As Ms.

Smith was preparing for a new semester, she noticed her students were having
trouble retaining their knowledge of history last semester, so she decided to brainstorm
some ideas on how to keep the students interested enough to remember. Her students paid
very much attention and were very interested and entertained, they were not actively
participating enough during the lesson. Ms. Smith wanted the students to be able to have
more of an input in this course, and wanted the students to enjoy being fully involved in
her class.
1. A permanent timeline around the classroom and throughout the school year as students
learn about historical actors, events and phenomenons they will be able to visually
present this originally and post it on the classroom timeline. As the timeline is filled it
will stay up on the walls and serve as a visual reminder for the students.
2. This idea was first thought of on October 21, 2015.
3. Tamara first suggested the idea.
4. The original idea was thought out during an aha! experience throughout this
semester. This idea of the timeline being created and hung up around the whole
classroom has not been altered; the only modifications made were to accommodate the
Teaching Idea File Fair. This idea was influenced by chapter 6 and through past
experiences.
5. There are a few psychological foundations that the teaching idea, creation of a timeline
around the classroom, comprises of. Organization is one of them, which is a cognitive
process in which learners find connections among the various pieces of information they
need to learn (Ormrod, Saklofske, Schwean, Andrews, & Shore, 2010, pg. 30). The
timeline allows the students to originally and artistically express the histories theyve
learnt corresponding to the dates on the timeline. Other psychological principles are
some of the factors that affect long-term memory retrieval (Ormrod, Saklofske, Schwean,
Andrews, & Shore, 2010, pg.149). To have the students effectively recreate through art a
time period on the timeline, they would have to have learnt the information to mastery
and beyond, or otherwise they would not be able to represent the historical period clearly.
The information needs to be crystal clear to them, and stored in their long-term memory
to the point where they feel capable enough to connect with the information and recreate
its scene. This process of recreating and playing with the information learnt is called
practicing creative variability (Ormrod, Saklofske, Schwean, Andrews, & Shore, 2010,
pg. 150). The process of creative variability involves metacognition, which is ones
knowledge and beliefs about ones own cognitive processes, and ones resulting attempts
to regulate those cognitive processes to maximize learning and memory(Ormrod,
Saklofske, Schwean, Andrews, & Shore, 2010, pg. 31). In visually representing acquired
knowledge it will take the students a lot of thinking time about how he or she plans to
make this memorable moment in history relevant through visual retrieval cues (Ormrod,
Saklofske, Schwean, Andrews, & Shore, 2010, pg. 31).

6. The logic behind this idea is that it will allow the students to see history as a story.
Moreover they will be able to better understand through visualization. This idea connects
with learning through different methods and allows students to explore and discover
themselves as learners. According to Walling (2005), visual arts offer another cognitive
medium for learning. Walling also discusses that making the connections of ideas with
art allows students to participate in transference, that is, the application of knowledge or
information gained in one context to some other context (Walling, 2005, pg. 40).
Timothy (2009) emphasizes the era of technology we are presently in and that students in
schools today are being educated in a visually oriented world. If the students are
visually stimulated and or actively learning they will be exposed to what they are used to
(Timothy, 2009, pg. 90). With the timeline idea the students are enabled to visually
stimulate themselves and within this active learning process becoming even better experts
of history.
7. The teachings tips would be to begin this timeline from the beginning of the year and
have the students make it themselves and share the work among all the groups. These
groups would be permanently working together over the course of the semester in Ms.
Smiths History class. The materials, being that this is a student-centered activity, where
they will be helping themselves in creating visual retrieval cues, they should be able to
decide what materials they would like to use, but in cooperation and collaboration with
the other groups. Since the class will be working collaboratively in the creation of the
timeline and distributing the work among themselves, it should look like a proper
timeline. A good way to inspire the students in their creations would be to engage them
with an entertaining teaching strategy, such as storytelling. The part where the students
represent the historical time period they are focusing on, should be free to their
imagination on how they choose to represent it. For example, if a group chooses to sculpt
something, or make a video, they should have that option. In order to have a video or
physical sculpture put on the timeline, these groups can take a photo of the most
representative moment in the video and add it to the timeline, and in the case of a
physical sculpture, a photo if it can be taken and placed on the timeline as well.

