how to keep it interesting

[newbieinsc]

I am an aspiring new teacher in the High School Social Studies area. I realize that history is not always the most interesting subject to my students. However, I keep drawing blanks on creative ideas to engage the classroom. Or any ideas I do come up with seem to fall flat. I don't want to end up lecturing, or pointing at powerpoint everyday. Any help would be appreciated.

[Unregistered]

Smile. If you care about your subject, and love it, and want to share your enthusiasm, your students will care as well.
I'm a student teacher in mid-practicum. I've described the Greeks as "the dead guys with un-pronounceable names", but I also have the majority of students volunteering to read aloud. If it were not for the creative accents, I think the play would have driven me batty.
What have you done? Do your students do out of class work? Will they prep for something at home? Do you need to plan to do everything in class?
I hate the sound of my own voice. The most dependable result I will get by talking for five minutes flat out to someone who isn't driving is to soothe them to sleep. That isn't the result I need in class.
Fun activities I remember from high school include having trench day (students running around in a WWI style muddy trench), a decorating contest, making artifacts including catapults, and cooking. Everyone loves a chance to make different foods.
Creative writing is a good way to get into the era. It is a way to have students turn the objective history into a subjective example, and the details suddenly matter a bit more. If they're talkative, they can debate.
I hope this helps a little.

[Chocolate_New_Orleans]

'making it fun' all the time is this progressive bullcrap theory that is impossible to realize.

A kid will complain about school and there will be kids that won't work no matter what. I don't care if the course is called Nintendo 101 - at some point, kids will get bored with it, and complain.

Bookwork is a necessary evil in education. You are not a bad teacher if you assign bookwork, despite what the seminars (who are put on by teachers who couldn't cut it in the classroom) tell you.

The best way for kids to study for tests, and pass state standards is to crack open the book and study. No games, just good old fashioned pen to paper daily practice.

A football team doesn't get better by playing football games everyday of the week, they get better by practicing 4 days a week and testing on Friday night. It works the same in education. Difference is, there is a culture in the country that makes kids proud of their accomplishments on the sports field, but not in the classroom.

[Unregistered]

'making it fun' all the time is this progressive bullcrap theory that is impossible to realize.

A kid will complain about school and there will be kids that won't work no matter what. I don't care if the course is called Nintendo 101 - at some point, kids will get bored with it, and complain.

Bookwork is a necessary evil in education. You are not a bad teacher if you assign bookwork, despite what the seminars (who are put on by teachers who couldn't cut it in the classroom) tell you.

The best way for kids to study for tests, and pass state standards is to crack open the book and study. No games, just good old fashioned pen to paper daily practice.

A football team doesn't get better by playing football games everyday of the week, they get better by practicing 4 days a week and testing on Friday night. It works the same in education. Difference is, there is a culture in the country that makes kids proud of their accomplishments on the sports field, but not in the classroom.


So true Choc.! Everything you said. Making it fun is fine, but cracking the books is necessary. The other one that bugs me is--everyone is into this higher level thinking thing, and that is great, but we still need the basics. For example: If the question is: What events lead up to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor? The kid can explain this all day, but if they don't know the exact date, where is Pearl Harbor, what is Pearl Harbor, they can discuss this question all day and still sound like a dummy. Basics are needed--exact facts.

[Chocolate_New_Orleans]

I have kids in my honors classes that don't understand the rules of grammar and they won't capitalize the first letters of their own first and last name.

Apparently, rules of grammar don't affect NCLB writing scores since she has received a 5 every year.

There is only so much time in a day, everytime some big-wig that preaches a seminar says I have to teach using some weird strategy, it takes away from basic grammar, basic facts, etc.

[Unregistered]

I have kids in my honors classes that don't understand the rules of grammar and they won't capitalize the first letters of their own first and last name.

Apparently, rules of grammar don't affect NCLB writing scores since she has received a 5 every year.

There is only so much time in a day, everytime some big-wig that preaches a seminar says I have to teach using some weird strategy, it takes away from basic grammar, basic facts, etc.

I am a parent of a 6th grader, who has never been taught the basic rules of grammar, writes atrociously, prints because he was never properly taught cursive writing, doesn't use punctuation correctly, etc. He can't even write his own name in cursive. The teachers don't seem to care because it is not counted off on the end of grade writing test if he doesn't use any of these things. It's all about the end of grade test.

