Why Social Studies

1. My idea of Social Studies is that it's all about how humans have interacted over mankind and studying they have impacted society as a whole.

2. When I was 10 years old, I met my 4th grade teacher Mrs. Elizabeth Kirby. I absolutely adored her class. She made me excited to learn and want to come to school everyday. I looked up to her like she had the most wonderful job in the world and she made teaching look fun. She taught History and Math. For years, I wanted to EXACTLY what she did. Up until I was in 9th grade I wanted to be a 4th grade Math and History teacher. High school is when I decided that I wanted to teach middle school and I only wanted to teach history. I knew very early on that I loved History and that it was my favorite subject. Math was a close second, but History was so much more interesting and meaningful. When I was in middle school, I had some really amazing teachers that made me want to be a teacher and solidfied that this is what I wanted to do with my life. Once I reached my senior year, I knew I had to really know what I wanted to do exactly. At this point, I realized that I want to teach older students because I could complex conversations and get them to critically think about their futures. I wanted to help these students find who they are and who they want to be. I have many family friends that are teachers and I asked teachers what I should go into. I was deciding whether I should go be a highschool Math teacher or a high school History teacher. Math because I knew I would have an easier time finding a job and History because it was simply my passion. Everyone told me that I should go into Math. I declared my major as AYA Math education. I took many college courses before I came to Akron and I had this one professor that blew me away. He taught me Western Humanities and History from 1877. His name is Jeff Burger. He made me love history all over again. He is the single best history teachers I have ever had in my life. I told him about how I was deciding between the two subjects and I didn't know which one to choose. He told me that I should absolutely go for history because he knew that's where my passion lies. His talk to me made me decide to go with History and never look back. He was the only that believed in me to go into this profession.

I think Social Studies is so important for students to learn because they can critical think about the world around them. I think Social studies is necessity just like Math and Language Arts because you need to understand the world around you or else become ignorant. If you don't know all sides of History, you become a close minded individual. My goal is to open and expan the minds of my students. I really don't care what subject I do (preferably: Mideval Europe, World History, or American History) as long as I can make an impact on one student. If I can do that, I can die a happy person. I hope to be the teacher that makes a student day by coming to my class. I hope to change students opinions on History a more positive and more exciting experience. If I can make all my students excited about History as I am, then I am doing something right.