It starts!

Tonight we held our first class of the semester. Like every start of a new semester I am anxious, excited, wary and already tired.
Since this is now my fourth semester I know what I need to start, caffeine for one, and the readiness to start all over again.

I have had class with Dr. Smirnova before, I took a class with her last summer and learned two key facts; the class is fast paced and technology must become a good, good friend. That last fact was a struggle at first. I refused to accept the friendship at first, ignoring the e-mails and waving introductions from e-class in order to lament to my friends that I was utterly lost when it came to the tech-heavy verbiage. But by the end of the whirlwind of a semester, I had created on-line quizzes, a blog, and learned now to zip around Google docs, all of which completely surprised me.

In fact, here, you can check out my old blog about child psychology.

(We can compare notes on how much I've grown! Well, I won't be comparing notes. I will be busy trying to keep the pace of this class. Call me later about the growing, text me, actually e-mail me. Are you on Blogger? Leave a comment then, I am busy!)

To start the class, Dr. Smirnova asked us to engage in an ice breaking activity;  Dr. Smirnova modeled Think, Pair, Share, right in the classroom. Unbeknownst to us, we were thinking individually, speaking to a partner, and sharing with the class without realizing we were playing into a technique many of us have recited over and over again.

First, Dr. S asked us to create name tags and then flip the tags over to answer four questions:

1. Imagine a social studies teacher, any social studies teacher, remember being in this person's class and what it felt like.
2. Write three characteristics of a good social studies teacher.
3. Finish this sentence: Social Studies is...
4. Our expectations for this class.

I wrote about Ms. Keough, a first year teacher during my freshman year of high school. I remembered her jitters, her nervousness and her excitement to teach us all the things she knew. At 14 I was annoyed that she couldn't conduct a fluid classroom, but at 30 now I get it; conducting a classroom is intimidating.

My characteristics for a good social studies teacher seemed a little redundant: tell a story, tell a story, tell a story. The truth is, I love a good story. Which is why I love history.

Social Studies is learning about the past so that we can better understand our present and work on the future.

4. My expectation was to be challenged and learn inventive techniques to bring social studies into the classroom.

It was a rush of a first day, but like each class, I'm excited to learn with my coffee in hand!