More About Social Studies

I think my favorite class this term is social studies. I will confess, I am naturally more interested in Social Studies than most other areas but that's not why I like this class so much. Let me tell you why I do:

• Every student writes a lesson plan every week. At first this seemed like a lot of work (and it is) but what better way to get ready for the reality of teaching, right?
• Every student has to teach at least two lessons during the quarter, again great practice which isn't always easy to fit into a class schedule.
• As with many classes at AUS, the professor is very practical in his approach. This is part of the reason every student writes a lesson plan each week, so that we can share and critique them and compile them all at the end of the quarter so each of us will leave the class with nearly 100 lesson plans ready to go. That is awesome!!!!!

In that vein, allow me to share with you a few of the topics on which we have seen lessons this term:

• A world history lesson in which students review and discuss the impact of European feudal society and play a short card game.

• A middle school lesson looking at the lives of women in colonial America.

• A 3-4 day lesson in which students re-create a supreme court case concerning contemporary school segregation.

• 6th grade geography lesson about uneven distribution of world population and resources.

These are just a few of the lessons that I have either seen in class already or can look at in their entirety on our class website. This course has really emphasized the balance AUS strikes between necessary (but not always applicable) theory, and useful (but not without the theory background) application.

Other aspects of this class that I enjoy are: the reading selection (including Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States), and the fact that our final class will consist of going out for dinner and drinks. What more could you want?

Till next time, Cheers!