Today everyone brought in their teaching artifact. This was very interesting for me, particularly, since I have not yet taught. It was helpful to see various methods other student teachers have used. I was particularly interested in Christine's, not so much for her guided notes, but by the methods she used to teach the French Revolution. I particularly, with my film background and huge interest in movies, plan to show relevant movie clips often, as she did with Les Miserables. I had not thought of acting out part of the musical in class, which I felt was a fantastic idea. I do plan on incorporating relevant fiction literature, at least excerpts, that are relevant to social studies. As is perhaps evidenced in class, I do not particularly like to stand up and lecture for lengthy periods. Multimedia is a great way to engage students.

The exercise also reminded me of an important point: Curriculum is far more than the textbook. A box can be part of the curriculum, if it relates to a story students are reading. Curriculum is a rather abstract concept, and certainly not limited to text and lectures. I feel that the text should be little more than a guide, at least in high school. Most high school students do not bother reading the textbook, therefore it does not need to be the main curriculum. If students show interest in particular events or issues, those should be focused on whenever possible. In my own experience in high school, I noticed that following the textbook in history class almost always meant rushing through the last few chapters, or completely skipping chapters. This is very unfortunate, as the more recent events of history are often more relevant to answering questions of why things are the way they are today. So, the textbook can be a guide, but curriculum is much more. Technology, media, and even props are part of curriculum. Thankfully this is the case. If teaching was just lecturing over the textbook, I would be utterly boring, and probably would be down a different career path.