Social Studies Reflection

Social studies is such an important subject to teach.   Students need to understand who they are, where they come from, and the different ways people live around the world.   Social studies is a subject that can easily be integrated in other content areas.  You can begin teaching social studies when you are planning the management of your classroom.  Students can help create the classroom rules.   If each student feels important and knows that their opinion matters, this can only help a teacher to build a stronger classroom community.  I want my students to feel that they are a part of not only the classroom, but also a community, and that each of them has a voice that can be heard.  Each student has opinions, ideas, and beliefs that they can contribute to the classroom.  Social studies is a great tool to help students learn about democracy.   In my classroom, students will not only learn with a textbook, they will be actively participating in the lessons they are learning whether it be with acting out a play about different times in history, giving a presentation, dressing like a character from history, or creating class projects that has to do with our community.  Social studies seems to be a forgotten subject in most schools.  Many schools do not even require the teachers to teach social studies, even though it is part of the state standards. I feel that the students need to be involved in active learning.  They need to participate in hands on activities to help them evaluate all of the materials being discussed.  I want students to see the main idea of the important events in history and get away from rote memorization.  I want to have a culturally responsive classroom.  I want all students to be aware of the different cultures that they will one day come in contact with.   Because no matter where you go, there will always be someone from different cultures than yourself.   I really hope to integrate social studies into all the other subjects in my classroom.  I think reading stories with the students about other cultures is a good way to build on a culturally responsive classroom.  It is very easy to integrate social studies into the other subjects.  Art, music, science, language arts, math; these subjects can be modified to integrate social studies into the lessons.  This class has definitely changed my perspective of social studies and how it can be taught.  My experience with social studies during school was; take notes on the lecture, study, and take a test.  When I get into the classroom, I want to make sure the students can see that learning social studies can be fun and exciting.  I will teach to the standards but in a way that promotes active learning.  The students need to learn social studies, and as teachers it is our job to teach in a way that is beneficial to student learning.   If this can be done in a fun and exciting way, then I feel the students will learn more effectively and be more active learners.