A Blast Through The Past Begins..

Tuesday, January 23rd was my first social studies methods class with Dr. Smirnova. Many of the students in the class also took science methods with me last semester. There are a couple of new faces which I am willing to help out with any questions they might have. Because most of us know each other we did a different get to know you activity. Dr. Smirnova had the class get into groups to introduce ourselves. We then had to fold a piece of paper and number each corner from 1-4. The first question Dr. S asked us was to think about a social studies you had and what made them a great teacher. The second question was describe three adjectives that you think makes a great social studies teacher. The third question was define what the subject social studies means to you. I had the pleasure of introducing the "Gold Diggers." The people in the group were myself, Abbie, Kelly, Alex, and Anna. The three adjectives that we used to describe a great social studies were knowledgeable, interactive, and energetic. We all combined our definitions to define social studies as teaching the past so we don't repeat things in the future. I think Dr. Smirnova did this activity to see how we saw our previous social studies teachers and realize the qualities that we did and did not like about how they taught the subject. I learned from this activity that my group basically  had all the same answers when it came to the qualities that we liked about our previous social studies teachers. I am very excited to what tips this class will teach me to become a great social studies teacher. I loved learning about social studies in elementary school and I am even more excited to teach it to my future students.