week+1









read the enduring understanding:

you can post the assignment for the first class in the following table:

The purpose of teaching social studies is to enable learners to be active and effective in roles in their communities and to be able to make moral decisions for the benefit of themselves as well as for the benefit of others in their communities, however large or small. -Good social studies instruction involves creating a learning environment in which teachers and students enable each other through personal skills, history, and perspectives, to become engaged and active learners that can understand academic material as well as their implications/connections to the wider world. An important thing for social studies educators to do is to give their students room to inquire, question, explore, and to be wrong sometimes. Good social studies instruction is a give and take process that gives students practice in critical thinking skills that are an essential facet of social studies education. --Bad social studies instruction is the complete opposite, big surprise. Bad S.S. instruction takes the “social” right out of it and is, to use a cheesy metaphor, a narrow hallway with toward only one direction. It’s easy for social studies educators to take student input out of the equation, limiting space for free thought and the ability for them to reach a diverse and more well-rounded social understanding. As reflection of these thoughts, my educational career as a student has included many more bad social studies instructors than good. The bad include teachers that teach solely from a book, which limited room myself and other students to learn through things that interest us or that interests the teacher. As a result, it was harder to connect what we were learning to what we would see in the “outside world,” which is more important in social studies than straight content in some cases. ||  || - Good instruction is when a teacher provokes questions and thoughts. They don’t try to bite off more than they can chew with subjects or topics covered. They have the knowledge to be able to teach and answer any questions that students have, or at least know where to look to find the correct answer. Good teachers also instruct in ways, that the students just don’t memorize material but know how to use that material and learn that material so when world issues come up such as oil depletion the student can understand the issue. Bad instruction would be just handing the students a book and telling them to read a section and answering the questions at the end. Bad instruction would also include the teacher not being knowledgeable about the topics covered. Enthusiasm is a key in any instruction, if the teacher is not excited to teach the material the students will not be excited to learn the material. Effective teaching also includes the proper planning and management of a classroom. . In my personal experience I have mostly had poor social studies teachers. One of them just handed us maps and told us to memorize countries and their capitals one region at a time. After a week or so of staring at a map we would take a quiz on it and then move on to the next region, it was pointless. Yes, I know where a lot of countries are now, but I didn’t learn anything. The next one was a US Civics class, in this class we mostly just read out of the book and then answered the questions at the end of the section. Our job was to take notes on the book and then the next day everyone that took notes got all the answers given to them on the quiz, if you did not take notes, you didn’t get the answers. His exams were also all memorization, and not much actual learning. Social studies in my classroom will be very interactive. This could be with asking questions for students to ask, group work, station work, partner work, or just projects in which students will be teaching the class on a specific subject given to them by me. I will also throw in the occasional lecture but I want the students to learn by doing. For Geography this could be, going on field trips to places, or going on hikes and observing features of the land. Watching news casts of say the Japan earthquake and Tsunami and what caused that to happen and the effects afterwards. I want my students to be working and learning and having fun while doing it. ||  || - Teachers that are good at social studies instruction are teachers that use multiple degrees to teach the various social studies, such as using lecture, group work, discussions, projects, and other teaching options to make the their social studies lessons not only interesting for their students, but engaging as well. Good social studies instruction also entails a teacher who gets to know his/her students to understand their preferences and prior knowledge to build a curriculum that will suit his/her class. Teachers that offer bad instruction when it comes to social studies are teachers that give lessons soley based on memorized facts and knowledge that do not lead to any critical thinking for their students. Their lessons tend to be only centered around lectures that are not engaging for the students and especially do not take any consideration towards the preferences or prior knowledge that his/her class has. Bad social studies teachers do not take the time to get to know their students and just follow the routine lesson plan they have set for themselves. - I have been lucky that I have had mostly good social studies instructors throughout my schooling. One example of good social studies instruction I had was from my 7th grade geography teacher. Instead of having each of us do a simple report on a country, he made us contact our respective country's embassy to talk to them about a tourist package, while also building a 5 minute presentation with visual aids into our report. As for bad instruction, I once had a social studies teacher who would lecture every day, not answer any questions until after class, and his only form of assessment were two exams during the course of the semester. - My social studies class will be one that is very interactive for the students, as I hope to build a curriculum that is very versatile with different styles of teaching. I will have a class full of activities for my students to do and even when I give lectures I will have several questions built into the lecture to help keep my students involved with the lecture. As for a geography lesson, I have already done an activity that works along these lines. I developed an activity where I gave each of my students a satellite relief map of the world and they had to critically analyze the map to build an understanding of/answer my question: What roles did geography play in the field of world trade from its establishment to its execution in the Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas? Lastly, I