References
Gangwer, T. (2009). What Is Visual Teaching? In Visual Impact, visual Teaching Using
Images To Strengthen Learning (2nd ed., pp. 1-22). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin
Press.
Walling, D. (2005). Visual Knowing: Connecting Art and Ideas Across The Curriculum.
Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press.
Moore, L., & Henrikson, P. (2005). Creating Balance In Children: Activities To Optimize
Learning and Behavior : A Guide for Teachers and Parents of Children Ages 5 to
14 (p.139). Minnetonka, Minn.: Peytral Publications.
Maeda, J., & Murata, N. (2013). Collaborating with Classroom Teachers to Increase
Daily Physical Activity: The GEAR Program. Journal of Physical Education,
Recreation & Dance, 42-46.
Ms. Smith believes very much in creating balance among her students. She appreciates
all arts and activities that encourage healthy habits. To get blood flowing in brain and
promote the attention and focus of her students Ms. Smith has them participate in
physical activity bits throughout the day.
1. Physical bits consists of various physical activities in which Ms. Smith will conduct
with her students. These physical activities will consist mostly of advice from health and
physical activity professionals to meet the needs Ms. Smith would like to achieve with
the process of including physical bits throughout the class. Teachers all have different
personalities, therefore through physical bits Ms. Smith will be representing herself as
well through the presentation of this routine, but then will eventually allow for students to
join in and add their own creative spin by allowing them to reverse roles and conduct the
bits themselves.
2. This idea was first thought of on October 21st, 2015.
3. Tamara first suggested the idea.
4. The original idea began as a breathing activity for students to focus their attention on
only their breathing and to slowly move into the teaching. This was to allow students to
be ready for the material and be relaxed while doing so. Then the idea turned into

allowing the students to shake it off and wake themselves up with stretching and a few
mini exercises conducted by Ms. Smith to refocus their attention to being in the
classroom after lunch hour. Now the idea has been conduced into an activity called
physical bits which happens in homeroom as a wake up call for the students and when
Ms. Smith feels necessary for example, when the students are distracted in class or when
they feel tired and are not motivated or participating enough. The physical bits are
adjusted to what mood the class is in for example, they can participate in a calm physical
activity or a very active physical activity to get their blood flowing.
5. The purpose is to promote physical and mental health through balancing the day with
various activities that use all the students potential skills. Paying attention is one of the
key principles in being present in school. In Principles of Educational Psychology, it
states that, because of their distractibility, younger children often remember many things
unrelated to what they are supposed to be doing or learning (DeMarie-Dreblow &
Miller, 1988; Hagen & Stanovich, 1977, pg. 29). Therefore, these physical activities will
help the children to refocus their attention on one purpose and have them be more
balanced and able to take in more information. In the book Principles of Educational
Psychology, Researchers have identified many characteristics that emerge early in life
and appear to have genetic origins, including general activity level, adventurousness,
shyness, irritability, and distractibility (Bouchard, Lykken, McGue, Segal, & Tellegen,
1990; Kagan, Snidman, &Arcus, 1992; Lanthier & Bates; Plomin, 1989, pg. 48). This
activity of physical bits allows the students to be as near as possible to being on the same
energy level and Ms. Smith having them focused on the same thing and ready to get to
work. According to Cherry (1953) and Norman (1969) Principles of Educational
Psychology, attention has a limited capacity and students can only be attentive for a small
amount of time and to a small amount of information. Whatever students pay attention
to (mentally) moves into working memory (Ormrod, Saklofske, Schwean, Andrews, &
Shore, 2010, pg. 135) and the first step in making sensory information memorable is
attention. Therefore, physical bits being a very important part of the students day to
increase attention.
6. The rational for the selection of the physical bits idea is for promoting balance in
students. Studies show that Ms. Smith is not the only one thinking about balance in
education. As Moore and Henrikson (2005) in the book, Creating Balance In Children:
Activities To Optimize Learning and Behavior: A Guide for Teachers and Parents of
Children Ages 5 to 14 establish; through a balance wheel: the four components that sum
up a whole individual. The four components of function are mental, physical, social and
emotional balance, in order for students to accomplish inner balance and realize their
potential capabilities. Therefore, including a sense of balancing all various activities
every day at school with her students, Ms. Smith will be encouraging students to become
balanced individuals just by the fact that she is taking mental, physical, social and
emotional all equally into consideration. Schools are the places where children spend a
majority of their time (Maeda, J., & Murata, N., 2013, pg.43). With this reality in mind,
Ms. Smith is trying to make sure that her students dont get too used to sitting down in
their desks in the same position and would like to create a classroom of students who are
adaptable to different environments and malleable. So getting the students to stand up

and participate in physical activity sessions allows for a diverse environment in the
classroom that is constant.
7. Ms. Smith will have to come up with a health guideline by speaking with health and
physical activity professionals. She will have to develop a rubric for herself as to what
the physical bits needs to achieve for the students progress and efficiency. After a
while once the students understand the concept Ms. Smith is trying to get across to them,
she can allow the students to guide a physical bits session themselves with something
theyve created.