[Unregistered]

I am a fourth grade teacher who teaches departmentalized math in the afternoons. Maybe one kid in five comes into fourth grade knowing their multiplication facts (Note: maybe). I tell them at the beginning of the year that if they do not know them, get busy. It is essential that they know them, especially by the time we begin division. I have taught for over a decade and have tried many different approaches (games, incentives, keeping them in from recess if they don't pass timed tests, etc.) NOTHING has seemed to work. The consciencious students will learn them (the one in five). The rest don't care. These are basics, foundations, and necessary skills in math. Needless to say, the kids who do not know them don't do well. They squeak by, though, by counting on their fingers during tests, etc. I have two kids who do not capitalize the first word of a sentence. If they turn in work like that, they stay in and re-do it, no excuses or questions asked.

[Unregistered]

t.s. eliot?

[Chocolate_New_Orleans]

I am a parent of a 6th grader, who has never been taught the basic rules of grammar, writes atrociously, prints because he was never properly taught cursive writing, doesn't use punctuation correctly, etc. He can't even write his own name in cursive. The teachers don't seem to care because it is not counted off on the end of grade writing test if he doesn't use any of these things. It's all about the end of grade test.

It's not that the teachers don't care, but we are actually told we can't grade that.

If I assign a writing paper, NCLB is only concerned with paragraph structure. Mispellings, penmanship, etc do not affect the grade, so while we are doing practice work in class, teachers hands are tied because if you do count off for it, and a parent complains, the admin will say "if it's not on NCLB testing, you can't grade it now"

The problem is, there is only so much time in a day, I can spend 1/2 of it correcting the fact that they aren't using uppercase letters for proper names, or I can work on paragraph structure. And since school grades don't revolve around capitalization, or cursive, guess what gets left out...

Why "waste time" on stuff that doesn't matter for testing. I can make sure my kids have average grammar, and average writing, or great writing and crappy grammar. It both averages out the same, but guess which teacher is thought to be a good teacher and which one isn't. Guess which school gets an "A" for a grade, and which one gets the "C".

[Unregistered]

I disagree, Chocolate. By letting the students "slide by" without proper caps and punctuation, you are condoning it. Not a trademark of a good teacher. Insist on it, have them re-do assignments, and I guarantee they will start capitalizing. It is sheer laziness on their part. You brag that you are a master at classroom time management. Soooo, work this into your schedule. What kind of teacher allows this type of garbage to be turned in?

[Unregistered]

I disagree, Chocolate. By letting the students "slide by" without proper caps and punctuation, you are condoning it. Not a trademark of a good teacher. Insist on it, have them re-do assignments, and I guarantee they will start capitalizing. It is sheer laziness on their part. You brag that you are a master at classroom time management. Soooo, work this into your schedule. What kind of teacher allows this type of garbage to be turned in?

Most teachers allow that garbage to be turned in. I WANT the teacher to not let it slide. My son, like most students, think what the teacher says is 100% correct (and that is good most of the time). However, when I try at home to make him use correct grammar or correct misspelled words, he says the teacher doesn't care if they do. It doesn't count off on the end of grade test. Yes, he has been told it does not count off on the end of grade test. It's hard to get them to do at home what is not expected at school. It's all about creative writing. If they have to think about the spelling and punctuation, it stifles their creativity. Yikes!

[Chocolate_New_Orleans]

I disagree, Chocolate. By letting the students "slide by" without proper caps and punctuation, you are condoning it. Not a trademark of a good teacher. Insist on it, have them re-do assignments, and I guarantee they will start capitalizing. It is sheer laziness on their part. You brag that you are a master at classroom time management. Soooo, work this into your schedule. What kind of teacher allows this type of garbage to be turned in?

One that does not have grammar rules listed on their state standards...


for the record, I don't teach grammar or English, I'm a Social Studies teacher. Nowhere on my state standards does it say "student must learn proper rules of grammar". So I am NOT ALLOWED to count off for it. If they don't capitalize "Washington D.C., United States of America", I can count off, but if their paper is turned in with "Atlanta, Georgia" but the name up top says...

john smith
mr, jones
period 4

there is nothing I can do that I have a leg to stand on.

I have actually not counted, handed back papers for improper paper headings, but I was later told by admin (after the kid's parents complained that it wasn't English class, it was History class) that I could only count off for Social Studies mistakes.



Welcome to results of NCLB legislation... I agree with you, though, I WANT to be able to enforce it, but when a math teacher has to make sure they cover all the standards by the end of February, making a kid/class redo it over grammar rules wastes time on learning the quadratic formula that they need to know to pass the test. And despite the fact that all testing should fall on the kid, everyone knows who the fall people are when a kid/class performs poorly on the standardized tests.... the teacher.


Even English teachers are under the gun to make sure they know the writing process and setup. Capitalization of first words in sentences does not affect writing scores... so when your professional reputation based on what letter grade your school gets is on the line, guess what I'm going to focus on and what gets to slip off (based on the limited time available in class)