Content Area Websites Blog 7

The Biz of Football
http://www.bizoffootball.com/


The Biz of Football is a really cool website that looks into seemingly all business aspects of football. For those of our students that may have difficulty in relating the information taught in their business courses to real life applications, The Biz of Football provides an excellent platform to stoke their interest. Some of the many topics delved into by this website are the salary cap, corporate sponsorships, the NFL's television "blackout" policy, collective bargaining agreements and network rights fee's just to name a few. I feel that The Biz of Football would be of particular value to those students already have an interest in football but have yet to realize the extent to which business and football are intertwined.

Music Business Resources for Students
http://www.mustard-mg.com/



Similar to The Biz of Football, Music Business Resources for Students taps into the interests that some of our students have away from the classroom and relates them to the study of business. The site is produced by a music professional and is a compilation of his learnings from years of being in the music industry. Music Resources for Business Students has sections that include an industry overview, contracts, copyright issues, agents, do it yourself record labels and promotion among many others. This site would be a very valuable resource for connecting with our students that have an interest in the music business.

Essential Question and Answer Blog 6

How can having an understanding and appreciation for the cultures, backgrounds and values of our students help us as teachers to teach them more effectively?



In the article She's Strict for a Reason: Highly Effective Teachers in Low-Performing Urban Schools, the authors studied 31 highly effective teachers in nine low-performing urban schools in some of the most economically depressed neighborhoods in Los Angeles County, California. The study lasted for four years and attempted to answer the following questions.

Are there highly effective teachers in low-performing urban schools?
If so, what instructional strategies do they use?
What are their personal characteristics?

As implied by the title of the article the authors were able to find very effective teachers in low-performing environments. When the research progressed toward answering the second question posed regarding instructional strategies the results were surprising to the authors. What they found were very strict, intense academic environments where traditional, Objectivist instruction was thriving. That environment, however, was balanced by strong and respectful relationships and a strong belief in the abilities of their students. Lastly, in answer to their final question regarding the personal characteristics of the highly effective teachers the authors found that the teachers were strong, no-nonsense, make-it happen people who were optimistic for students’ futures, responsible, hard working, emotionally stable, organized, and disciplined.  Also identified were a set of core beliefs shared by the teachers about their students as listed below.
1. Every one of my students has much more
potential than they use;
2. They have not been pushed to use it;
3. It is my responsibility to turn this situation
around;
4. I am able; and
5. I want to do this for them.

The authors conclude that concerns about Objectivist methods of instruction may be unwarranted and that Constructivist methods should be highly questioned when instructing students in low-performing urban schools. While I respect the findings of the authors and don't doubt their validity, I think it would perhaps be even more valuable to inspect the relationship between the high standards and expectations these teachers set for their students and the corresponding high achievement of their students.

Poplin, M, Rivera, J., Durish, D., Hoff, L., Kawell, S., Pawlak, P., Hinman, I.S., Straus, L., Veney, C.  (2011). She's strict for a good reason: Highly effective teachers in low-performing urban schools. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(5), 39-43.

  

Content Area Websites Blog 5

Ben's Guide
http://bensguide.gpo.gov/subject.html#business
Ben's Guide is an excellent government resource for children to learn about business in an entertaining and interactive way. The site offers multiple links where students can learn about different business topics, play business related games and look up patents among other activities. This site would be an engaging way to enhance different learning units that students could access at there own leisure and pace.



It's My Life
http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/money/
This is a very useful site that covers topics such as earning money, spending money and managing money. What I liked best about this website is the game "Mad Money". In it, the student will be given a set amount money to spend in a given amount of time. There are opportunities to earn more money but also penalties which reduce time. "Mad Money" could be particularly useful when teaching a unit on supply and demand. By having a set budget to work with, the students will be forced differentiate between needs and wants and to appreiciate why products at different price points might have more appeal to certain consumers based on finite resources. Every kid wants there parents to buy the fanciest car but after playing "Mad Money" hopefully they'll understand why buying a Honda Civic might be more prudent instead.

                                                                  

Essential Question & Answer Blog 4

How can having an understanding and appreciation for the cultures, backgrounds and values of our students help us as teachers to teach them more effectively?

