Social Studies Reflection

Social Studies, to me, is the only interesting subject in school.  I am including college.  The study of human beings is the most interesting, beneficial, and impacting subject left.  To think that elementary schools are putting this important subject to the side, makes me sick.  Social Studies gives some people an idea of life by studying others lives.

I feel as a future educator, I have the ability to condemn or help prosper the minds and logic of our future society.  I can stick to fairy tales and brainwashing tactics of stupidity, or I can teach both sides of every story.  I feel by teaching both sides I can keep myself from getting in trouble.  This way the students are unawarely developing their critical voice as they grow and gain insightful knowledge by their own research through out my class and their life.

I think every aspect of Social Studies is extremely important.  Maps, history, cultures, knowledge of the world and people in general.  Social Studies is taught, mostly, from facts and stories alone.  There are no theories in Social Studies, only stories of people and how we "came" to be who we are and so forth.  This class has opened my eyes to a plausible way of teaching students I have always felt I could make a difference.  Reconstructing society one step at a time.

Group Opinions and Discussion

I feel the last day of our Social Studies class was well spent.  I really enjoyed the discussions about different controversial topics about Social Studies and being a teacher in general.  I enjoyed hearing every ones opinions.  I have noticed how much we all really enjoyed this class, and I feel we all really learned a lot from this class.  We did not just learn how to be a good teacher, but how to question things even as an adult.  If you can establish your critical voice as a teacher, then you can lead your students into a vast world of opportunities, ideologies, fact based opinions, and much more than any textbook or worksheet could take them.  That sentence may have sounded a little strange, but I feel teaching from the heart sets the mood for your life and your students life in the future and in your classroom.

Standardized Subjective Testing

This past Monday in my Social Studies methods course, we played a Jeopardy game using questions from 3rd to 6th grade Social Studies T-cap questions.  Needless to say, we were all overwhelmed by the number of questions we did not know.  There were questions about things we most likely forgot or were simply never introduced to that particular subject.  A lot, if not most, of the questions had me quite baffled.  I can see how schools fail the Social Studies T-caps section.  First, they never teacher Social Studies.  Second, they do not cover the standards for the grade they are teaching, or they just accept the fact they will fail the Social Studies section.  I'm pretty sure the state does not punish schools for low Social Studies testing. So there you have it.  The culprit to it all.  The state and the federal fundings.  They do not care.  Math and Reading are the most important. Or are they?!?!?

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and a great break from the things we must do to financial prosper in this life. I'm talking about school. Money sucking school. 

I cannot wait to be Bob Dylan this Monday. I've been doing research and I feel I must be off to do more.  Living History Museums seem fun, but I feel nervous....

Oh yea. Cannot wait to see Tracy with no basketball under her shirt...

Book Talkin'

I highly enjoyed the book talks our class did on Wednesday.  Listening to all the different book talks made me excited to read alot more books.  Regardless of them being children books or not.  I could see myself using this activity to tell my class about books, or having my students doing book talks to groups or the whole class.  I was having them do "commercials" of book talks.  Students might enjoy that.

Everest the Mountain

I decided at the beginning of class I would climb Mountain Everest.  I was informed of the cost of climbing and the high death rate that comes along with the intense climb.  I decided that climbing Mount Everest is apparently done by rich people with nothing better to do, people wanting to feel alive, lifelong goals and aspirations, or someone yearning to learn how to cherish his or her own life.  I feel if I had zero family left, zero kids, this would be something I would save for.  After completing the task, I am sure you would feel you could do anything. 

I never realized Mount Everest was sacred and worshiped in a sense by people called Sherpas.  Who all have the same last name, Sherpa.  How strange.  I feel allowing people to climb and trash their mountain, they are obviously getting money or their government is.  Either way, Mount Everest is beautiful and should be considered sacred.  Sacred to everyone in the world.

VOTE and die.

I voted for Carl Twofeathers Whitaker.  Needless to say no one else in Tennessee did research, besides watching the TV and driving past Bill Haslam signs every 3 feet. Blah blah. Bill Haslam the millionaire wins, of course.  He wins because of the following factors:


1. He is a millionaire
2. His father owns the Pilot Corporation, which is a large petroleum company
3. He worked as chief executive officer of the chamber of commerce and Saks Fifth Avenue
4. He put all his money into commercials and signs, as well as daddy funds and corporation funding into his campaign. Makes me sick.
5. People only voted for him because when they went to vote all they could remember was the color maroon and Bill Haslam videos. What a good tactic he used, brainwashing
6. He claims to be a Christian, but is part of all the corporations running this country

I saw a video where he said he was not going to audit the federal reserve and after that I blocked his face from my mind.  If the rest of America does not wake up, then it is only going to get worse.  Sorry all my posts have been so political, but I find this blog to be soothing.

I am NOT a republican.  I am NOT a democrat.  I am a LIBERTARIAN for life. I use to  be an anarchist, but I've grown up and realized civil liberties are worth fighting for.

 

Geocaching

Geocaching consists of searching for a container of various items left behind and/or traded by other Geocachiers. By using a GPS tracking system one can find the general coordinates of the cache. The game or hobby is very similar to a treasuire hunt. Yet once container is discovered there are various items inside. Users are generally supposed to trade or give something of greater or equal value. There is also a log for fellow Geocachers to sign. The cache is stored in various area all over the country.

