Final Thoughts for the Semester

I loved the round table discussion we had in our class on Wednesday. It highlighted the important aspects I want to have when organizing my thoughts on teaching social studies. I believe that with an educated group of people sharing their thoughts about social studies makes everyone’s’ interest grow. I know this semester has made my interest in social studies spike up. I believe Social Studies is important in the classroom. I know that if I get a kindergarten classroom I will teach the importance of being a good citizen and give responsibilities to my students for the classroom. I think a lot of teachers think that just because there is not a text book for a subject, like social studies in kindergarten, then they do not need to teach it.

I believe it is important to have good resources when teaching. I know most of the time I can rely on the internet for a resource but when that fails hopefully I will have a teacher support base that I can rely on. I love the blog idea and keeping links on it.

I also want to have my students “uncover” things in history. I want them to be active in their learning and participate by doing and not sitting. I hope to organize a classroom of students that are interested and excited about learning social studies. Therefore, by having the students explore social studies rather than having them sit and listen to their text book on CD it will spark an interest in it.  I want an active learning environment when I teach all of my subjects but I know I have to be realistic and know that there will have to be worksheets, and reading. However, there is not a reason that worksheets cannot be fun or turned into an activity. I really liked performing skits, making charts, the living history museum, and box city. These are all great activities to use when teaching social studies.

I would like to have a tourist model of multicultural education but go deeper into it. I want to have my students explore different cultures and learn things about different countries. The reason I say tourist is because I want to make it where the students “visit” different countries. I want to be able to see different music, art, geography, etc of other places besides those that they are familiar with. This is something I have a strong interest in because I am not fully confident when talking about other countries so it would be exciting for me to be a part of their learning experience while learning with the students.

I know I have to teach the content and have my student understand history, geography, and other content area in social studies but I want my classroom to be active. I want the students to jump into their learning. I do not want to be a boring social studies teacher….I refuse to be!