Week 12 Blog Reflection

This week, we worked to wrap up chapter 6 and move closer to the chapter's summative assessment.


On the first day of the week, I felt that we did not cover Washington's addresses nearly as well as I would've liked on the previous Friday, so we pulled the addresses back out and examined them once again. I went over the questions and answers, and we had a discussion on the subject of Washington's character. After that was finished, students worked on the part two of the questions, where they wrote a newspaper article as if they were at the inaugural address. I felt that this helped students get into the mind of a US citizen during the time of the early United States. On the whole, I felt like this particular re-teaching activity was good to do, as it provided students with an extra time to clear up misconceptions.

On the second day, Tuesday, students worked in groups to create treaties between different nations. This activity, in theory, was designed to have students work together in order to hammer out terms that would've solved conflicts better than what actually occurred in history. We did this right after taking notes on several important treaties during the time period, so this activity highlighted what students were just learning. Students had some trouble understanding what it is that they had to do, but in the end, were able to produce agreements that either mirror real life (during the time period) or were more fair treaties. Only in rare cases did the treaties seem exceptionally one-sided.

On Wednesday, I worked with students in an interactive presentation that highlighted the journey of Lewis and Clark. Students worked with me to follow the prompts in order to get to the west coast of the US by making choices about where to go and what to do. Overall, students were very engaged in this presentation for most periods, except for the last period that I taught. That period had some difficulty being engaged, and overall did not enjoy this activity as much as the others. I will try to differentiate better so that all students are engaged in the future.

On Thursday this week, students were given time to work on their outline after I covered the War of 1812. Students needed the majority of the period in order to work on it, and it was learning that required them to use the textbook in order to find and synthesize information. Overall, students did well on this assignment and there were little to no management issues present.

On Friday, I worked with the coordinators on the contract for next semester. I am both excited and anxious about starting the contract hours, but I am definitely looking forward to the experience!