A large part of what drives me as a social studies educator is thinking back to my past experiences sitting in social studies classrooms. My experience in high school at large consisted of lectures, essays, and tests. I hated it. We never did any fun projects, or activities, it always felt like a chore to show up and learn history. This drives me as an educator to always think about lessons from the student perspective. I always want students to enjoy learning.
In many of the classrooms that I have been in both as a student and now as a teacher, the main ingredient to success is one thing. Engagement. But on the surface level, just engagement isn't enough. I strive for authentic engagement. There's a big difference between a student who is participating because they feel forced to, and a student who is genuinely enjoying the lesson and participating. Authentic engagement is a huge goal I strive to create in my classroom.
My teaching style incorporates blended learning techniques, as well as using variety as a tool to create a comfortable learning environment. I mix direct instruction, with more engaging activities and techniques. I like to use as much variety as I possibly can in my classroom so students stay excited and engaged. For example...
Instructor Led/Student Led
Project Based/Assignment Based
Collaboration/Individual
Mini Lessons/Whole Class Instruction
Not to say that direct instruction is useless or outdated. In social studies there is no getting around learning names, dates, facts, etc... that's the basis of knowledge within most social studies content. Most of the time direct instruction is the most efficient way to learn some of that content. But you need higher level learning on top of that, this is where modern instruction comes in. Strategies such as inquiry, document based learning, student led projects, etc... These are important for getting students to that next level of learning. A deeper sense of understanding. "Why" questions. My classroom will be a really healthy mix of blended learning techniques in order to keep the students engaged and learning at a high level.