Tag: christmas
Christmas, and Chanukah
by on Dec.09, 2009, under Uncategorized
This is always an exciting time during the school year because my students always got excited. Of course when they start putting up Christmas stuff in the stores before Halloween arrives, it really drags the excitement along (but that is another story that I won’t go into!). Usually all of my students are Christians because I live in an area that is considered the “Bible belt.” So, this makes me want to give my students to holidays that others may be celebrating. I make it quite clear that I’m not encouraging my students to change religions but instead I want to encourage tolerance of other cultures and religions.
It was actually very educational to me when I found a synagogue that opened their store in order for me to buy dreidels. According to Wikipedia,
“A dreidel is a four-sided spinning top, played with during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.”
When I bought this dreidel, the person even gave me lessons on how to play the game and was quite excited that I would teach my class about this game and about Chanukah. More from wikipedia,
“Hanukkah (also spelled Chanukah), also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd century BCE. Hanukkah is observed for eight nights, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, and may occur from late November to late December on the Gregorian calendar. The festival is observed by the kindling of the lights of a special candelabrum, the nine-branched Menorah or Hanukiah, one light on each night of the holiday, progressing to eight on the final night. An extra light called a shamash (Hebrew: “guard” or “servant”) is also lit each night for the purpose of lighting the others, and is given a distinct location, usually above or below the rest.”
Wikipedia also says,
“Kwanzaa is a week-long celebration held in the United States honoring African heritage and culture, marked by participants lighting a kinara (candle holder). It is observed from December 26 to January 1 each year, primarily in the United States. Kwanzaa is considered one of the primary holidays within the U.S. Christmas and holiday season.”
I think it is important that students learn about other cultures and the holidays they celebrate. After studying these three celebrations, I like to have students find ways that all of them are alike. It is fascinating to watch them come up with similarities that they didn’t realize. For my students, all of these are so very different and they don’t think of ways they can be alike. Once we start discussing the similarities, they start to come up with more. In fact, I had one student who came up to me the next day after the lesson to tell me that they talked about this over dinner and they came up with a few more ways they were similar. The student wanted to bring up the discussion again so he could share his family’s ideas.
I really felt this was a successful lesson in teaching tolerance as well as learning about cultural diversity. What other holidays do you know that are being celebrated during this time? Do you do any special lessons on this topic? If so, please share because I would love to know.
Original image: ‘The Geflocktne Dreidl’
http://www.flickr.com/photos/53416300@N00/72151761 by: Philip Chapman-Bell
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Learning to Ride a Bicycle
by on Dec.07, 2009, under Uncategorized
When it is not raining, my husband and I try to walk in the park for exercise. It always makes me smile when I see a parent trying to teach their child how to ride a bicycle. I usually see this in the spring and the summer or right after Christmas. The fun part for me is to see the different techniques that parents use to teach their children. It seems that the most important part, no matter how different the techniques, is that the child trusts the adult.
It made me realize that when teaching my students, I need to get them to trust me. If I don’t have this trust, I’m not sure they will ever be ready to learn independently. I know that I teach my students content but I also know that there is no way that I can teach them everything they need to know in one year. They need to learn how to learn so they can continue to learn when they are no longer with me. Just like teaching a child to ride a bike, just because they learn to balance and move forward without falling, they still need to learn other things.
I remember for a long time my father would push me on the bicycle and I would pedal as fast as I could. But once he let go, my bicycle would wobble and then I would fall. I look back now and realize that I was learning on a bicycle that was too big for me. When I would start to wobble, I couldn’t put my feet down to catch myself. I know when I fell a lot, I didn’t even want to get on that bicycle. I think my parents thought I would never learn to ride a bicycle! Do I do that when I teach my students? Do I have them on levels too high that when they falter, they can’t catch themselves? When they keep falling, they are afraid to try again.
After I had been riding a bicycle for a few years, my cousin who lived in the city came to visit me for a week. She really wanted to learn how to ride a bicycle so I agree to teach her. I decided that I was not going to teach her the way people taught me. I thought about how I wished someone had taught me and showed her these things so I wasn’t surprised how easily she learned in one day. I brought her to a hill and let her sit on the bike with me as I rode down the hill. She was able to feel how it should feel if she was alone. Now of course, she was able to put her feet down on the ground while sitting on the bike which really helped. I had her glide down the hill without pedaling so she could learn how to balance. We only focused on one skill at a time and when she was able to balance on the bike easily, we added pedaling. By the end of the day she was riding the bicycle as easily as me. I was surprised when I searched the internet for this topic and someone actually wrote about this as an alternative method so I will share it with you: Learning to Ride a Bicycle.
That is how I like to teach new skills to my students. I think about the end result that I want my students to achieve and then break it down into smaller steps for them to succeed at. When I model the skill for them a few times, it is like taking them on a ride with me so they know how it feels, how it looks like, and how to get to the end point. Then I find a way for them to “coast down the hill” for a taste of success. This may call for a lot of encouraging, and prompting but eventually they get there. Once they learn how to do one step on their own successfully, it is time to move to the next step.
I think learning new skills are a lot like learning how to ride a bicycle. This is also a great way to share this with the students and hope they can be successful.
Original image: ‘IMG_3836.JPG’
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8566600@N07/1367360621 by: eyeliam
