Final Reflection

      Social Studies is an extremely important subject.  However, in many elementary classrooms, social studies is being pushed to the side if taught at all.  I think this is a terrible injustice to our students.  Students should start learning social studies at a young age in order to help them remember and understand more complex ideas as they get older. Social studies teaches students how to understand and make informed decisions about their world.  It is important for students to learn history because it is important for students to understand where they came from, why things are the way they are, and where the future is heading.  Additionally, history shows students that every choice/decision someone makes impacts the future in some way or form, and it is important for all people to learn from past events in order to prevent the negative aspects of history from repeating.  Social studies also helps students to appreciate their country, and the struggles our predecessors endured in order for us to enjoy the rights and freedoms that we often take for granted today.  Without understanding our own history as well as the history of other countries, we will not be able to understand and coexist with other countries.   

            When teaching, it is important to have a democratic, student-centered classroom.  I feel that a democratic classroom is essential in order to have good classroom management.  In order to create a democratic environment, the students must be a part of establishing the classroom expectations, but the students must realize that the teacher has the final say and is ultimately the one in charge.   Additionally, I feel that it is important for the teacher to explain to the students the rationale behind rules. 

Furthermore, I feel that it is important for teachers to have a student-centered environment.   In order for a classroom to be student-centered, the teacher must realize that every child learns differently; therefore, the teacher must mold her lessons in such a way that every child can understand.  Hands-on activities are a great way for a teacher to create a student-centered classroom and to create an active learning environment.  I plan to use many hands-on activities such as putting on plays, conducting a living history museum, making a box city, and so on in order to create active learning within the classroom.  I feel that students learn best when they are able to physically do something as opposed to rote memorization, which, I feel, causes the students to hate learning.  Also, as a teacher I plan to have a cultural responsive classroom.  I plan to teach my students about different people and different cultures.  Additionally, I want to break many of the stereotypes that my students may possess.  I want to educate my students and teach them to be tolerant of others and to be respectful of others.  I hope to help them learn that people are basically all alike and that much can be learned from those whom we may find to be different.

Recently, social studies has been pushed to the side in many elementary classrooms.  Administrators as well as many teachers are focusing on reading and mathematics only.  However, I feel that social studies is a crucial subject for students to learn.   Therefore, I will raise my critical voice to administrators and teach social studies to my students.  Additionally, I will teach across the curriculum and incorporate social studies into reading and math, which is extremely easy to do, especially through the aid of trade books. 

Furthermore, many of the commonly taught facts of history have been “sugar coated,” such as Christopher Columbus being a respectable man, the pilgrims being “one big, happy family” with the Native Americans, the Japanese internment camps during World War II, and so on.  As a teacher, I want my students to discover that everything in history has two sides and two different perspectives and that they must discover both sides of a situation in order to try to piece together the truth.  One excellent way to do this is to use primary sources.  Additionally, I plan to incorporate all of the social studies disciplines into my future classroom.  I think it is extremely important for students to learn about the history of their country and the history of other countries as well.  I also think students need to have a firm grasp of where countries, regions, landforms, major rivers, and so on are located. Unfortunately, many students have no idea or concept about geography.   Every discipline of social studies is important for students to learn in order for them to be informed citizens in a global world, and I intend to teach every aspect of social studies to my students.  I do not believe that “ignorance is bliss.”  As a matter of fact, my philosophy is that knowledge is power, and I want to empower my students. 

The social studies class CUAI 4220 has been a wonderful course, and I feel that I have increased not only my knowledge of social studies but also how to teach social studies effectively.  From this course, I have learned how to make social studies instruction engaging and informative for my students.  Before this course, I thought of social studies as simply read from the textbook and answer questions.  Now, I have wonderful activities and resources to help my students learn and enjoy social studies.  I have always enjoyed social studies and learning about the past.  My family always took vacations around the country and visited historical sites.  We always discussed politics and watched the nightly news.  I was taught to not know what was going on in the world was just simply ignorant. I hope to bring my passion for social studies and history to my students.      

TCAPS

Playing the social studies TCAPS game was interesting.  I am glad I was able to have the opportunity to see exactly what information my future students will be answering.  Additionally, I was happy to see that many of the questions on the third grade tests were questions that I had taught for my integrated lesson.  For my integrated lesson, I taught the regions of the United States and Tennessee as well as the landforms.  It felt good to know that I had covered information that the students would be tested on.  I also thought playing the Jeopardy game with the added lifelines would be a great way to review students and get them ready for the TCAPS without using the same old drills.    

Living History Museum

The living history museum was so much fun.  I learned so much about people who have influenced our nation’s history.   I will definitely be using the living history museum activity in my future classroom.  It is such a fun way to get students involved in history.  Not only do students learn a lot about the person they are portraying, but also they learn about the people their classmates are portraying.  Additionally, students are more likely to remember the historical people because they were told the information about the person from one of their classmates.   

FQR

I really like the Fact, Question, Response activity that we have been learning about.   It is extremely important that students’ learn to be actively engaged while reading.  I really liked how it shows children how to be a good reader.  Also, this activity is great to incorporate with other subjects.   

Book Talk

I really enjoyed hearing about all of the books on Wednesday, November 17.  There are so many great trade books for teachers to incorporate into their history curriculum for all ages.  I think it is important for teachers to incorporate historical trade books because it allows the students to make a connection to the people and the time they are reading about.  When students just read from their social studies books they can become detached from the information, and many times they do not understand the significance or importance of the events in history.  Reading a book that is about a child that is roughly the same age as them helps students relate and understand the history better.  I will definitely be using historical trade books in my future classrooms.   