 

In the article Success in engaging Hispanic parents depends on creating a school culture that welcomes all by Susan Zimmerman-Orozco, Zimmerman-Orozco discusses the challenges and successes of James E. Daly Elementary School in Germantown, Maryland in dealing with the needs of an emerging Hispanic student population. As the Hispanic population began to increase, the school's staff began to realize that if they were going to succeed in properly educating it's Hispanic students that adaptation would need to take place. In fact, as Zimmerman-Orozco points out, the sharp increase in Daly's English language learner (ELL) population has begun to affect the school's academic achievement goals, especially in reading instruction in the primary grades. In the last 10 years, our Hispanic student population has grown from 14 percent to 36 percent. This school year, almost 65 percent of our prekindergarten, kindergarten, and 1st grade students are English language learners, most of them Hispanic. Faced with this reality changes would need to take place in order to better serve the Hispanic population.


Multiple strategies were put into place in order to better understand the backgrounds, circumstances, motivations and needs of the Hispanic students, and to an equal extent, those of their parents. The goal was to to have a comprehensive understanding of the unique challenges within Hispanic community and to then create solutions that would break down the barriers that existed in the achievement of the Hispanic students. In the article Zimmerman-Orozco listed these strategies as can be seen below.

Six Strategies for Enhancing Hispanic Parent Involvement

Remove language barriers between the parents and the schools. Provide culturally sensitive translators. Increase the number of Spanish-speaking school staff. Create a telephone or electronic messaging service to parents in Spanish. Increase written communications in Spanish. Develop a core of Hispanic parent volunteers.

Address economic obstacles that hinder parental involvement. Recognize that economic survival is a primary concern that limits the ability of many parents to attend school meetings. Coordinate with local agencies to support sponsorship and referral systems for Hispanic families and their children. Advocate for local families with various social services agencies.

Schedule activities to make transportation easier for parents Conduct meetings, activities, and workshops in a location parents can reach by public transportation or walking. Ensure that hours of teacher conferences, activities, meetings, and workshops match the hours Hispanic parents are available.

Empower and motivate parents to get involved. Encourage parents to participate and become part of the school governance. Encourage parents to maintain Hispanic culture and language. Invite them to come to class to talk about their home country and experiences.

Promote teacher-parent relations. Take time to listen to parents and respond with an open communication style. Make home visits to parents who cannot come to the schools. Realize that some parents may lack formal education and have difficulty helping their children with school work.

Acknowledge and empower parental aspirations. Actively listen to what inspires and motivates parents and students, and nurture these aspirations. Implement parent training programs. Invite successful Hispanic professionals to school. Offer English language classes for parents. Ensure that the school environment is safe and nurturing for children. Create shared governance among parents, students, and school personnel.


Zimmerman-Orozco, S., (2001) . Success in engaging Hispanic parents depends on creating a school culture that welcomes all. Educational Leadership, 68(2), 64-68.  http://www.ascd.org/publications/
educational-leadership.aspx

   

Essential Question and Answer

How can having an understanding and appreciation of the cultures, backgrounds and values of our students help us as teachers to teach them more effectively?



An unfortunate reality in education today is the presence of an "Achievement Gap" between students of different races, gender and socio-economic standing in our culture. As America becomes increasingly diverse the need to close this gap is not only of importance to those groups which have been afflicted but also to our nation as a whole.   In the article Embracing Urban Youth Culture in the Context of Education by Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz and Perry Greene it is argued that by celebrating the positive aspects of Urban Youth Culture rathering by demonizing it we can help these students succeed and excel academically by creating a stronger self image and not marginalizing them as underachievers. In the article, Sealy-Ruiz and Greene state that Instead of ignoring Black urban youth or continuing to pretend as if who they are
and what they value is unimportant, schools and the larger community should make
every effort to celebrate their cultural lives and personal identities. While this article refers only to the experience of those in Urban Youth Culture the lessons learned can be applicable across the sprectrum of groups in a similar circumstance.

