Week 12 Reflection

This week I spent a great deal of time on the internet researching different aspects of the Middle Ages. I found it interesting that on a given topic you can find two completely differing views from what I would think are reliable sites. One example of this I found during my research into the Crusades. I came upon some interesting information concerning the Children’s Crusades. Several sources on the internet claim that two different children’s crusades were led by young twelve year old boys which led thousands of children on a holy crusade. Several other sites state that this information is untrue. Another example of differing opinions concerned the children’s rhyme of Ring Around the Rosy. Several sites claim that this rhyme was made up at the time of the bubonic plague to describe what happened to plague victims. Other sites state that this is completely false and that the rhyme is simply a rhyme with no meaning at all. Dr. Ramirez suggested that the way to present this information is to state that there are differing opinions on these topics.

Fortunately, the sixth grade classroom where I am completing my field experience has an overhead projector and a laptop connected to projector. However, both of these technologies are on rolling carts which make it highly improbable to use them at the same time. While preparing a lesson on the Silk Route for the students, I realized that it would be very useful to have a projector that was attached to the ceiling of the classroom. I gave the students a map and a chart to record different goods traded along the Silk Route and I wrote the items on a chart I used on the overhead projector. However, I also created a PowerPoint presentation with a slide show of the different cities and landscape along the Silk Route which would have been a nice addition to the lesson to give them a visual representation of the route. If I were to do this lesson again, on one day I would take the students on a virtual field trip along the Silk Route through my PowerPoint presentation. On a following lesson, I would use the overhead projector to record the student responses of the goods traded along the route. I think the most optimal situation would be to have a smart board, I bet you could record information right along with showing the slide show. I will need to research into this, as I believe it would be extremely useful in the classroom.