Blog #1

Social Studies

The Early Years:

When I look back on my initial encounter of social studies in elementary school, I struggle to resonate with a positive experience. My memory is flooded with long videos, boring lectures, and a immense lack of interest in the subject. My remembrance of the content is few and far between in terms of details and in some cases, main events. From what I do remember, the historical events of equality and African American slavery come to me the most clearly. I recall watching a short film on mixing different races within the same schools. In terms of details, sharing water fountains stands out to me the most. Personally, I found interest in the content of this lesson, but not in the format that it was taught.

 On the other hand, the most interactive experience I ever encountered resonated with the historical events of the Mayflower. As an activity, our class was separated into various groups and placed on "ships" that were represented through tape outlines. We were given limited resources and faced several obstacles during our trip across the sea. In some cases, students would pass away, contract devastating illnesses, or experience severe hunger. This was the only time in my educational experience that I felt excitement about the historical content being taught.

 In my later years of elementary school, I have limited memories surrounding the American Revolution. Minimal details come to mind but the overall concept is still relatively familiar to me. When I look back on the experience, I can't recall a single hands on activity or interactive lesson surrounding the content. In my opinion, it's the reason I struggle to reminisce on the unit. Overall, it may sound as if these lessons stuck within my long term memory throughout the years and effectively influenced my learning. However, in the grand scheme of things, only being able to recall three historical events over the course of six educational years makes me feel realize I don't remember nearly as much as I should have. 

Increasing Engagement:

In elementary school, students are filled with excess amounts of energy and an exciting perspective on learning. As teachers, we must provide hands on engagement and activities to continue their enthusiasm around education. In order to implement a successful lesson, teachers must steer away from videos and lectures and instead include creative activities that get students moving both physically and mentally. Most of the time, students who relate content to specific body movements have a better time of remembering the information. Not only that, but when you make learning fun for kids, they grow a passion for it. Typically, once there is some sort of interest instilled within your students, they will practice the activity more and in turn increase familiarity with the content.

 In my future classroom, I want my students to get excited about every subject, regardless of their interests. By creating an environment that is fun, educational, social, and hands on, younger kids are more likely to not only learn the material but also get excited about participating in it. Social studies is a controversial subject for many people. From my experience, my peers have either loved it or hated it. As teachers, we should create a bridge to fill the gap and create more positive experiences for our students to reminisce on. I also feel as if incorporating some sort of artistic project to correlate to a social studies lesson can help create more engagement and interest in the activity. However, I think every historical lesson should be multi-dimensional as not every student has the same learning type. Meaning, by combining various subjects within a history lesson, teachers are more likely to grasp the interest of a wider percentage of their classroom. Overall, I think the main goal of a social studies lesson is to make it fun and engaging for your students. A great experience will always lead to a longer remembrance. 

Social Studies Inquiry:

In my own words, if I were to try and define social studies inquiry, my first guess would be creating questions about the past. Based off assumption, I would correlate it to the idea of producing initial questions surrounding the subject before teaching the content. This encourages students to implement their own questions and thoughts to look deeper into the historical past. By doing so, students will have an opportunity to connect their interests by looking deeper into the aspects that grasp their attention. As teachers, we strive to create individual thinkers. Therefore, I feel as if social studies inquiry builds on the idea of incorporating personal thoughts as the driving force behind each lesson, activity, and lecture.