours of preparation were also required to understand the lesson and reherse it. But that was the sour and ugly... meeting and working with the students and my partner was priceless. It was well worth it one gains confidence and knowledge in a classroom setting.

Well there it is my experience in Econ 349 for teachers. Thank You for a great semester, I have gained so much as a person, student, and a future teacher.

Final JA and Final week of class

Hello Hello everyone once again. Well as they say good things have to come to an end. The semester is almost to an end and also Victor and I had our final JA meeting on Monday. We were supposed to finish last Friday like previously mentioned but due to a work I could not make it. I was really hesitant to ask Victor and Mr. Farias if we could move up the final presentation til this Monday. I really liked the students and I felt really bummed just at the thought of not being able to officially close the JA activity and not being able to say bye and thank you to them. I was really lucky that both of my colleagues understood my situation and we decided to wait. Therefore we faced the challenge as "teachers" of recalling prior knowledge and the content that we have been learning about throughout the JA Program. We guided the students to a quick verbal quick review and started with our lesson for the day. We followed the routine of the lecture and activity, tough this time I had to leave enough time for an open discussion between the students and Victor and myself (closure). Oh yeah and i also had the pressure to finish early to distribute the JA certificates to the students to which I added some stickers to =) The students were extra good on Monday maybe because they knew that it was our last day with them, we didnt mention it til the end of the class. I was a good time, I remember at the begining of this adventure I was so nervous about being the center of attention but as I got comfortable and got to know the students better it got much better. At the ends we wrote our emails and told them to feel free to contact us reguardless of the situation. We made it clear that we care and that we are willing to help them on reaching their goals. I told them I am a first generation college student and that I was just like them not knowing where to begin a couple of years ago, so I know what they are going through etc. I was touched that I was able to connect with them at a greater emotional stage. Overall It was a great experience yet I'm glad its over since I will have time to concentrate on other things (finals, projects, presentations)
-Good Times

Take5

We are heading towards the end of the nice Thanksgiving weekend. I hope everyone enjoyed these last couple of days with their loved ones; friends and family. Oh how can I forget to mention black Friday, yup I hope you all got some good bargains if you woke up bright and early to start your X-mas shopping =) Well today I am going to blog about our fifth JA experience last Wednesday since the students were out yesterday Friday. Being the day before Thanksgiving there was a number of students absent. Overall the show had to go on, and the day went well after all. What I liked about this lesson is that it was conducted just like a history class and what I would imagine my classroom to be. The lesson started with a brief review of prior knowledge and the content we learned about last week transportation. Then we had a great conversation discussing the topic for the day/ communication. It was a topic everyone could relate to and we made sure they understood that because of the evolution of communication technology (newspapers,Postal service, telegraph -Morse code, etc) they were able to enjoy appliances such as cell phones, text messaging, Internet etc. This time Victor and I worked together, we took turns lecturing and explaining the activities. We used the student workbooks to read about the first four forms of communication. Focusing on the Morse code students learned how to read decode (vocab word) a message in a group. It was really fun to see them engaged working together. I liked that the activity enforced teamwork at in the end each group sent a representative up to the front of the class and one by one shared the message that their group had decoded. It was neat to put every ones work into one, it felt like a whole class effort rather then a competition =) We shared that next week would be the last session, all good things have to come to an end. But we told them that we would share of contact info with them next friday.

1,2,3,4 =)

Happy Monday everyone =) I know it's hard to keep the routine going and be productive when it's a short week, Thanksgiving is three say away and the holiday season is around the corner. I just dont know why I seem to procrastinate on these blogs, I tell myself, "I'll do it later, I'll do it later," and time just flys. Well last friday was my fouth JA session, and to be honest I really had a great time; I had had alot of stress from school all week and just being there made my day. The lesson focused on natural reasources and their role in transportaion. It was really neat to implement material covered that I covered in my second lesson plan. I used some of the lecture materials from my lesson to incoporate in that days session, for example I defined and gave examples of natural, human, capital resources. After I had defined the terms, I had student relate it to that days topic of transportation and wrote their answers on the board. We read from the workbook and after some lecture/ discussion between them and I. Victor explained that days activity/ game. I always tend to just walk around and observe the students as they play the games but this time, somebody needed an extra person and I volunteered to be on his team =) I had a good time mingling and playing with the students. The period flew by and next thing I knew victor was wrapping up the game and we had about five mins left to review the session and the concepts learned.

