Core+Concepts+to+Teach+This+Year

1. What important and enduring concepts are fundamental to each subject you teach? List them. Try to limit the list to two to three big concepts for each subject. Refer to content standards you teach to determine those covered by these big "umbrella" topics. The important and enduring concepts for us to teach are change, individuality, courage, becoming of self, tolerance, creativity, justice, and circular history.

2. Why do these concepts matter? Why are they important? These concepts are important because they are the fundamentals of life. Change is important, because it is constantly happening therefore we must constantly adapt to our new surroundings. Individuality is important, because it allows the students to discover a whole new side of themselves. It is almost impossible to relate to others with empathy if one does not know his or her own shortcomings. Courage is important because it is something that is required for life. It is acknowledging you fear and facing it. The main concept of becoming of self is important, because students in High School need guidance through their lives so they can become well adjusted individuals. Tolerance and justice are both important because it allows us to demonstrate how humans are equal as well as that one should not commit crimes to someone else. Creativity is important because in and out of the workplace it is a way that we may express ourselves. It adds value to our lives by allowing us to step in someone else's shoes and see what is their definition beauty. The concept of circular history is important, because it helps the students understand that most occurrences have happened before and we should learn from them so that we do not make the same mistakes again.

3. Outside school, who cares about these topics? What is their relevance in different people's lives and in different parts of the world? Outside of school everyone will care about these topics, because it surrounds us all in life. These are the most relatable topics to one’s own life regardless of what location they are in.

4. Select one or two of the most promising of these topics and think about real-life contexts to answer the following: What are the interdisciplinary connections? What other subjects might be incorporated? Change and individuality can both be incorporated in the texts we read as well as the activities we do so that the students may relate to it more. The way we would show change is through textual evidence as well as activities done in class. For instance, English is showing how a change in women during the times can cause an uproar. History is showing how change in advancements can cause economic success and failure. Math is show change in the statistics of crime and that of entertainment. While Biology is showing the changes done in science that caused a life saving medicine, Penicillin. All of these can be also related to individuality, because there was always one person that sparked the changed allowing others to follow in their footsteps. We want our students to be familiar with change and individuality, because we want them to learn that an individual can change history.

5. As you begin to imagine working with these topics, how might you push past rote learning into analysis, evaluation, and creation? Incorporate Bloom's "rigor" verbs into your answer. Students will be required to expand their minds from just rote learning and will begin thinking creatively. The students will create their own ending to the stories that they read. They will also evaluate the themes in the stories as well the purpose and the meaning of the theme in the stories. They will work together on projects that will allow for deeper thinking.The will all be included in a Fishbowl activity that will allow them to step into the shoes of a person in history and begin to relate how it was like to be living in those times. Students will decipher word problems into algebraic equations, or create their own word problems when given numbers. This would encourage problem solving, and have students apply knowledge in algebra to answer real life based situations. Students will begin conducting a given experiment, but they will soon progress to creating their own experiment.

6. Imagine authentways students might engage in the project and the ways 21st-century skills might be addressed. (the terms collaboration, digital tools, and information literacy should be used). There are many ways that technology can be incorporated into the classroom. We will give a few examples of how we may incorporate it into our lesson plans. Students will be able to use aim to create their own version of a play they will read, then perform it in class. They will use a forum of their choosing such as AIM, email, blogging or Wiki. We will also create facebooks for characters in the story. Students will be able to chart and graph their work using an online forum. Students will be able to play interactive activities online so they may gain knowledge through a familiar modus. Students will be able to keep their own learning journal online on a blog, so they expand on the knowledge that they have learned in class and reach a greater understanding of it through analysis and synthesis on a more global spectrum.

7. What aspects of these topics will interest your students? These topics will interest the students because they will see how it relatable to their own experiences. Through Modeling, we can show them how history is repeated, how change affects someone life everyday, and how they can change it themselves using their given trains and beliefs. We will also gain their attention by the use of technology in our classrooms. We want to incorporate interactive learning through technology into our classroom so the students become engaged in the work. Our creative methods will catch their attention and interest as well.

8. What learning dispositions should you cultivate and ask your students to pay attention to? We believe that creative thought is one of the most important things. We want our students to also work in groups and notice when discussions are going of topic, so they can go back on topic. Also working online or via texts would surely spark their interest, so we want them to pay attention to the main idea of the class instead of contacting their friends.