Well I must admit... my observation has been been very lopsided (favouring english classes). I have spent some serious time consulting both my social studies mentor teacher, as well as other socials teachers... but have come to the conclusion that I am really nervous about socials!! I feel FAR more comfortable with the content of english classes, which i think is due to the fact that I have so many resources and ideas for english classes, and almost none for socials.
As it stands now, I will only be teaching one socials 11 class, but am hoping to pick up a humanities 9 class as well which is half socials/half english. I'm hoping that when we get back we can focus more on concrete examples of the curriculum of socials, and possible resources. I really want some practical applications of things so that I don't feel so stressed about teaching socials, since I think that over time it will be much more enjoyable for me than english (not sure why, just a feeling!)
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Hmmmm!
I guess for me it is a bit the opposite. I feel a tad confused as to how to tell what text, novel, poem, short story or other, belongs to what grade in English. With socials, I feel like you know the time periods and parts of history you are to cover from the irp, when with English you don't really have much to go on, so I have been stalking all the english teachers for matrerials to teach and it seems to be going well.
However, like I said with socials you know the content of the course you just have to go find resources. . I have been have a blast looking up ways to teach the french revolution , as nerdy as that sounds.
In any case, my sponsor teacher for SS has been great and if you wanted to take a look at what I have gotten from her you are welcome to. Just let me know
That would be great, thanks! Yah I really like my mentor teachers... but my SS guy is just really disengaged at the moment, I'm assuming because his wife is about to have their first child any minute (i'm hoping at least). I'm sure when I come back in January and actually know what I want in terms of resources he'll be able to help me. I have a choice of SS 10 or 11, although he's leaning towards my taking the 11's because it's more exciting/interesting stuff. We'll see.
I know it might sound bad but a lot of the time you can just teach from the text and cover all of the IRP's. Plus like what we've learned from our literacy classes there are often good bibliography's in the back of the text. These can allow you to narrow your focus on what you think is important for your students to learn. Plus there is always movies documentaries, and other media resources that can help you narrow your focus. These can also be used with text and other resources to critcally understand what topic is being covered. Coming back to the text,it is always a good outline for what is expeted to be taught. I know saying this sounds kind of redundant but sometimes you just gotta say it.
This past week I taught a History 12 class and a SS11 class. I was so nervous about the 12 that I thought I was going to lose it. The main reason was I haven't done American Foreign Policy during the interwar years in at least 4 years. So in order to make myself feel more comfortable and the students, I opened up by saying "I have a confession to make. While I do have a history degree my focus is on British History and it has been 4 years since I study this particular subject. So we are going to learn this together." The students were amazing, AND I was amazed at how much I actually DID know, and those students who were quite versed in the subject put in their two cents to make it even more comprehensible.
What's the point, don't worry, you'll surprise yourself!!! Follow the text, but do extra readings and try to bring it back to today to make it relevant.
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