Perspective on History and Other Thoughts

It is interesting how timing works because I was just talking to one of my roommates / fellow teachers about this and then I read Rus' post from 3/19/07. Here's my thoughts.

Because I am licensed to teach all subject areas Kindergarten through sixth grade, we have a lot of variety in the classes that we take in the Elementary Education program at Morris. This past fall I took a class of teaching methods in Social Studies. A shift in my thinking clicked into gear: Social Studies is not just history and geography like so many of us were taught throughout the years; it is the study of ALL things social: sociology, psychology, political science, anthropology, history, geography, and more! (You would think that this would be obvious, but it wasn't to me.) We need to teach it like that, and there are so many opportunities there. So often SS is seen as the most boring subject, but I see it as the subject with the most opportunities. (It's not always automatic, but I keep reminding myself of it.) By teaching it this way, it can be integrated into any of the other subjects: math (population growth, country statistics, travel, dates, life expectancy comparisons), science (pollution, ecology, renewable energy, engineering / architecture), reading (primary document, texts, everything), art (archeology, art history, pottery), music (well, that one's pretty obvious).

By viewing the world with all of these pieces intact, you see a more complete picture of how things work. It makes everything more relatable both to us and between all of these parts. Rus was talking about seeing the nation of Israel in a few different lights (from both the Israeli and Palestinian perspectives). One of the books from our school library that I read over Spring Break was called "One More River". It is the story of a Jewish family who move from Canada to Israel to join the life of the kibbutzim along the banks of the River Jordan (the former border between Israel and Jordan). It's a book of young adult literature, so an easy read but packed with stuff to think about. I recommend it!

This ties into why I really want to teach upper Elementary to Middle school (grades 4 - 8). I realized a while ago that there is an important distinction. So much of teaching at the primary level is building the foundation for their future education. This is part of why I want to teach at this level: get 'em while they're young! :) But, I want to be able to introduce really "meaty" topics to my students and incorporate that into my everyday teaching. I want to be able to really discuss what we're talking about in class. It's hard to do that with twenty-two 7 year olds. Yes, it's possible to a certain extent, but you can go so much deeper with students as they begin to mature.

Especially when you begin to delve into the genre of Social Studies, the possibilities become endless and can be very challenging. I want to incorporate current events into my teaching, for both my students' benefit and for my own. I want them to see the connections between what occurred in the past and what continues to happen in the world today. I haven't had the opportunity to teach much SS since I've been here in TX, only a week on the Texas Revolution. (yeehaw!) But, there has been other things that we have done with reports on Martin Luther King Jr., various presidents, different states, and other topics. I think my favorite moments were the conversations that we had centered around the Civil Rights Movement. These kids are still pretty young, and it's really interesting presenting those sorts of topics for the first time that they really start to get it. So, there's some of my thoughts for now. A bit random, but that's how my brain works today to give you a tiny little insight.