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!