Dr. Paul

Ron Paul is a member of the 14th congressional district of Texas. He was born on August 20, 1935. Ron was a physician and medical doctor for a very long while. In 1988 he ran as a libertarian candidate for the U.S. presidency. His campaign gained followers. Continuing to run for congress in 1996, he was re- elected in congress. He then ran in the 2008 presidential election, receiving only about 6% of votes.During ihis service in office Dr. Paul has never voted for the bailouts, war spending, or congressional pay raises. He has received much slack from the republican party for his views on foreign policy and war spending. He has received even more slack from democrats on the subject of the second amendment, health care, and big spending.
During a recent straw poll vote Paul was shown to be in second place for seat as president, 1% behind Obama.
His son, Rand Paul, was recently elected as Kentucky senate seat. Both plan to introduce new legislation to audit the Federal Reserve.

Meeting at Jekyll Isle

In 1910 the was a secret meeting off the coast of Georgia. It's location is near the town of Brunswick. The meeting took place on Jekyll island. The attendees had one thing in mind. They planned to pass a bill that would give a private bank the power to govern the nation of America's money supply.On the evening of November 22, 1910, Sen. Aldrich and A.P. Andrews (Assistant Secretary of the Treasury dept.),Paul Warburg (a naturalized German representing Kuhn, Loeb and company), Frank A. Vanderlip (president of the National City Bank of New York), Henry P Davison (senior partner of J. P. Morgan Company), Charles D. Norton(president of the Morgan-dominated First National Bank of New York), and Benjamin Strong (representing J. P. Morgan), together representing about one fourth the world's wealth at the time.
 This was the beginning of a new time and the destruction of free market. The Rockefeller family, the Carnegie and the Rothschild family were all involved. Finally in 1913 the federal reserve act was passed taking away a gold and silver backed currency. Under Woodrow Wilson's term came the act that based all monetary policy on debt. The income tax, war economy, and foreign policy was then allowed to be delt with financially in private.

Surge

Coming from from our little power outage has made me want to scream and commit small crimes.  I feel completely overwhelmed with school, work, and the life I left behind.  More than a small part of me does not care, but my "passion", drive, and morning coffee keeps me afloat.

I have plans to go to Raleigh, North Carolina this Sunday on Halloween.  I am going to see an Egyptian death metal band.  I bought these tickets in early August and have decided to get all my homework done prior to Sunday morning so that I may enjoy my two days.  Needless to say, this feels like 8 cows on my shoulders.  However, I'm going to get it all done. And I WILL make good grades.

I've been thinking about boycotting things, restaurants, and gas stations.  If even one wants to join me than do it.  It's easy you just decide not to eat, buy, or fill up at that particular place.  When boycotting, most people chose huge corporations that are sucking away from small businesses or simply trying to cOnTrOl the masses. By masses I mean us, society, and human beings in general.

End of Blog and the FED.

The Cherokee People

Over the weekend I helped my parents and church clean out an old warehouse of bibles, doctrines, psychology books, history books, and books in general.  After loading four truck loads full I came across a small book called The Story of the Cherokee People by Tom B-Underwood.  It is a small story book about the beginning and end of the Cherokee people and stories of the Trail of Tears.  I sat down and read the entire book. 

In the middle of book there is a letter written by Private John G. Burnett, Captain Abraham McClellan Company, 2nd Regiment, 2nd Brigade, Mounted Infantry, Cherokee Indian Removal 1839-39.  He wrote a "birthday" letter on his 80th birthday to tell a promised story to his family and grand children.  He says all through the story of how he wants people to know the truth.  Reading this story made me see Andrew Jackson a whole different way.  This really upset me because he was my favorite president besides John F. Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy, who was just a candidate.  I want everybody to read this letter/story.  I could not put it down.  Not only did John G. Burnett write a letter about the removal of the Indians, but he was born and raised at King Iron Works in Sullivan County.  Which made the letter even more interesting. 

Reading this letter strengthened my pursuit to research more information on forgotten history and secrets.  History secrets are quite intriguing.   

A

I feel every teacher I had in my long boring years of school lacked a critical voice.  You did what they said, they did what they were told and everybody stayed happy.  I had two teachers in high school that asked frequently for opinions and different perspectives.  They were welcomed and analyzed for further discussion.  These classes were Psychology and English.  I respect these teachers, although they never voiced their opinions and views on certain problems.  I am a very opinionated person that will voice what I think during times it is not needed.  As I have got older I have controlled this impulse. Kind of....

From Silence to Dissent, By: Alan Canestrari and Bruce Marlowe,  allowed me to see exactly why teachers are the way they are.  The "Yes, but...." questions are all you ever hear.  Yes, but wouldn't I get in trouble? Yes, but that's not what authorities tell me to do. Yes, but I WANT to be a robot sheep.  It all sounds the same. You should ask why?!?! Why? Always.  Teachers can always be tactful about it, but asking why and getting a nicely explained answer will easily put your mind at rest.  Or it will make you mad. Either way, you will be able to see where someone stands on a issue.

Speaking in a Critical Voice, By: Marilyn Page was an AWESOME article.  This article made me feel more comfortable going into the teaching field.  Critical voices across America are not established, and I cannot wait to teach critical voice and opinion to the next generation.  Of course I will teach them other things, but critical voices made me excited.  I need to learn how to use my critical voice when necessary and important, not when it involves personal opinions that disregard my job and the education on my students.

I enjoyed reading both of these articles and would recommend them to everyone, teacher, parent, or plumber.  I found these to be inspiring and I feel most everyone would too.