want to build a classroom that is fun for my students, that also engages them within my lessons so they can learn the material that I am teaching. ||  || -Good social studies instruction incorporates information collection, critical thinking and analysis, information interpretation skills, knowledge creation, and it promotes both independent and collaborative learning. It urges students to think for themselves and develop their own learning skills. Good social studies instruction also involves the teacher collecting information, thinking critically and analyzing information, creating their own knowledge, and working with other teachers as well as independently to make what they teach effective. It involves teachers modeling good citizenship in order for students to see value in participating in society. Bad social studies instruction is the opposite: it is feeding students information without having them apply it in any way, and it’s not modeling social studies skills or good citizenship. I can’t think of any specific examples of either from my schooling career. All I know is that I graduated from high school with critical thinking skills, but a lack of political enthusiasm or need to voice my own opinion. -In my classroom, social studies instruction will be (or at least I will work towards it being) what was explained as “good social studies instruction” in the previous paragraph. I plan to give my students the information they need to know while also pushing them to challenge their own ideas. I plan to incorporate powerpoints with activities that require them to work with others as well as individually to better understand the presented information. I also plan to have students present information in front of the classroom to better communication/social skills (which I believe important to social studies). Finally, I hope to incorporate research papers and essays into my courses as well so that students learn to argue their own opinion. ||  || - Good social studies instruction involves a combination of teaching styles and media to help students assess and understand the “ins and outs” of the world they live in. I feel this can be done through the combination of current events and the “other” disciplines of social studies such as history, economics, government and geography. Good social studies instruction involves the everyday combination of these factors that affect the presents and futures of our students. This should be done in ways that allow for critical thinking, interpretation, and assessment of questions and ideas created by both teachers and students. Bad social studies instruction, on the other hand, does not allow for students to creatively or effectively develop cross-connections on the past or the abstract into their daily lives. It does not challenge thinking or ask for opinion and development of critical analysis. For example, social studies that involves rote memorization and/or vocabulary based solely on a textbook definition is not effective instruction. To be effective, things such as dates, places, maps, and definitions must all be taken at a context that relates to the students and how it can be important to the world they live in. - I wish for social studies instruction to look very similar to what “good” social studies instruction looks like. I think diversification of media and delivery style is essential in an age where multiple learning styles are present and actively searching for knowledge. I wish to be able to teach in ways that allow for my students to critically think and respond to questions that are affecting their lives, even if events happened in the past. With a growing technological field in the classroom, I hope to use technology as an enhancement to my lessons, and allow for students to use technology of multiple sorts to find and investigate social topics that are important to them. Further, I think that because this is “social” studies, student integration is essential, and communication is our most valuable asset as teachers. Everything in our world today is connected in one way or another. Teaching students to be conscientious, responsive, and responsible citizens in their world I think is the most important goal that I have as a social studies teacher. ||  || -I think good social studies instruction comes with time. I don't think it will happen right away, but I believe that a good social studies teacher is one that is willing to tackle any topic that a kid might be intrigued with. I think this can be done by using life experiences and real life examples so that the kids relate to as much of the situation as they can. I think many different scopes need to be used when talking about good social studies instruction. A combination of lecture, discussion, group work, and other formats are all important to implement into a social studies class. It is important to hit different scopes so you draw in as many students as possible and make sure they understand the topic at hand. I believe in not assigning pointless busy work, and I believe that it is wise to not do so. I do not like social studies classes in which it is primarily based on memorization. I am more interested in seeing and reading your thoughts in an essay or a short answer response where I can truly hear your voice and what you think. I believe bad instruction looks, well bad. Showing movies or documentaries and not teaching is a big one for me. This is what I experienced in high school and what I am currently experiencing with my mentor teacher. I believe any day in which you do not engage your students to think critically is a day wasted. -I want to be excited about teaching, and I am. The best social studies teachers that I have witnessed are excited about teaching. I want to be upbeat and loud. I want to always have my kids attention (obviously this would all be great). But I am hoping that I can help kids learn. I believe that discussion and group work is very important in a social studies class. Interaction between classmates and hearing many different opinions is important to build off of in a SS class. All in all I am just excited to excite my students and get them as excited as I am about teaching! ||  || -Good social studies instruction involves students and relates their lives to the material, encouraging students to draw connections between course material and life outside the classroom. Good social studies teachers will not only teach, but be able to make students empathize with the subject material. An example of this type of learning would be a simulation of the Constitutional debates, where a teacher moderates three factions that each must take certain positions. This sort of activity would reflect the difficulty of creating the Constitution and make them appreciate the uniqueness of the U.S. Constitution. A bad teacher gives knowledge