Professionalism
There are many elements to professionalism. The standard as set forth by the Commonwealth of Virginia states that teachers of history and social sciences will reflect frequently on how and why they teach, take part in professional memberships, and take advantage of real world/current examples. It behooves teachers to use these resources and methods to not only better their skills, but to enhance their classrooms.
Reflection
Teaching is often a case of trial and error. This can happen in many ways and is often a blessing. By reflecting on material as well how information is taught teachers can improve the education experience for students. During my student teaching at Cave Spring High School, this was evident after an assignment was given and a good portion of students missed the goal. While many students were creative with their stories they failed to reach the historical accuracy that was I was looking for. Instead of throwing away the assignment though my lead teacher and I sat down and came up with guiding questions for the assignment for future use. These guiding questions deal with elements of daily life, characteristics of those in the story, and what the world looks like for the role.
Professional Memberships
By taking advantage of my membership in both NEA and VEA, I have many professional development opportunities, as well as a wealth of resources that can be used in my classroom. As a preservice teacher I also had the chance to take part in Project Capital, which is a “Civic Education Institute for Pre-Service Educators.” This conference exposed me to many local resources that are free or low cost to be used in a secondary Social Studies classroom. These ranged from the entire state capital, to online webinars, and even an app students can use on location or in the classroom for a tour of Monticello.
Real/Current Examples
Using real and current examples was practically the entire theme of both my US History class as well as my Government class during student teaching. Government classes were started with student-led current events presentation and discussion. Students had to find one current event, summarize it, explain it to their peers, and then ask two to three questions about its tie to the government. US History classes differed in that the past event being studied was tied to event happening today. This was popularly done by comparing manifest destiny and how American actions are viewed and executed today.
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