All Things Social Science
A Mr. Norris Production
My classes and me.....
I hope that this school year is as productive and successful as they have been in the past. My goal is to keep pushing the expectations of students to get them to see that they are capable of more than what they think they are. We grow intellectually and creatively every day with the goal to stave off stagnation.
My teaching style is a mix of old and new, as I will lecture to get material out, but I also bring in technology to do projects, assign assignments, and explore various resources. For those heading off to college after this year, I hope this gives a perspective of what you may experience as you head off, as this will be a warm introduction to what you will see as well.
I use Google Classroom for some of my assignments and many of my tests. The online format helps keep everyone equal and streamlines what I need to print. When we work on projects and papers, this also allows me to give feedback more readily as I can look at your assignment as you are working on it to provide sometimes instant feedback.
About me
First and foremost, I am not a conventional teacher. I did not start out thinking “Hey, I want to be a teacher!” Actually, I graduated high school and had no idea what I was going to do. I kicked around the idea of joining the military for almost 2 years before taking the plunge and joining the US Army. Fast forward 7½ years and I leave the military and start a family, notice no mention of college yet. During this time, I work several different jobs from retail to manufacturing to construction and a few more in between. The job that changed it all was when I worked as a lumberyard delivery driver and well, unfortunately (fortunately?) while making a delivery on my route I got injured, and that injury put into motion me going to college.
So I go to college, I get to the advisor and I make my schedule for, not education, a forestry degree. I love the outdoors and wanted, or at least thought I wanted, to work outdoors. During my time at SIU, the job market for that field disappeared and I changed my major. Yea I decided to jump into….. engineering, yea still not education. What I realized about halfway through the semester was that I had forgotten everything about Calculus, with all the extra work and tutoring I failed my Calculus class. So, as the semester comes to an end and I’m starting to plan the next semester and looking at Math classes to help me get better. It was also during this time that as an SIU employee I drove a group of Brazilians around to show them the region.
Brazilians are the nicest people I have ever met, and many invited me to visit Brazil well I did just that, not once, but three different times. During my time there I was fortunate enough to teach a conversational English class and it was truly life-changing. I was still in Brazil when I called SIU and changed my major to education.
This will be my 4th year teaching, my first two years I taught 7th grade social studies. I loved the energy of the kids, but I wanted to get back to the high school level. I taught high school during my student teaching and enjoyed the interaction.
While my journey was not a straight path to becoming an educator, it took the crooked and gnarled path to make me the person that I have become today.
Resources
The resources will be updated as the year progresses
Parent sites