Emily Parry
Service Learning Project
History 2710
Introduction: How I decided what project to do and why?
In deciding what project to do I found myself continually drawn to the idea of
doing something with public schools. I had worked as an intern at a sixth grade center my
senior year of High School and loved teaching and learning with the class that I worked
with. I found the hands on experience that I had had there to benefit me just as much, if
not more, than the students that I worked with. I therefore decided that my project had to
deal with teaching or
working with students in public schools. One of the other factors
that influenced my project choice was my interest in history. I have always noticed that
even those people who say that they hate or dislike history are always interested in some
part or form of history and that they don’t realize it until we talk about their field of
interest. One way that my interest in history grew was through visiting historical sites, or
listening to lectures from guest speakers or from my teachers themselves. Therefore I
decided to share what knowledge and skills I have developed of teaching and of history
with others.
Intended audience and beneficiaries:
The people that I believe benefited most from my project were the students I
spoke to and myself. As a college student preparing to be a teacher I have recognized that
sitting in college classes each day does not give me all of the knowledge and skills that I
need to gain to become an effective teacher. Therefore by going to schools and working
with students and teachers it has helped me to learn effective ways of teaching different
ages and grade levels and also how to connect with students on their own level.
Contacts: Dixie Downs Elementary, Mrs.Bringhurst, Kathryn Parry, Julie Smith, Erin
asked her if I could do a thirty-minute presentation with her class. It turned out that she
would be out of town for two days and was having a substitute teach, who turned out to
be my sister, but still wanted me to do my presentation so I set up a time with her for my
presentation. She was very cooperative and encouraging of my interest to teach her class
and gave me a few suggestions as well. My other “golden” contact was my little sister
Erin who told me when I was “boring” and what she thought would be fun and interesting
for her class to learn.
Planning for and presenting my project:
I presented a lesson to Mrs. Bringhurst Fifth Grade students on Presidents of the
United States and what they have done for our country and why the Presidents job is
important. I decided upon this topic after realizing how little information I knew about
Presidents as an elementary student. I do realize that students do learn more and more
about presidents as they continue in school but I wish that I had known a bit more
information about the president during Desert Storm and during elections. Perhaps my
interest in history would have sparked sooner and I would have been encouraged to
pursue my field of interest a bit more earlier on. So in light of my interest in history and
wish to have learned more about presidents earlier on in school, I decided to plan a fun,
interactive presentation on the American Presidents.
In order to be able to really relate to the fifth grade students I decided that I had
better talk to teachers and see what insight and advice they could share with me. So I
spoke with my mother, Kathryn Parry, a High School Biology and Health teacher and to
my sister, Julie Smith, who is Majoring in Elementary education and will graduate at the
end of the 2002 spring semester from Southern Utah University. I sought their help for
understanding of effective teaching skills and ways to really connect with and present my
lesson to the fifth graders. I knew that any ideas or suggestions would be most useful
since I had had to teach a few lessons at Coral Cliffs Sixth Grade Center as an intern and
remembered how difficult teaching could be if lessons were not carefully planned and
prepared. I also thought that it would be wise to seek their knowledge since I had been
out of elementary school for nine years and had not worked closely with students since
my senior year of High School as and intern.
My main goal for my presentation was to get the students interested and involved
in what I had to teach them. So in order to really get the students active in my
presentation I decided that I needed to have information that would appeal to them and
that I needed to present it in a way that was interesting and fun. In my experience with
people and students I have found that they are more likely to remember a person,
place, or event, if they learn something unique or different about them. I know that from
personal experience I have been able to remember what each president has done and
when they have served if I have learned something unique or special about them. So I
decided that for me to be an effective teacher and
presenter I needed to be able to present something that wouldn’t “go over the heads” of
the class or that wouldn’t bore them. Keeping this in mind and remembering past
experiences of class lectures that left me dazed and confused or frazzled, I decided to lay
out an outline and lesson plan.
In order to have a lesson plan I needed to know what to cover and include in my
presentation. I wanted it to be “short and sweet” in a sense, making the most out of the
little time that I had. So I sat down and looked through every book I had about presidents
and scanned the Internet and encyclopedias for interesting facts, stories, and articles. I
discovered little nuggets and treasures that I had never seen nor heard of before and
began constructing my lesson plan and activities to go along with it. One of the most
valuable sources of information for me was an encyclopedia entitled “Question and
Answer Encyclopedia, the USA.” In it I found a number of questions that elementary age
children might have about the President and that most people probably do not even know.
For example many people do not even know how long a President’s term in office is or
even what the presidents job is. These were just two of the questions that I wanted to
address and help the students learn about.
