Week #3

This week has been an exciting and busy week in the education department. On Tuesday, we traveled to Washington Elementary, met and ate lunch with the teachers, talked about what we were going to do, and then we toured the school. Then, on Thursday I got accepted into the School of Education!! I am so excited to see where this journey continues to take me as I get closer and closer to student teaching in the spring of 2018.

In class this week, we have been discussing our professional development plans and have been using the acronym SMART to help set the goals that we need in our plans. I remember when I was in middle school health class, we used SMART goals for setting goals related to our health. Now, it makes sense to use the same acronyms when setting goals about our teaching. When looking at the SMART goals, I found a website that went into detail about how to incorporate each step of the goals. It also includes time management skills, decision making skills, stress management and more which I believe can be very helpful to teachers. Here is the link: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/smart-goals.htm

I think that this will be helpful for us as future teachers because as teachers, we are to demonstrate leadership in the classroom and we must be able to create goals in order to do that so that our students can learn.

Week 2 of Social Studies

This week, we have been diving into the world of concepts verses topics in our social studies class. Going into this class, I thought that I understood what a concept was, but I was very wrong! I believed that concept was pretty much just another word for topic. Instead, concepts are the general, universal, timeless, and abstract pieces that include many different topics.

In doing more research on the differences between concepts and topics, I found a great blog post from an AP literature class that I felt did a really good job of visualizing the idea of a concept versus a topic. Plus, it is incredibly similar to what Dr. Parker explained in his presentation. Below, I have attached a link to the blog.

I think that it is really important that in my classroom, I am not only teaching topics, but more concepts as well because it is so easy to tie in so many different topics into one concept, therefore, giving my students the opportunity to learn much more!

Link to Concepts vs. Topics Blog: http://blogs.yis.ac.jp/hougha/2014/09/05/concepts-vs-topics-whats-the-difference/ 

My First Day

I just completed my first day in my Social Studies methods class and it has made me realize that my journey as a student in the education program is very quickly coming to an end. Very soon, I will be student teaching and then having my own classroom.

As exciting as that is, it is also very overwhelming! Right now in class we are discussing what our responsibilities throughout the course are as we prepare to take on student teaching. This includes how we as teachers can incorporate more social studies learning for our students.

In my experience, I have always loved social studies and the topics that were covered when I was in elementary school. However, I always felt that the subject was pushed aside to make math and language arts the sole focus. After discussing in class and reading articles on the importance of social studies in the classroom, it really stands out to me just how important the subject is. I have the power and ability to help shape my students' minds into becoming upstanding citizens who are capable of thinking and working in diverse situations.

I am so excited to see where this journey takes me as I continue to grow and develop and get closer and closer to becoming an educator.