Members of Urban Youth Culture are often confronted with stereotypes based on the music they listen to and the clothes they wear. This coupled with popular culture depictions of the members of this community often leads to lower expectations for these students and subsequently lower achievement.  Better understanding the cultures and motivations as well as embracing the cultures and motivations of our students of color will aid in closing the "Achievement Gap". Sealey-Ruiz and Greene list Habits of Mind that educators of members of Urban Youth Culture should implement if they are to succeed in successfully connecting with their students. These Habits of Mind are listed here;
• Appreciate (if not enjoy) students’ cultures and the diversity they bring to the
classroom.
• Encourage African American and Latino/a youth to connect to their cultures.
• Understand that educator’s dispositions around Black and Latino/a children, as
well as Urban Youth Culture, can negatively affect their relationships with these
students. Allow all students to explore their interests in the context of a
classroom setting.
• Help and encourage students to feel good about themselves, including
facilitating the creation of youth-oriented, student-centered clubs and organizations
that address the interests of students.
• Value the communities, cultures, and families of students in meaningful ways.
• Listen to students and become conversant in what interests them.
• Get involved in establishing or expanding mentoring programs for Black (and
Latino/a) youth, and other groups in the school or community who are at risk of
dropping out (i.e. over aged students, students experiencing legal trouble, or
students with difficult personal circumstances: i.e. foster care, homelessness,
etc).
Ultimately, if we are to be successful in educating our students in an increasingly diverse nation, we must celebrate that which makes us diverse and leverage those differences in achieving successful outcomes in education.

Sealey-Ruiz, Y & Greene, P. (2010) Embracing Urban Youth Culture in the Context
of Education. Urban Review. http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/B7C6DFDD-ECD4-40EF-B0A2-FD6C7D08C374/0/EmbracingUrbanYouthCultureintheContextofEducation.pdf

 

Content Area Websites

Entrepreneur
http://www.entrepreneur.com/
This website offers a vast array of links and videos covering all facets of the business arena and would be very useful in finding information on current topics in the business world from the vantage point of an entrepreneur. The site could be helpful to students in finding information on current business people and trends as well being good support for a project involving the start up of a new business.
     
                                               


Cool Business Ideas
http://www.coolbusinessideas.com/
Cool Business Ideas is a blog about unique and innovative business ideas from around the world. When teaching a business curriculum to students the material can often seem theoretical and lose it's relation to the real world. The Cool Business Ideas website could inspire students when used as an adjunct a text book by allowing the students to browse the site and imagine what types of businesses they themselves might like to start in the future. With this background, the materials covered in the textbook could have added context.

                                


YoungBiz
http://www.youngbiz.com/
YoungBiz is an exciting website in that it is geared toward younger business minded students. It contains a wealth of information as well as clubs that followers can join to interact with other young students to discuss various issues and exchange ideas. It's design is kid friendly and can encourage students to delve deeper into business areas of interest. I feel that the YoungBiz website would be an excellent augmentation to a textbook by presenting real world information in an interactive, kid friendly manner.

                                                       

Business Games for Kids
www.surfnetkids.com/businessgames.htm
Within the Surfnetkids website I located a section dedicated to business games. Business games would be an excellent complement to a business textbook as it would allow students to apply the knowledge gained in class lectures and the textbook in an entertaining format. As students took part in the games, a teacher could stimulate discussion by asking what skills they were applying from the text in playing the games.

                              

Annotated Bibliography

My content area is Business and I will be teaching a unit on The Great Depression to 8th grade students. To supplement and enrich this unit, I will be incorporating three trade books and two websites. At the completion of this unit it is my hope that the students will not only have an academic understanding of the causes that led to the Great Depression and its historic implications but also a profound grasp of what the Great Depression meant to the lives of the average Americans that lived through this bleak period of our history.

The class text book does an excellent job of explaining the technical aspects that caused the Great Depression and the policies that were put in place in effort to catapult the country into recovery and it will be used for these purposes. In order to provide my students with an appreciation of how the Great Depression manifested itself in the lives of everyday citizens, I felt it necessary to provide supplemental resources. Below you will find each of the texts that I have chosen to augment my students learning of this unit. They each give realistic glimpses into the lives of those who experienced this time first hand. Each of the texts is at or below grade level and therefore will provide an easy read for students of all levels.

 

Trade Books

Children of the Great Depression

“Children of the Great Depression” was a very enjoyable and informative book to read. The book is a combination of photos and firsthand accounts of the perspectives of people who lived through the Great Depression as children. The stories include the poignant details of children having to see their parents swallow their pride as worsening economic conditions made it impossible to provide even basic necessities. The book also illustrates what the Depression meant to young school children in agricultural communities among many other similar accounts.

