Here we are at the Minnesota Council for the Social Studies spring conference! In the upcoming week, let’s share resources and teaching ideas from the conference. (I’ll look through my notes and get the ball rolling tomorrow.)
Here we are at the Minnesota Council for the Social Studies spring conference! In the upcoming week, let’s share resources and teaching ideas from the conference. (I’ll look through my notes and get the ball rolling tomorrow.)
The conference was a wonderful experience. The vendors there were very amiable and helpful, and the resources and ideas that they were handing out would be a wonderful addition to any class. I found the award winning economics lesson plan session to be helpful as well, especially the second speaker during that session. It linked us to a site that had award winning lessons already completed that we could simply modify these to incorporate them into our own classroom. It’s always beneficial to find resources such as this for when we ourselves eventually end up teaching our own classes.
Like everyone has stated, I feel so blessed that we had the chance to attend this conference. Not only did I gain a vast amount of knowledge about teaching social studies in the classroom but I was also to get a lot of resources and make a few contacts with current teachers about information and even potential job openings. This experience also got me very excited about teaching social studies; I am also receiving a middle level social studies endorsement so this conference was very useful and really my cup of tea when it came to learning about different ideas and making social studies fun in a classroom. All in all this was a great conference and I feel very fortunate that I was able to attend it as a pre-service teacher.
This was the second conference that we have attended as a class, and I was pleasantly surprised by both. Both the Science and Social Studies conferences gave us useful resources and ideas for teaching. It was interesting being some of the only pre-service teachers at the conference and having the opportunity to connect with current teachers. I was really happy with the vendors who gave out free, useful resources. I left the Social Studies conference with two bags filled with posters, books, and lesson plans. I am really thankful for the opportunity to attend, and look forward to attending more in the future.
I feel grateful to be able to have had the opportunity to attend this conference. As a pre-service teacher, I feel that these conferences are crucial to studying education. I believe that it is important to attend these conferences because we learn so much about what is happening in the classrooms now. It makes you think about what you will be doing in your future classes. I loved the session on iPads. I had no idea that iPads have been being used in social studies classrooms in inner-city Minneapolis high schools. This is a great resource for these students since the majority of them probably do not have access to these types of resources at home. Technology is a rapidly growing and classrooms are adapting to this technological era in great ways!
I am very grateful for being able to attend this conference (even if I was on crutches!) I loved making connections with different educators, seeing some lesson plans and teaching strategies that others have, and of course the vendors! I enjoyed most of the sessions I attended even though I wish they would have had a few more for younger elementary classes. The one I probably enjoyed the most was the final session on the juvenile justice system. I was apart of teen court when I was in high school and took part in many different cases but I still learned many different things that I was not aware of. For example I had no idea that there was different terminology for juveniles versus adults. All in all it was a great experience and would definitely go again if the opportunity ever arises.
I’m glad that we had the opportunity to go to another conference! What a great place to get new ideas, make connections, and get resources. Hearing some of the speakers inspires me and gives me so many ideas of how I can be more engaging as a teacher. For example, the teacher who spoke at the “Hats Off” session teachers his students history through literally wearing different hats that were worn during the time periods that they learn about. He also mentioned that he also dresses up and bring in objects from that time period that were significant. What an engaging way to teach history! I wish I had a teacher like him in middle or high school. I will remember this when I encounter history topics because I think elementary students would love it. I look forward to attending many more conferences in the years to come to further educate myself as a teacher.