Welcome to EDSS468

Welcome Please sign your name on the purple roll. My name is Ilja (il-ya) van Weringh. I’m Head of Humanities and teach History and Humanities at Wesley College (St Kilda Road Campus)

Tute content Experiences & perceptions of ‘Humanities Education’ Defining the Humanities (Humanities and Social Sciences – HaSS in AC) The value of the humanities in the early primary years

Welcome Unit guide, do you have it? Attendance policy (fully implemented). Sign each week. 3 assessments – all related to course, scaffolded in tutorials Specific discussion of assessments is identified in schedule Hurdle task: You are required to write a one-page (A4) summary of the set weekly reading each week. The summaries should not merely recount what the reading is about, but demonstrate your understanding of the reading and how you apply it to your own teaching studies. Students will be required to present their readings to the tutor to be checked off, each week of the course (12 weeks) during tutorial time. Weekly readings will still be required to be completed in weeks when students are absent. I recommend you start a blog and complete each summary in a blog post. This will start off your professional online presence and it will be easy to maintain.

Welcome You will need a computer with internet access each tute. All materials for this tute will appear on a Wordpress site I made: acu468.wordpress.com Put it in your favourites. My site will work in conjunction with LEO and Joanna’s Weebly.

Some sample activities (usable in primary settings) Activity 1: line up in order of living distance from ACU (make two lines) Activity 2: Forms groups by birth order Activity 3: Make a drawing of your last holiday destination

What online tool do you use the most? https://www.polleverywhere.com/free_text_polls/PntgfXVGHxtoir5 PollEv.com/iljavanwerin885 Text ILJAVANWERIN885 to +61427541357 once to join.

Your experience of Humanities How did you learn History or Geography? Think, pair, share: Share a memory of your high school History or Geography teacher, what did they teach you? Share a memory of your primary school teacher, what can you remember about learning ‘Humanities’ in primary school?

What is Humanities? In small groups, you will produce a mind map to address the question “What is Humanities?”: In your mindmap, you can include concepts like: Humanities, SOSE, HSIE, REE, Social Sciences, History, Geography, Civics, Citizenship, Economics, Business and added concepts like: Politics, Philosophy, Anthropology, Geology, participation, responsibility, critical thinking, empathy, community, the past, the future, climate change, culture, indigenous, war, religion, peace, demographics, inequality, values, human rights, maps, democracy, etc etc be creative Material needed: large paper and coloured markers. The mindmap can take any form or shape, it could become a venn diagram, a tree or any type graphic organiser….. Impress us!

What is Humanities? When done: Discuss how you would answer the question posed by some parents: “What is Humanities?” Which element, if any, is most important in the Primary years? Can disciplines be identified in the Primary Years? The role of semantics, what’s in a name? What ISN’T Humanities?

What is Geography, History, Civics & Citizenship, REE? Use the Frayer Model:

Personal History Project – Let’s get to know each other more and generate some practical classroom ideas. Aim of this activity: To get to know each other and to generate + share ideas for a personal history project in a Prep or Year 1 classroom. Get-to-know-you activity and intro: Interview the person next to you to uncover their family’s history and how it has changed. What artefacts do they still have from their family’s past? What traditions? After you have obtained the information you need, introduce each other to the rest of the group and share your person’s family history. Think pair share, then as a group: How would you implement a “Personal History Project” in Prep or Year 1? What issues would you have to take into account? What challenges would you run into? Back to teams: Together, develop a rough outline for a “personal history project” for a Prep or Year 1 classroom. Share your ideas with the group, type a brief outline here: http://padlet.com/ivs/personalhistory

Personal History Project Think pair share: How would you implement an activity like this in Year 1? What issues would you have to take into account? What challenges would you run into? Together, develop a rough outline for a “personal history activity” in a Prep or Year 1 classroom. Share your ideas with the group here: http://padlet.com/ivs/personalhistory http://gwpsprep.global2.vic.edu.au/2014/05/26/personal-history-gallery-walk/

Contemporary issue Work in group of 3-4. Nominate a contemporary issue relevant to Primary Students (endangered species, whaling, climate change, refugees etc) and flesh out what identified issue would look like taught through the lens of a branch of Humanities. Students are to add their ideas to the Crowdsourced document AVAIL HERE 

Homework 1 or Homework 2? Homework option 1: Tweet something to @vanweringh If you haven’t already, create an account on Twitter. Create a short Twitter name that says something about what you will be tweeting Write a short bio about yourself. Replace the egg picture with something else. Try out some hashtags: http://www.teachthought.com/twitter-hashtags-for- teacher/

Homework 1 or Homework 2? Homework option 2: Start a blog. Use weebly, blogger, wordpress or any other platform This will be your professional presence online. You can include your teaching philosophy. You can include parts of your CV. Create a section for all the Hurdle Tasks readings. This will be a great resources for yourself too, because you’ll forget what all these readings were about in about a year’s time. Once you start teaching, include photos and materials from your classes. Blogging should not be onerous. Once you are working, aim for one post a month!

See you next week