The third time is a charmer.. ok maybe not

Hello Hello everyone, well all I can say is that I am very sorry for lagging it on sharing my experience with you all. I've been meaning to write about last Fridays; the third JA lesson plan but have been procrastinating due to the many other things on my plate this semester. Since I will begin to plan the next lesson for this Friday soon, I needed to close up this one. Well I will start by stating that this lesson's topic was the most exciting for me so far. I took a California History class last year in which we covered the Gold Rush in depth, therefore I felt confident pertaining to the actual content for the day. =) Reguardless of my knowledge on the lesson, we felt it was time for a change. Victor wanted to try to do the lecture part since he too felt confident with the material, therefore I left him take the spotlight of opening up the lesson/ lecture. On the other part I was in charge explaining the game for the day. I thought it was going to be easy but I ended up finding it a bit challenging since I had a bit trouble explaining myself. At that moment I learned that over confidence is not so great as it seems, since one might find something easy and not worry or work as hard as if you knew it was going to be challenging from the begining. Yet, we did do the game and met our objective of students understanding that not all prospectors who came to California to strike it rich in the mine were mostly not successful and it also served as a review of vocabulary. I first explained the directions to playing the game, then we split the students into groups and handed the strike- it- rich cards. We gave the students about 15mins to play the game and record their results. Throughout the game we constantly provided guidence and feedback to the students. Students were for the most part into the game and seemed to have fun with the card questions. Overall some of the points that I liked about friday's lesson was the fact that we are at the halfway point of the program. Therefore, we are at a point where we can refer to prior knowledge and key terms and content learned in previous sessions and I like that. By being able to do this students are beginging to see the bigger picture and connection between the topics and concepts. For the most part I have begun to learn the students names and interact with them for a ittlw bit after class. I like the fact that they not only see me as an authority figure but also as an approachable person. =) Well lets see what happens this week, this time I expect to do my blog asap. =)

JA Adventure- Take Dos =)

Hello fellow readers,

Well just to update, I've been busy busy! Just to follow up on JA info... my partner and I were supposed to do our second lesson last Friday but we received an email from the teacher letting us know that she was going to be absent, therefore it would be best if we would go twice this week to make up for last Friday. To be honest I was bummed to pros pone the lesson since I was all ready and prepared to teach the lesson. Well long story short.. Victor and I ended up going yesterday Wed Nov 12. Some of the opportunity costs (one of the concepts learned throughout the lesson) was that I had to leave work early to meet up with Victor and go teach the lesson, therefore forgoing my income from working. The good thing was that it was worth it, I really enjoyed my time with the students. I feel a bit more comfortable lecturing a class then conducting an activity. Therefore, once again I was the one who began the lesson by going over vocabulary such as (costs, benefits, opportunity costs), and providing a brief lecture (overview) of the topic; the significance that agrigculture played in the economic development of the United States. I introduced, described and explained what the Homestead Act was and its significance. After that we took a look at the biographical passage of Daniel Freeman in their workbooks. After that Victor took over and explained and conducted the activity/ game which rewuired stundents to be put into 5-6 groups. During the activity/ game students were somewhat engaged. I began to notice that group work can also mean freetime to others which find no consequence of participating. I began to realize that even if I have a good plan/ lesson its up to my classmanagement that will determined whether I am an effective teacher or not. Students must be held accountable when working in groups, and I will follow these pointers, I have learned so far to implement them or avoid free loaders. After the acitivity we both reviewed key terms, and reminded students that there are costs and benefits in every choice involved in a decision.

Overall the class did ok and participated when asked. Well its getting late and I still have to review for tomorrows lesson. Thats right we are going tomorrow to try to catch up with the lessons tomorrow will be the 3rd time. I hope we are able to get them all done before finals week. We have talked to the teacher and he is willing to help and adjust to our busy schedules. We are most likely going to have to doo one or two lessons in the same week since there are about 3-4 weeks left, I think we can do it with a little compromise and organiztion.

JA Adventure- Take One

After several weeks of waiting and miscommunication between the JA representatives and myself I finally was able to start the program on Monday Nov. 3. To be honest I underestimated the amount of work that goes into teaching a lesson. I am lucky to be team teaching with Victor whom I work very well with. We met a couple times prior to Monday to go over the lesson plan and our roles and work that we were responsible for. Working with Victor made me realize that I tend to over think and I tend to make life (things) harder then they are. I was excited that I was going to be in the classroom setting, and I was curious to know how the students were going to be, react, and behave with us. To be honest even though I have worked with middle schoolers for the past two years and feel comfortable around the students I work with, I was very nervous on Monday I was afraid of not being a good presenter. I'm a tutor therefore I am the teacher assistant in the classroom and that is my comfort zone. In the JA project, I am the teacher (center stage), and I have to teach the lesson, keep students engaged, lead the discussions, games, assign work and my biggest challenge is classroom management.

We headed to the middle school early in the morning before school began to meet with the teacher, whom happened to be Victor's formor teacher. We talked to the teacher about him letting us post the JA banner, and the maps that correlated with the JA "America Works" curriculum. Then the moment of truth began as the bell rang. As the students came in, they were curious about us and what we were going to do with them. We then introduced ourselves, our purpose there and introduced the JA program and objectives.

