Reich College of Education

During the past four years I have learned a tremendous amount from my education classes. Each year I gained a new insight and perspective into teaching, and I feel much more prepared to impact and teach future generations. As a secondary education major, I took many educational foundations classes my sophomore year and method courses my junior and senior year. Appalachian’s education program is incredible because of the dual emphasis placed on social justice and classroom methods. I feel prepared to teach history effectively and inspired to love all my students regardless of background or status.

In the fall of my sophomore year, I took two courses through the Reich College of Education: Foundations of Education and Curriculum and Instruction: Teaching in The Digital Age. My foundations class was truly life changing and gave me a whole new perspective into teaching.  Our professor, Dr. Chris Osmond, challenged us to think of teaching as a sacred profession.  In this “sacred” profession, we enter the classroom each and every day knowing we have the chance to change a child’s life.  Students face a vast majority of issues and problems, and as teachers we face those issues head on.  We make student’s burdens our own, and we strive towards forming dispositions that promote love and respect for all students.  Furthermore, this class taught me the importance of having an inclusive classroom.  I want to teach high school history, and I will encounter a diverse population of students.  I will strive to have an environment conducive for learning, where all students feel they are safe and welcomed.  Whether students are from low socioeconomic status, or they feel they are on the “outside” due to race or sexual orientation, it’s my job to ensure equal opportunities for all students to learn and succeed. Through Dr. Osmond’s class, I also realized how crucial it is to engage students and involve them in the learning process.  As a future history teacher, it would be easy to solely lecture and dump information on students.  However, this method of instruction leaves students disinterested and confines history to facts and dates.  Instead, students should view history as unraveling a new story or discovering a different world. It’s my goal that students will understand the implications of the past and use that knowledge to be better humans and citizens.

In my teaching in the digital age class, we analyzed technology’s implications for the classroom and how to effectively integrate technology in the classroom.  This class challenged me to think critically about how technology has radically transformed society. Knowledge is unlimited through the Internet, and students have access to tons of learning tools.  In today’s world, a teacher’s role is changing since students can discover knowledge largely on their own.  However, a computer cannot make students care or ignite a passion for learning.  Only teachers can instill a love for learning and make students care about their subject.  For example, students can easily find information about the Reconstruction time period and the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th amendment.  However, as a teacher it’s vital I begin a discussion on the effectiveness of the amendments and if they actually accomplished their purpose.  Did African Americans become fully enfranchised citizens with equal rights?  No, of course not, but students need this guidance to illuminate the past and piece together an interconnected story.  Also, this class stressed the importance of using technology as an aide rather than a replacement for teaching.  For the first time, I learned how to use a Smart Board.  At first, I started to put lecture notes on the Smart Board, but my instructor encouraged me use the smart board in a different way.  I was prepared to do the very thing I swore I wouldn’t do: dump information and leave students uninvolved in the learning process.  Following his advice, I then utilized the Smart Board as a tool to engage students and spark their interest.  As a class, when I taught a lesson, we analyzed pictures, maps, and watched interesting videos on the historical topic. This class prepared me with a correct view of technology and how to use it in the classroom.

My junior year I began to take classes that go beyond educational foundations and delve into actual methods. The two classes that have taught me the most about teaching social studies have been classes called Issues of Teaching American History and Issues of Teaching World History. In these classes I learned practical methods for teaching social studies. My professor, Dr. Amy Rutenberg, stressed the need of having a “guiding question” or objective that will guide history lessons. With history it’s tempting to get caught up in small details, and it’s more effective to have an overarching concept you want students to take away from your lesson. For example, during this class, I constructed a unit on Medieval Empires, and I focused on teaching students what it takes for an empire to form. Consequently, students learn about empires such as the Roman and the Ottomans, but they also grasp the bigger concept and are forced to think critically. Something else that proved invaluable for me in these two classes was how to teach primary sources in the classroom. I learned the importance of allowing students to delve into the actual voices of history rather than solely relying on lecture or textbook reading. Common Core ELA standards for social studies require students to extract the meaning of primary documents as well as make arguments based off evidence. As a future high school teacher, I will be preparing my students to be competent readers and writers, something that will greatly benefit them in college and the workforce. The final project for both of these classes was a final portfolio. For these portfolios, we were required to create units based on North Carolina’s essential standards. My portfolios are packed with teaching notes, pacing guides, and student ready activities. Both of these classes have given me quite the advantage when it comes to job preparedness and future job interviews.

Finally, my senior year has been a year of incredible growth as a pre-service teacher. In the fall of this year I took my final methods course: Teaching Social Studies in the High School classroom. In this class I learned a variety of teaching methods pertaining to social studies, and I was able to intern in a high school World History classroom. For this class I was able to receive helpful feedback on lessons that I implemented in my World History internship. This class was essentially the final step that prepared me for student teaching, and I was thoroughly impressed with how my professor helped mold and shape my teaching practice to ensure success in the future.

Another invaluable experience I had this past fall was traveling to Ocracoke Island, NC with our ACES scholarship group. Ocracoke Island is home to a professional development center for North Carolina teachers known as NCCAT (North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching.) During this professional development trip, I was exposed to the advice and mentorship of state-renowned teachers, principals, and curriculum coordinators. During our professional development times we delved into strategies for student engagement, and we also learned about the Teacher Evaluation system in North Carolina. This trip would not have been possible without the Reich College of Education and the scholarship money that I’ve received to continue on at Appalachian. Going into the job market with these professional development experiences has greatly expanded my resume and marketability.

Lastly, this semester I’ve had the privilege of student teaching in an American History classroom and AP United States History. This experience has allowed to me take everything I’ve learned in prior classes and field experiences and finally apply it. I teach two classes full time at my school, and I feel prepared to take on my own classroom in the near future. In my classes history truly comes to life when we have discussions about the parallels of events in history to today’s relevant issues. The history classroom also is a perfect time to promote ELA skills-my students often are required to write and analyze both primary and secondary sources. Thank you Mr. James Patterson for you support these past four years, without you none of this would have been possible.