Luke's Blog

At the Georgia Museum of Art, I found a painting that I believe that I could incorporate in one of my content-area specializations, social studies. This painting is by Isaac Soyer, who was an artist that worked for the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. The Works Progress Administration was a government agency that employed artists during the Great Depression. I believe that I could use this painting in a number of different ways in an eighth grade social studies unit that focused on events after World War 1 in the United States, including the Great Depression. One thing that stands out from this painting is that the color scheme is dark, and the mood seems gloomy for the people portrayed in the painting. This painting displays the harsh reality and conditions that many people faced without being employed during this time period. Potentially, I could use this painting as a pre-reading strategy, such as front loading with images. It would be important fo...

Overall, I enjoy the idea of book clubs because I believe that they are a fun, collaborative way to build reading comprehension and morale in a classroom. When I was in middle school language arts classes, reading fiction books as a class or in a group was always my favorite activity. I enjoyed abandoning traditional assignments and activities to get the chance to read something that would peak my interest and attention. Even though I found that many of my peers did not enjoy reading as much as I did at that age, many of my peers would still collaborate and be engaged in a group environment. In my opinion, doing book clubs in this class reiterated the benefit that reading and collaboration can have in a classroom. Also, I enjoyed that the assessments were low-stakes because tests and quizzes always took the fun out of reading a book in class. However, I saw the benefit of taking notes on post-it notes almost instantly after I started reading our book, Hoot . It enabled me to connect th...

Today, Cody and I presented our strategy lesson about password. Overall, I believe that everything went pretty well. I enjoyed that we got to present about an educational game because it was fun and the class seemed to enjoy practicing it. As I scanned the room during the presentation, everyone seemed to be interested and engaged in the strategy. Also, Cody called a good audible to have everyone work in pairs rather than large groups to make sure that everyone was involved and engaged. I believe that not everyone would have participated as much if they were in big groups. Even though I thought that it might be difficult to demonstrate before everyone played in pairs, the video helped give people prior knowledge or a quick introduction. I really enjoyed hearing possible ways or suggestions to tweak or edit how to best play password with your students. I like that the game can be easily tweaked with a few simple rules or with the use of technology. Also, I think giving a text was a bette...