without any context or relevance. An example of this would be a geography teacher giving students a list of cities and states to memorize for an exam. -In my classroom, social studies will include as many simulations as possible, so that students learn to debate issues and can relate to the events being discussed (they will, after all, be forced to take a side in the debate.) Students will be encouraged to discuss current events and relate them to class material. When lectures are used, students will be encouraged to answer questions and discuss the material. If students pay attention and consider the material relevant, they will retain knowledge better than if they consider the knowledge to be merely “exam fodder.” ||  || - Good social studies instruction essentially boils down to making topics relatable to students, while being interdisciplinary. Being able to get students relate to the material allows them to see the importance of social studies and sparks their interest in learning more. Without a connection to the material, many students cannot engage in the topics being covered and they will have no interest in learning about them. Keeping the instruction interdisciplinary allows students to see how the various disciplines of social studies effect and relate to one another. Once a connection has been made, students then can begin to think critically about the material and can begin to interact with it. Bad social studies instruction revolves around presentation of material in a static fashion. Bad instruction involves the presentation of the material in a way that makes it impossible for students to relate to, leading to the inability to critically analyze it. An example of this would be presenting history as only names and dates. - Social studies instruction in my classroom will be filled with enthusiasm. Since I am very interested in social studies, I hope that my passion shows through in my instruction and the students pick up on it. I want to present the material in a way that allows the students relate to it, whether that means PowerPoints, videos or activities. I hope that my instruction would fall under the “good instruction” category, which I truly believe it will. ||  || -Good social studies instruction starts with the teacher. The standards are the same for every teacher, but the ability to make the material current, meaningful, and interesting is the responsibility of the teacher. We live in an age of amazing technology, where we can bring so many more resources into our classrooms, and make images that were once impossible to view come alive for the students. Good social studies instruction also means blending the fields...we need to incorporate history, geography, economics, and every other social studies realm into one class. I'm not saying that I would do this every day or even every week, but I think it is so important to make social studies relevant to the student, and have the student be able to make daily connections in their own lives to what we are studying. Bad social studies instruction, on the other hand, would be pretty much the opposite of what I consider good instruction. It would involve a lack of enthusiasm from the teacher, monotone and boring instruction, no cross-reference of the disciplines, no connections made between the students' lives today and what we are studying, and a lack of use of technology. Nobody wants to sit through a boring class and nobody wants to sit and here lectures all day about something they could care less about. It is essential that we make connections for the students, or even better, guide the students to into making connections of their own. -I love social studies and I think history and geography are interesting, amazing, and super awesome. I will always bring my love of the subject matter with me every day. I will also use a ton of technology (of course, what is available) in my classroom and hoprfully there are smart boards, because I saw how excited we all were as ollege students to play with the boards, and I could only imagine how amazing it would be for a middle school or high school student. I will challenge the students to be open minded about social studies and not judge the material until they have fully understood what it is I am teaching, and how it connects to their lives today. ||  || -Social studies in one area in which student interest hinges on the enthusiasm of the teacher. It is frequently cited as being one area that students find the most “boring”. However, a good teacher can change many students opinion on this. Good social studies instruction involves being active and helping students make connections that make the content personal to them. One professor I had did this by constantly polling the class. He would talk about a region and then ask is any one had been their, or knew the language and call them down to share their personal stories. I came down to the front of the class to share my knowledge of Russian and left class feeling like I got to impart some of my knowledge to others. Sadly, I have witnessed many bad examples of social studies instruction. This primarily involved a serious lack of preparation and interest in the teacher. In a high school history class I had we came into the classroom everyday and the window shades would be drawn, she would turn off the lights, and we would takes notes off of the overhead projector. We would celebrate on days she wasn't there and we could work in small groups on worksheets. You know there is a problem when students are excited about worksheets...  -In my classroom I definitely plan on being an active teacher. I don't want my students to ever think my class is going to have a “normal” day by switching up methods of teaching between cooperative learning, engaging projects, working as a class, debates, simulations, and employing some methods of student-led instruction. However, I also want my students to feel comfortable in my class so they feel free to share their ideas. I also want to encourage them to share their own stories and feel like they are a true part of their education and that they are not being led by the instructor alone.  ||  ||
 * name of student || assignment 1 ||  ||
 * Bryan Morrison || -We teach social studies to build effective citizens in every capacity of the word; citizens of local communities, nation states, and the wider world. To be citizen of a certain place means to have an affinity and a type of connection or responsibility to the group, community, nation, etc, that you represent or are a part of. Social studies is needed and is intended to be taught for both teachers and students in order to help us to contextualize the environment around us, the one which we are a citizen of, and to help us to realize how we fit into it, to effectively negotiate what are place or role is in this environment.