In teaching a unit of study on The Great Depression, the book “Children of the Great Depression” would be an invaluable supplement. While text books do a good of explaining the causes and statistical economic impact of the Great depression, books such as this can bring life to the people who struggled through this time. Students can gain a real grasp of what it meant to be a child during this era. I think the book itself does an excellent job of stating its usefulness as a supplement with the phrase, the “photographs convey in human terms the true meaning of economic statistics”.

Freedman, Russell. (2010). Children of the Great Depression.  New York: Clarion. Amazon link     Barnes & Noble

Peanut Butter for Cupcakes: A True Story from the Great Depression 

Peanut Butter for Cupcakes is the true account of one family’s experience of living through the Great Depression.  The Nordmark family suffers the tragic death of their mother, their father’s struggle to support his children because of the lack of work during this difficult period and the resulting separation of the family on multiple occasions to foster care. As heartbreaking as this story is at times, it is equally uplifting as the family seems to find a way to take joy in the simplest of things and smile through most of the rough times.  The author, Donna Nordmark Aviles, presents the reader with an authentic story which depicts what life was really like during the Great Depression.

Peanut Butter for Cupcakes would be an excellent augmentation to a traditional text book for teaching a unit on the Great Depression. While text book’s provide students with an excellent understanding of the “why’s, how’s and who’s” of historical events books like Peanut Butter for Cupcakes provide meaning in human terms to these events. By reading this book, students will be left with a deep and true understanding of what the Great Depression meant to the families and children of that era. Within this context students will gain added meaning when learning the academic facts of the Great Depression.

                                                      

                   

Nordmark Aviles, Donna.  (2008).  Peanut Butter for Cupcakes: A True Story of the Great Depression.  Kentucky:  Wasteland Press.  Amazon link  Barnes & Noble

Dust to Eat: Drought and Depression in the 1930’s

Author Michael L. Cooper does an excellent job of outlining the causes, realities and resulting consequences of the Dust Bowl in his book, Dust to Eat: Drought and Depression in the 1930’s. Through illustrations and personal accounts the book made it easy for me to understand what it was like to live through the dust storms and appreciate the desperation that confronted families as they had to make the decision to abandon their lives and head to an uncertain future in California in search of survival. Once in California, their difficulties would not end. Working as migrant farmers (Okie’s to the locals) was a brutal existence but still better than what they left.  Workers would be exposed to ugly side of human nature as they native Californians looked at them with scorn offering know empathy for the circumstances that led to the plight of the “Okies”.  

In an educational context, “Dust to Eat” would be of great value to students by putting a human face on academic learning about the Great Depression. After reading this book, students would see and feel what it was like to be a child living through this era. Reading about that the ecological causes of the Dust Bowl and/or the policy decisions and economic circumstances that precipitated the Great Depression only tells half the story.                                                                   

                                                          

Cooper, Michael, L.  (2004).  Dust to Eat: Drought and Depression in the 1930's.  New York:  Clarion.
Amazon link  Barnes & Noble


Websites 

Digital History. Explorations: Children & the Great Depression

This website is another resource that adds perspective to exactly what it meant to live during the Great Depression. It includes firsthand accounts from people of various ages. It includes the stories of regular people as well as those that would live acclaimed lives. There are also links to letters from children of the time asking for help from the president. These poignant letters should be relatable to students of varying age.

The above texts offer students multiple stories and information provided from a variety of media that will present the students with access to the information that will allow them to have a complete knowledge of the Great Depression from both an academic standpoint as well as what the event meant in the lives of real people.

Digital History. Explorations: Children & the Great Depression. Retrieved from http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/children_depression/depression_children_menu.cfm

Great Depression

The website, Great Depression, provides multiple links to content on seemingly every aspect of the Great Depression including photographs, life in the 1930’s, culture and the causes of the Great Depression among many others.  This site would allow students to select topics of particular interest to deepen their understanding of the Depression from varying perspectives.  

With its variety of information students can benefit greatly by using this site as Great Depression offers students the autonomy to explore areas of need. I feel this site would be extremely useful to students studying the Great Depression.

Great Depression.  Retrieved from http://www.tms.riverview.wednet.edu/lrc/great%20depression.htm