Classroom Culture

A tolerant classroom can be difficult to achieve, but if created in the first few weeks of school, it can be invaluable to your success as a teacher. It seems critically necessary, especially in a social studies classroom, as we will be exploring controversial issues with the chance for things to get messy. Differing opinions can be exciting and could really aid class discussion, so they should be encouraged. I want my classroom to be a place where students feel comfortable answering questions and offering their opinions. This is a bit of a teacher's dream, especially for high school students. However, I think it can be created by developing a no tolerance policy for bullying, making fun of people, and general disrespect of other students and myself. This policy must be communicated from the first day. In the beginning, this may cause a rush of discipline issues, but I think if the students know the rules and know that I will enforce them, they will quickly learn that intolerant behavior is not accepted. Working on these things immediately should actually save time for content later in the school year.

Let's revist why we're doing this...

Throughout my college career, I knew that I would be an educator because of my promise as a North Carolina Teaching Fellow. However, as an undergraduate at UNC, I had a myriad of diverse experiences, some of which challenged me to re-examine the reasons why I want to teach. When asked that question during my Teaching Fellow interview, I said I wanted to make a difference. My college experience opened up my eyes as to how many different ways there are to help people.

My passion lies in leadership development, which led me to the Department of Student Affairs and my work with orientation and Carolina Leadership Development. I wrestled with the idea of pursuing a career in higher education administration. However, I realized that what I love about Student Affairs is not the field itself, but how the experiences and training I had helped me reach my full potential as a leader. When teaching high school, I will have the opportunity to incorporate my knowledge of leadership development and my love of the social studies content area into my classroom to help students realize their potential as leaders. I also want to continue to work for education being a great equalizer for economically disadvantaged students, because our democracy depends on equal opportunities.

Social Studies is so encompassing that it is almost overwhelming. My father instilled his interest in United States history in me at an early age, literally through bedtime stories of Sacajawea and Davy Crockett and family trips to Kitty Hawk, Manteo, and Williamsburg. Teaching is the one place where I can combine my hobbies of learning about politics and history while changing students' lives, with a challenging environment that is ever-changing. I am passionate about teaching social studies because I believe that students can simultaneously experience personal and academic growth, ultimately becoming well-informed citizens by understanding the mistakes and triumphs of our past. It is a flexible discipline that enables us to examine governments, cultures, and ourselves. The study of citizenship, leadership, and democracy can empower our students while teaching them that in a democracy, their participation (and they, themselves!) is inherently important.

In working as a teaching assistant in the Duke University Talent Identification Program last summer on Duke's East Campus, I rediscovered my passion for teaching. In addition to being in the classroom daily, I taught a one hour evening session for four days a week to academically gifted high school students. TIP is definitely not a normal classroom experience, because each of the students come into the classroom excited about the subject matter, and usually they genuinely want to be there and be involved. Actually, they paid to be there and chose among a variety of classes before considering Revolutions and Terrorism. The instructor and I expressed very high expectations of our students, but we also truly believed they could reach those expectations. The students thrived in that environment, many expressing excitement that the material challenged them academically for the first time. I have done a bit of research on the relationship between gender, class, and race in education, and I cannot help but hope that children of all ability levels, economic statuses, races, and genders can thrive in a classroom under the correct supportive conditions.

These experiences will no doubt affect how I will teach, but I am not sure to what extent they will yet. Personal development and skills such as writing, reading, and public speaking, are almost as important to me as content (but please don't tell NCLB). My belief in the worth of every person as a leader will help me try to reach and teach every student. I think the two most important qualities to have as a Social Studies teacher are creativity and an ability to think broadly. Creativity in lessons and assessment is critical to combat the boredom that some people immediately assume will occur in a history class. Creativity can help keep students interested with fresh approaches to standard material. A broad outlook is also extremely important. I had few teachers that could provide context for anything in history or civics, much less connect it to where our class had been and where we were going. Social Studies is a lucky discipline to be a part of because everything seems connected to everything else. It is critical that we teach our students how to discover those connections and their own.