Mt. Everest Does Not Peak My Interest

Mt. Everest is a beautiful place, but it is most definitely not for me.   I would not last one second on the mountain for three reasons.  The first reason is the fact that I am constantly cold.  The perfect temperature for me is about 78 degrees, anything below that I consider  to be cold.  Considering Mt. Everest‘s average temperature is -30 degrees, I do not think I would be very happy.  The second reason why I would not like to climb Mt. Everest is that I am not a thrill seeker.   Riding a tall roller coaster is more than enough of a thrill for me.  Finally, the third reason climbing Mt. Everest is not for me is the fact that I prefer modern conveniences of a shower and flushing toilet.  Even though Mt. Everest is not the ideal place for me to visit, I admire those that take the challenge to reach the highest of heights.     

Learning Social Studies

During my field observation, my teacher introduced the topic of pilgrims.  For the entire month of November, the students will be learning about the pilgrims.  They will start with the pilgrims’ journey from England to Plymouth Rock, and the reason the pilgrims wanted to leave England.  Additionally, while the students are learning about the pilgrims, they will wear pilgrim hats that they made themselves from construction paper.  I thought this was a great way to get the students interested and excited about learning! 

Treasure Hunters

I really enjoyed the “treasure hunt” on Wednesday!  I thought it was a lot of fun.  Geo hunting is a great way to get people outside and spending time together.  Nowadays, families do not spend quality time together so finding fun ways to be together is important.  Additionally, many children spend hours in front of the TV; therefore, Geo hunting would be a fun way to get children moving and being outside.  

Observing Social Studies

Yesterday, I observed a great way to teach 3rd grade students latitude and longitude.   The teacher gave each student a popsicle stick and instructed each student to write longitude vertically on one side of the stick and latitude horizontal on the other side of the stick.  The students used the sticks to help them find the latitude and longitude of various places.  For example, the students found the latitude of Memphis, TN by laying the latitude side of their stick on Memphis, TN and following the line to the number of degrees.   The students caught on quickly and eventually did not need to use their sticks to answer the questions. 

Geography

Geography is an extremely important subject to teach.   It is the study of the earth, its features, and the distribution of life on the earth.  Since it such an important subject to teach to students, teachers need to make learning geography exciting and interesting.  My first memory of geography was in kindergarten.  My teacher drew a simple map of our town with my classes help.  The next day my class took a field trip throughout the town with the map.  This was a great experience.  I learned how to read a map, cardinal directions, functions of particular buildings, and so forth.  Activities like this and the block city activity that we did in class are wonderful ways to get students involved in learning and having fun!

Creating a Deeper Understanding of History

In order to teach student s about history, teachers need to help students become involved in history.   Instead of having the students memorize meaningless dates, times, public figures, and so forth, teachers should create or design lessons and activities that create a connection between the students and history.  For example, instead of reading about the Boston Tea Party, students could reenact the event.   Reenacting historical events will not only help students to better understand the reasons behind the event s, but it will also help students remember information about the event.   Students could also write their own reenactment of the event.   Another way in which to get students involved in their learning about history is for the students to pick a time in history and create a museum exhibit.   Timelines are also a great way for students to link events and understand cause and effect.  Students who are involved and interested in what they are learning are going to learn more than students who are not.

Critical Voice

It is extremely important for teachers to have a voice in how their students are taught and what they are taught, which will ultimately lead to a better education for all students   It seems as if teachers are told to all teach in the same manner, straight from the book that even has a word script, and straight to a state- mandated test.  However, no two students are exactly the same nor do all students learn in the same manner.    Therefore,   it is the responsibility of teachers to voice their objection to school administrators and politicians who simply want students to regurgitate information, whether or not they understand or grasp the information.  Teachers need to raise their voices and stand up for their students.  They need to suggest other ways of teaching and show evidence of student achievement.   It is unbelievable that in some schools that teachers are told to only teach math and reading.  Although there is no denying that these are probably the most important subjects, other subjects can be used to teach these skills.  For example, social studies lends itself to improving reading and math skills just as art and music do.   All these subjects can be taught by “teaching across the curriculum” with a little bit of ingenuity from teachers.  Teachers, administrators, and politicians should not limit the curriculum but broaden it.  After all, a well-rounded student is the best student

Diversity

     The readings for social studies this week were extremely interesting, especially the article about the ants.  Diversity and acceptance are tremendously important concepts that children should be taught at an early age.  Children should be taught to embrace individuals who are different from themselves and that these differences are what makes the world an interesting place to live.  Teachers must teach their students that everyone is important and should be treated in this way.  A great area in which teachers can incorporate diversity into their curriculum is through social studies.  In social studies students can learn about other people and cultures that are different from their own.  As students learn about different cultures, they will create an understanding and acceptance of others as well as finding out that other cultures may not be quiet that different from their own.  It will also help the students realize that others are not quite as different from themselves as they thought.  After all, there is more that unites humankind than divides it.

The Right Career

Today, I worked with the five-year-old girl that I am assessing for Dr. Gann's class.  The little girl was so sweet.  She said that she liked all the fun things that she was getting to do and that she felt smart.  To thank her for helping me, I let her pick out two stickers.  She was so tickled and excited.  When I took her back to her classroom, she showed all her friends her cool stickers.  I enjoyed working with her so much, and I am even more certain that I have picked the right career!