Blog 6

GROUP!

     As a group we have had a little trouble getting in touch with groups for ocean clean up and pollution in our area. We have contacted many different groups and we did not get a response from any of them. Many of these groups do a lot of things during the spring and summer time because of the weather and because the weather is changing drastically there is not much going on in our communities. We have chosen to do our own clean up! Colleen is from Lynn, MA and the city has had many issues with the beaches there. We are going to head out one weekend soon and do our own clean up for a few hours. We are looking forward to seeing how bad it really is, considering there are not many clean ups in Lynn, especially in the fall. There will be pictures posted soon of our findings and comments!

COLLEEN!

As I was looking around for any new information posted on polluted water I found this article from 2011. This article shows that there are 716 or so polluted waters in Massachusetts alone. It also goes into our drinking water and how it is affecting our heath personally. They show a picture of a little boy who is from West Virginia who has caps on his teeth. His doctor said that the pollutants in drinking water are causing damage to our teeth. With this article is makes me thing, not only are our oceans polluted, but what about the drinking water? How is this affecting not only our teeth, but also our general health? We need to make sure that what we are drinking will not affect our future and that our oceans are not having bad side effects. (http://projects.nytimes.com/toxic-waters/polluters/massachusetts)

I definitely think that social issues around the world and in our communities should be brought into the elementary classrooms today. When I was younger we did not learn much about what was going on in the world other than when there was not choice, for example when 9/11 happened. Prior to that I didn’t really know what a terrorist was and what was going on with the war and other countries, but because something bad happened we learned more about it. I don’t think it should get to that point where something bad has to happen for children to be introduced to current events, I think it should be a part of our years in elementary school. I also think it is important to talk about what the students are interested in. I think that the way I personally would find out is handing out some sort of worksheet with words like politics and entertainment with check boxes. After collecting them all see what topics are the most popular and try to figure out some fun ways of teacher current even topics.

I hardly see any social studies in my placement school. I saw my cooperating teacher do one lesson and I did my social studies lesson but it is hardly ever part of the daily schedule. I find this extremely odd because when I was in elementary school I had every subject every day. I think in today’s schooling system subjects like science and social studies are not as “important” because many schools are mainly focused on the MCAS and preparing the students for the tests starting in 3^rd grade. I think that current event projects are the right way to start getting involved in more social studies in the classrooms. I think our project has showed me that it is important to be on top of subjects like this because it is something that is important and can affect everyone in our communities.

LAUREN!

I started to research more in depth on the internet about any current issues or events surrounding our topic and came across a very interesting website. This website it directly related to the Salem and Beverly area, providing just about every detail around the process and concerns of our public drinking water. This shows the water quality reports from 2005-2010. I found it interesting that it stopped at 2010 and wondered why they didn’t continue up until present year, but hopefully they will post that soon as the year is coming to an end. http://www.salem.com/Pages/SalemMA_Water/2009waterqualreport.pdf This is the link to the 2009 update, which shows a lot on the process of how water becomes eligible to drink. It expresses the different contaminations and inorganic chemicals, which can be a little overwhelming when you first look at it. This website is a good resource because it goes into depth about all the substances found in drinking water and what they actually are in case someone is not familiar with the names.

I believe citizenship is an important concept for everyone to understand as well as obtain starting at an early age. As Colleen pointed out, I too believe children should not be so vulnerable and naïve about important current issues. They need to be addressed and understood incase an emergency arises and they know how to handle it as well as hold an opinion on it. I would make space for this important topic because I find it to be very useful and worth being discussed. I would let the children have their own voices and be able to freely express their opinions and values so no one will feel alienated. Everyone has the right to free speech, including my future students. I would definitely do a theme of culture in my classroom so the children get exposed to diversity at a young age. I grew up in a very analogous community so I was very naïve to different cultures and ethnicities up until high school. It is a very important concept to understand, accept, and appreciate early on.

In my classroom I have yet to observe a social studies lesson. I expressed my concern with my teacher and she too feels it is unfair and not right that the students aren’t being exposed to more social studies. She explained that the curriculum just doesn’t give them the time and space for it. I think this is so sad, I remember having social studies when I was in elementary school, but only in the higher grades like fifth. I believe that the NCSS framework’s ten themes are effective and should be incorporated in the classroom. All ten of these would make for a very effective social studies program and I just wish I was able to see that happening in my classroom now.

MAGGIE!

In searching for new news on polluted waters, I found an article about this topic on The New York Time’s Website. The article was about how the tsunami in Japan that happened earlier this year is pushing more debris inland towards the harbors of California. There was a passage in the article that really spoke to me in the article. It stated, “Maybe 5 percent to 10 percent, of the tsunami debris will wash up on shore. These objects of metal, plastic, wood and rubber — all sea-changed and barnacled — will be a reminder that the vastness of the planet is easily matched by the human capacity to generate indestructible waste. And they will be an echo of a tragedy, for many years to come.” This article made me think about how natural disasters can affect the oceans by bringing more of the debris to the surface and closer inland. It made me imagine how much is actually out there. But I also feel that more people should do their part in quickly cleaning up the mess that actually comes to the surface before it harms wild life!

In the first grade curriculum, I found two places where citizenship can be found. Under concepts and skills 10 and 11 of Economics:

10. Give examples of services that people do for each other. (E)

11. Give examples of the choices people have to make about the goods and services they buy (e.g. a new coat, a tie, or a pair of shoes) and why they have to make choices (e.g., because they have a limited amount of money). (E)

^ I as a teacher would work with these standards in teaching about citizenship and services we do for one another. Is keeping our oceans safer and cleaner a service we could provide for our community? The answer is yes, and it starts with each and every one of us. This is a lesson I would be proud to teach my students. I would engage them with images and statistics. Some of them are quite alarming.

I am sadly not there during the Social Studies lesson time in my first grade field placement. I think that Witchcrafts Heights as whole definitely gets involved in civic values and support. A recent example I can provide is that for the past few weeks during snack time, the students have been recycling and donating their discarded snack bags and juice boxes for a recycling project that will be a surprise as to what the items have been made into. The students had a fundraiser for Boston Children’s Hospital, which I personally believed was a great charity for students to donate to and be involved with. There have been a lot of charities that Witchcraft has been involved with, they were involved in Pantene’s Beautiful Length’s hair donation for cancer patients in which many of the students donated their hair. I think that these are all example of getting students aware and involved. I think that they can take such great lifelong lessons out of being involved. This all relates to our project in that taking care of the environment and in particular our oceans are better for humanity and for all of us. We shouldn’t take the oceans for granted because contamination of them has a detrimental impact!