Amanda's Learning to Teach Social Studies Experience

In Dr. Smirnova's classes you learn a lot of information that will help you in the future. One of my favorite tools that I learned about was ThingLink.com. Thinglink.com is a great way to really engage the students by either an interactive picture or a 360 picture which allows you to feel as if you are really in a different location. I used ThingLink.com for a project last semester in Science Methods and I fell in love with it! I also attended a conference on ThingLink.com this semester recently and fell even more in love with it! My mind was blown how realistic and beneficial this website would be in the classroom. I am a teacher at the Boys and Girls Club  after school program and I used this website in my fourth grade class. My kiddos went crazy over this! They loved it! We looked into the Amazon rainforest and this was an awesome tool to put all the information we gather all into one virtual poster. This helped the students because they were able to look back at all of the reso...

One of my favorite methods of teaching a topic is using the Jigsaw Method. What is the first thing that comes to your mind when I say Jigsaw? When Dr. Smirnova first taught this method I thought of a Jigsaw Puzzle. In a way this method is kind of like a puzzle! So you are first put into base groups. In your base groups you count off into expert groups. You then separate from your base group and move into your expert groups. Once you are in your expert groups you work on the same topic and you all become experts in that topic. Once you are done you have to go back to your base group and share your findings so now everybody in your base group is an expert in every topic! This was a fun way to work with peers and to learn so much about a topic! I will definitely be using this method of instruction in my classroom. 

Today in class I had a wonderful opportunity to participate in a mock interview! I was assigned a role to a be a principal!Being one of the principals meant I was able to ask all of the teacher candidates interview questions that they might be asked when they go looking for a job as an elementary school teacher. I went around to different groups and asked the teachers to pick a number stick and whatever number they chose was the number of the question I would ask them. After we went through all of the groups all of the principals came together and chose one person from each group. This is an authentic learning experience because we asked the teacher candidates real interview questions and only a few teacher candidates were chosen for the position. This gave the students an idea of what to prepare for, what to say, what not to say, proper greetings, etc. Overall this was a great experience and a great fun way to end the semester. 

It was very sad seeing this semester come to an end. Throughout this semester I have learned so much. From group work to observing my peers it truly has been a huge learning experience in my teaching career. This semester was definitely a journey and allowed me to test my teaching skills by trying different lesson plans with the students and to figure out what worked and what didn't work. I also was able to practice my behavior management skills. This class was very bright however they did love to chat due to excitement. Through the stress and sleepless nights I truly enjoyed this semester with all of my heart. I was given real life opportunties which made me more confident in myself and will help me in the real world. This semester flew by and I can not believe it is over.