Thinking back to teaching styles that I thought were effective for me, I decided to
make up a worksheet that had questions about the president and past presidents. I
decided to give the class a few minutes to look the worksheet over and answer whatever
questions they could and then expand on what was covered on the worksheet and work
from there. I also decided to tell a few stories about past presidents and see if they could
tell me whom it was that the story was about. I then found a variety of pictures of
presidents and decided to use them in my project as well since pictures would enable the
students to put a name with a face. After looking over my sources and deciding upon
what to include in my lesson I decided to type it up in the order that I wanted to cover
everything in. I have found that having a detailed outline helps in keeping the lesson
flowing smoothly and in a manner that keeps events and people in order so that
students can understand digest information better.
One of the best teaching tips I have learned from watching other teachers is to
keep the lesson flowing and to keep the class in order. The teacher that I worked with at
Coral Cliffs Sixth Grade Center taught me of the importance of how you address the
class. There are two ways of getting a child to do something, you can ask them and let
them voluntarily do it, or you can force them and get a negative response. This teacher
liked to say “if you give positive you’ll get positive” so I decided to use this while
teaching. For example a child is much more likely sit down while going down the slide if
you say “Sam, lets sit on our pockets when going down the slide, please,” rather than
“Sam, sit down when going down the slide!” I remember a teacher saying “if you explain
it to them first, then they are much more likely to do what you want them to do
correctly.” One way of instruction that I have seen to be very useful in the classroom is to
say “Can anyone raise there hand and tell me who the first president was,” rather than
“Who was the first president?” The first way of asking the class will keep the noise level
down and teach the students to wait until called on and show respect for the teacher and
fellow students.
After talking to teachers and getting suggestions as to how to best present the
information I had and going over it a number of times I finally felt ready to present my
lesson to the class. I began by introducing my topic and why I felt that it was important
for the students to know what I had to teach them.
They were very attentive and beat me to many of the questions that I had to ask
them and explain to them. I was also very surprised as to how much they already knew
about many of the presidents. They had heard about Abraham Lincoln and President
Washington’s stories about the cherry tree and about how Abraham Lincoln had walked a
long way to return a penny to a woman and they recognized quite a few of the picture
of presidents that I showed them. The class also did a great job on the worksheet we did
and were amazed at the occupations that presidents had before being elected.
Lesson Outline
Introduction:
The United States was established after splitting with England in 1776. Since then
America has had a president. Each president has contributed to the United States and
strengthened the power of the office of president in there own way. Today I am going to
talk about what the president does and what past presidents have done for our country.
Questions to cover:
A. What is the president’s job?
The president is in charge of the United States of America. His list of jobs
includes being head of the government administration and foreign policy. He chooses people to head government departments (the Secretaries of State, the Treasury, Defense, and so on) and he is Commander in Chief of the U.S. Army and Navy.
B. Who can be president?
You have to be at least 35 years old, a natural citizen of the United States and you
must have lived in the United States for at least 14 years.
C. Who chooses the president and how long can a president serve?
A president is elected by people of the United States, In the November of the year
before a presidential term ends, the people in each state vote for people called electors. The electors then vote for the presidential candidates from each political
party. The candidate who gains the majority of votes wins.
D. Who was the first president? Who is president right now?
George Washington. George W. Bush.
E. Who was president the longest?
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, he served for more than twelve years, long before you
were born from 1932-45.
F. Who was the biggest president?
William Howard Taft. In fact he was such a big guy that he got stuck in the bathtub once!
G. Who is the First Lady?
The first lady is the president’s wife. She organizes functions and acts as hostess at the White House. She also becomes involved in social issues and charities.
F. What president appears on the quarter and the dollar bill?
George Washington.
H. Who was a rough rider?
President Theodore Roosevelt, he led a charge up Kettle hill in the Spanish American war.
I. What four presidents heads are carved into a mountain and where?
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham
Lincoln are carved into Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.
J. Why are bears called teddies?
Theodore Roosevelt’s nickname was Teddy. In 1902, while on a hunting trip to
Mississippi, he refused to shoot a bear cub. This inspired a famous cartoon , which in turn inspired a toy called a Teddy’s bear.
K. Which president was an actor?
Ronald Reagan
L. Which President could have been a football player?
George Bush, he played football in college and was offered contracts by both the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers.
Actually planning and carrying out a project that is meant to benefit others and
help you as a person develop and broaden your skills in working with and helping people
is well worth the time and effort. My project helped me develop a new look and greater
appreciation for teachers and the time that they put in each day. I also appreciated the
time I was able to spend in the classroom and the fun I had helping students learn about
American Presidents. My project may not have changed the entire human race nor have
taught a child everything there is to know about presidents. However I think that it did at
least give them a bit more understanding of why we have presidents and why it is
important to learn about the past.
I enjoyed learning and teaching about American Presidents and if nothing else, I
think that this project has made me realize what kind of a teacher and mentor I want to be
and why. I would encourage anyone who wants to be a teacher to take advantage of every
opportunity there is to learn!