First of all, thank you Dr. Meier for a wonderful semester. I will say I never had put too much thought about how I would teach Social Studies before this class, but now, you have given us so many tools and insights about how to make Social Studies exciting and get it back into the classroom more prominently. Thank you!
In my classroom, I want Social Studies to be a learning-centered and active learning environment. Just like our class with Dr. Meier. I want to enrich my classroom with Social Studies activities such as skits, hands on projects, comparisons of the real story and the “sugar coated” story of historical events, and have the students be up and participating, be “active” in their learning. The academic discipline of Social Studies is so important for several reasons. It is important for students to know where they have come from studying their own cultural knapsack, how to navigate themselves through geography, survive in the world of economics, how to understand the power of government, how to view time, continuity, and change through History, and how to become a responsible citizen through learning about civic ideals and practice. How can Social Studies not be apart of mandatory curriculum? It can’t! Social Studies is so much more than just History, or just geography, we need to teach students “how to think” rather than “filling them up with facts.” In quoting Amy Byington from class, “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for life.” Social Studies is a inquiry course, in which, yes there are “concrete” facts, but there are ways to bring out History, that even a Historian might not have ever done. Taking on historical figures in character, taking a Historical event and studying the “what ifs” and discovering of what could have happened, or taking a part of History and making it come alive to study an event even further. It is OK to give the non-“sugar coated” events in History—it shows, quoting Randi DeLaune from class, that we have the dark times to have the good—we grow from our mistakes in History. In my opinion, I would rather know the truth or even part of the truth—if events are too graphic for early learners—than to be deprived of the real History. Even now at 22 years old, I am finding out, mainly through this course of Social Studies methods, that my teachers have essentially...lied! I do not want my students 15 years later after I have had them, finding out these myths vs. facts stories and say, “You lied to me.” It is never too early to teach Social Studies. It can begin as simply as creating classroom procedures together; by the students taking ownership of their procedures rather than the classroom being a dictatorship.
As I have said in my classes before, we have to think about our students. Even now. If we teach for 30 years and we have, let’s say, 20 students a year…that is 600 students that we will have an influence on, and if we aren’t willing to stand up for each and every one of our students now, then what is the point? My ultimate goal is to be that influence on each of my students, have them study their cultures to find out who they are and bring them out, have them study other cultures to be able to relate to one another, and have them create a community within the classroom, where we become a family...because with some students...this is the only family they will have.
Thanks to my block family, this is has been one of the hardest, but the best semester of my college career. This wouldn’t have been the family we have even if just one person wasn’t in our class. Keep in touch and I wish every one well for student teaching and your future teaching careers!
