We're Back!

How are we already back at school?! It feels like winter break just started.

Although I am going to miss sitting around, not having much to do, I'm excited to get back into a school routine. I'm walking into this semester with high hopes and a lot of motivation to get a 4.0 this semester.

Its crazy to say that this is my last spring semester of classes and I only have one more semester left after it! Since I'm student teaching in Spring 2019, I will be done with classes this coming fall. All I'll have left is student teaching and then... GRADUATION. It doesn't seem real and I'm not so sure I'm ready to be apart of the real world just yet, so lets just begin with this semester.

I felt a lot different walking into Social Studies Methods than I did last semester walking into Science Methods. Since I already had Dr. Smirnova, I felt a lot more comfortable coming into this class. I now know what to expect of the class and the main things we will be completing over the course of the semester.

The first activity we participated in consisted of Dr. Smirnova asking us questions about our previous Social Studies classes. We had to shut our eyes and put ourselves back in the classroom. We thought about the teacher that was there and the qualities that they had while teaching. Afterwards, we worked with a partner, and then a group to talk about what we came up with. This was a good exercise because it got us thinking about our past teachers and the characteristics they had that we liked about then. The most common characteristics included engaging, open-minded and knowledgable. By thinking about these, we will be able to apply them while we're in the classroom.

This first activity already got my brain thinking about how to be an even more effective teacher. I can't wait to see what else we work on this semester!