The End of a Wild Ride!

My learning experience in Dr. Smirnova's Social Studies Methods class has come to an end. I have learned so much from this course and feel as if I have grown as an aspiring teacher. This class was a great opportunity for me to get more experience in teaching.

At the beginning of this class, I knew this was going to be a challenging class for me when I read the "words of wisdom" from students who already took the course on the first day of class. It definitely scared me a little. Before this class, I was never really someone who participated in class and during the first day, when I was called on multiple times since our class was so small, I struggled with reflecting on certain things presented in class. This class definitely helped me learn to how to reflect on things and create opinions when in class. The fieldwork experience was a huge challenge for me since I haven't had much experience teaching so when I heard that we were teaching to a whole class, I got very nervous. I've learned many things during my fieldwork experience. I learned the different types of instruction: direct, inquiry, and cooperative and how to engage students in these lessons. At the end, I felt satisfied and learned how rewarding it is helping students learn. It was also interesting seeing our lessons in action in a classroom. We learned different ways to teach economics, current events, geography, and more. We also learned projects like jigsaw projects and artifact bag projects that are effective and that we can use in our classroom. We learned how to incorporate technology in the classroom and how to make social studies powerful for students using the 5 elements including meaningful, integrative, value-based, challenging, and active. 

I struggled many times including in fieldwork since it was my first experience but I've learned from my mistakes. This class also helped me gain the confidence in presenting to a class since I am very shy and struggle with that. I also struggled with creating lessons but the resources we were given helped myself learn how to create effective lessons. 

When I become a teacher, I would want my students to have an efficient learning experience and get the most out of my teaching. I will make sure I engage my students as much as I can and also incorporate the five powerful elements of teaching social studies. I believe that students learn more when they are doing and being involved. I want to bring social studies to life in my classroom where students can visually see things instead of being taught about it. I am so thankful for being given this opportunity to learn how to effectively teach and I can't wait to become a teacher. It's been fun blogging my experience. Thank you!

Mock Interview Experience

On Monday, I participated in a mock interview. Three classmates, who would be the interviewers, were given questions that they were instructed to ask the rest of the class. The interviewers played a role as administrators and interviewed everyone to see who they would hire as teachers in their given schools. Each administrator had a different type of school: a direct instruction-only school, an inquiry instruction-only school, and a cooperative instruction-only school. Their questions were based off their provided instruction.

Before going into the mock interview, I didn't know what to expect and I was really nervous. It's nerve-racking to get interviewed by your peers. I've never been on an interview before so I didn't really know how to act. I knew I had to dress appropriately and come prepared knowing the information that we would be presented on. 

I was first interviewed by Christine, who was an administrator of a cooperative learning-only school. One question I liked from her was "What kind of dance would you relate cooperative learning to?" I had to take a minute to think but I said slow dancing with another person because in order to have a successful dance, both people must contribute and follow the right steps, and they have to work together, like cooperative learning. 

I was then interviewed by Kelli, who was an administrator of a direct instruction-only school. One question I thought was challenging from her was "How would you engage students in a direct instruction lesson?" I struggled with this question at first. I replied to ask questions for the students to answer to have them talk rather than only the teacher talking. I also said that when a student gives an answer, I would do the "thumbs up/thumbs down" strategy to make sure every student is understanding. Looking back at it now, I would also engage the students by giving them guided notes or graphic organizers to follow and take notes when given new information. I liked this question even though it was challenging because it is important aspect of direct instruction. 

Finally, I was interviewed by Lindsay who was an administrator of an inquiry instruction-only school. One question I liked from her was "If you could relate any type of music to inquiry instruction, what would it be?" I immediately tried to think of types of music that had lyrics that were challenging and made you think. I then thought of rap because I personally need to think more about rap lyrics rather than others and use critical thinking, like inquiry.  

Since it was my first time being interviewed, I struggled with coming up with answers on the spot and trying to stay professional. I also kept using "like" and "uhm" a lot which I also need to change. I found tips to have a successful teaching job interview. Overall, this mock interview was helpful because it gave me some experience as to what it would be like to be interviewed and how I should act.