 * Andrew Bartolacci || Social studies is taught because it is an important aspect of being a citizen of any country. Without social studies we wouldn’t know states, where and why plants and foods are grown where, the understanding of weather, politics, community involvement. Social studies is a part of our everyday lives. It’s a part of sports, our jobs, roads, television shows, and news. Without the proper understanding of social studies a person cannot be a respectable citizen. This is what brings the reason for teaching social studies. We need to teach our students the skills needed to be citizens, community members, politicians and teach them how to have the moral and civic values of a common citizen.
 * Cory May || - Social Studies is taught because it is important for students to understand how and why people interact with each other and their surrounding environment. This means that we encounter social studies on a daily basis. The purpose for teaching social studies to build an understanding how it interacts with what we do daily, such as going to work, hanging out with friends, prepareing food to eat, etc. Being able to understand social studies and how it interacts with your daily life is also important because it helps people to become a better citizen within their community, state, and or nation by giving them any understanding of their surroundings.
 * Sarah Frazier || - We teach social studies to educate students about the world around us. Social studies helps us learn about humanity: how have societies changed over time, why do humans behave the way they do, what does ___ tell us about ourselves, etc. Social studies, when taught properly, teaches students to collect, gather, and analyze information in both group and individual settings in order to create knowledge. Social studies is also about teaching students to be “good citizens”. Because we live under a democracy, students need to understand what it means to be a citizen. Social studies gives students the knowledge of how to be a good citizen and examples of what political involvement can accomplish.
 * Mallory Malloy || - We teach social studies to help students create and understand connections and interactions of people, places and activities in our world. With such a definition, social studies helps students analyze the world they live in every day. Through this, being an active and conscientious citizen is an ultimate goal. Social studies helps teach students the critical and necessary skills to be an active citizen.
 * Adam Kingston || -I believe the reason we teach social studies is to promote citizenship with our students. Not only are we teaching about trends and patterns in history that have been very important and remain important, but social studies is the only class where many important "life" topics can be discussed. The purpose is to hopefully help our students more thoroughly understand what has happened in the past and what is going on around them today.
 * Ryan Peterson || -We teach social studies to help give students the tools to shape their identity within the context of the country as a whole. By teaching students a common history, we can help instill nationalism and encourage student identification with a national identity instead of identifying with an ethnic/religious/etc… group identity. This will allow for more cohesion and acceptance in society. By encouraging civic duty, we encourage students to take part in governmental action, thereby validating the governmental process and helping to improve good government. Geography helps students understand human processes and movements. It also makes them aware of the greater implications of events than if they remained confined to a local area. Economics helps students understand the market process and how to co-exist with it, helping them to live their lives without the frustrations of bankruptcy or over-extension.
 * Nate Greening || Socials Studies is taught because there is a need for people to understand the world in which they live. It is important to be an informed citizen. History, Geography, Civics, along with all of the other subjects that are all interconnected in a way that provides a great since of who a person is how they got where they are and how they fit in the world today. A good social studies lesson would enable students to connect to their environment. I believe that students need to understand how things in the past have and will affect their lives. A good lesson will utilize a vast majority of the fields in social studies and will show students how to make them applicable to student’s lives. On the other hand a bad social studies lesson does not allow for students to connect their everyday life to the events that occur throughout history. A bad social studies lesson does not try and incorporate more than the book. I find it hard to believe that teachers can teach history without incorporating several sides of the issue. Another important reason why geography in particular is important is because people need to know where and how things that are being discussed are located. In my classroom social studies classroom I think that I will try to be simply a facilitator in the learning of my students. I hope that I will spark an interest in students that they will then be able to go and explore by themselves. My assignments will be geared at helping students discover what they find interesting. ||  ||
 * Tim Walker || - I believe that we teach social studies so that our students gain a full understanding of the various societies of the world and how they relate to one another. Through the various lenses of social studies, students are able to gain new perspectives of the world in which they live. With all social studies disciplines, students learn to think critically about the society in the past, present and future.
 * Jody Stewart || -There are several reasons why I think teaching social studies is so critically important. First, social studies is all encompassing. It reaches across all disciplines and provides a springboard or foundation on which to discuss any and every other discipline, be it math, science, english, etc. Second, social studies instruction not only teaches students the core disciplines of geography, history, sociology, etc., but we are teaching the students about the world in which they live now, the world past, and what we hopr for the world in the future. We are teaching the students to be produtive, organized citizens who have a full understanding of the social world in which we all live.
 * Tara Cowdrey ||   -Social studies is imperative in relating students to the social, political, and economic forces that effect their daily lives. It explains how people relate to one another by incorporating the history of these separate peoples as well as how they may have different forms of government, different economic standings, or how they may have had little contact at all being separated geographically. Social studies is essential in creating citizens of the world as well. Without this social studies-based, very thorough understanding it is also hard to understand the actions of a nation at different periods throughout history.   