First we passed out the table tents for them to write their names so we could , and the workbooks that we be using for the next five weeks. Then we immediately took our roles since there is no time to waste since there was much to cover in the first lesson. I was the first one up, I was in charge of giving the lecture. My part consisted of introducing the topic of how businesses and entrepreneurship affected the economic development of the United States during the 19th century. I explained several key factors that were going to be covered throughout the activity. Among them were Immigration, Emigration, Entrepreneurship, push and pull factors. I gave a brief explanation/ introduction to the following terms. Victor walked around the classroom as i was teaching, he made sure student were on task and paying attention. As I was teaching I made sure to keep a good rapport with the students by using their names on the table tents in different scenarios. My presentation involved many critical thinking questions and questions in which students could relate to or connect with. After we reviewed content from the workbooks, it was Victors turn to teach. He explained the concepts and purpose of the game we played. He divided students into groups, and each group was responsible for a group of immigrants. He did a good job keeping the students engaged throughout the game and I monitored the class. We finished the lesson right before the bell rang, but unfortunately we didnt have time left over to review the lesson. We informed the students that we were going to go back Friday Nov 7th .

Final thoughts- I realy enjoyed working with the students. They are a bright group of kids who seemed enthusiastic of having college students in their classroom. I didn't miss the chance of encourging them to go to college. I think the challenge of doing this program will be finishing the remaining five lessons before the semester is over and balancing work and all my other school work at the same time... but i look forward to this experience

Thoughts..

I am reflecting upon Monday's class, and as I sit here and look back I realize that overall this class does require alot of my time. It is not a super challenging class but the workload can be time consuming. I am not complaining I guess I am just acknowledging it but I know this is going to help me become a better teacher. I read The Deadly Indifference by Jevons for my book review. To my surprise I ended up enjoying the book. I liked the plot and the fact that it kept me engaged throughout the whole book, I would have not predicted it. Well I thought the review was going to be a breeze after reading the book, but I guess I underestimated it.

I really enjoyed Monday's lecture on tax. I had always thought of it as very complicated for me to understand, but after class I felt knowledgeable and that I had some sense of the system. Now I understand the difference between average and marginal tax and how to calculate it, the benchmarks (10%, 15%, 25%), and situations when filing as single and married. I had the consent that it was always a positive thing to be married, pertaining to paying less taxes however on Monday I learned about the Marriage penalty and how marriage and taxes are not always a positive thing/ asset. Overall I enjoyed the lecture, it was engaging, informative, and the relevant to self connect.

Active Learning

Active learning is very crucial and an effective method. There are three types of learning; Audio, visual, and kinesthetic. Therefore a teacher is not as effective if they only stick with one type of teaching method. As a student I personally need different activities, visuals aids and go to lecture in order to be successful in my classes. Active learning includes films and to clarify engaging films, I mention this because some teachers sometimes show very outdated material that looses the students interest in an instant. Pictures, like they say a picture is worth a thousand words and it is a fact that the more vivid the material is the most likely the student will remember it. Group work is also relevant to active learning. In one of the workshops that I have gone as part of my job I learned that it is essential to assign roles to students when assigning group work. The roles are the recorder( person who writes the notes), Time keeper (person who keeps track of the time and makes sure the assignment is done on time), Checker ( this person makes sure that everyone is contributing and understanding the material, and lastly the presenter ( the voice of the group. These roles makes students accountable for doing something and makes sure active learning is taking place as to social loafers.

Week 7 Assessments

A teacher can have the best knowledge in the world about their subject area, but if they do not know how to engage students and make their content meaningful then something is wrong with the picture. Some teachers do and teach the same things year after year, there is a major problem when the students are not learning the content year after year. The solution to this would be to asses students constantly, and teachers need to also be assed by the students. I really enjoyed the reading for this week about assesments. I thought it was interesting and very meaningful for a future teachers of any subject including economics. As William Walstad, the author of the article "Assessment of Student Learning in Economics" meantions assessment is a broad term. He defines what terms summative and formative assessment are. Summative assesments are the typical; grades represent the instrutors judgement of the mastery of the content. Formative was the second type of assessment, and my personal preference. This type helps shape instruction and learning throughout the course, it is an oppurtunity to check their understanding as a self assesment and also get some feedback on the instructors teaching methods. Walstad lists ten ways to check understanding. Some personal favorites are for students to indentify at the end of the most important or confusing point of the lesson/ class. I would implement this by having the students keep a journal and write for the last 5-10 min of class if time permitted. Another method I liked was having student construct exam questions. This method is great because students would have to go back to the material and review it in order to construct the questions, plus the incentive would be for the possibility of having their queston on the test or as an extra credit point. Overall assesments don't have to be dry and boring for the students whether it is a test, essay, class or homework, there are some practical ways of doing so.

Introduction

I am currently part of the first Economics for Teachers course. I am taking this class for many reasons; like the majority of my classmates, I am pursing a career in education. I honesty believe in the power of knowledge. Helping is my weakness, the thought of making an impact in someones life is what keeps me going. I took both econ courses (micro, macro) two years ago. I did a decent job, but now I'm looking forward to learning more about pedagogues and also hope review material that will be essential in the classroom. I don't have the greatest passion for economics, but if it will make me a better teacher, I will try my best to be open minded as I make the best out of it. My expectations for this class include learning how to use topics of economics in teaching history. I know history is has economics all over it but I want to learn how to incoperate it.