Rationale

          For as long as I can remember I have wanted to teach others. There was no question in my mind that I would grow up and be an
educator. As a child I would hold “class” in my garage and enlighten all the neighborhood children with my daily lessons. When I embarked upon my own journey as a student I made mental notes as to which of my teachers I wanted emulate when I became a teacher and especially the ones that I would never mimic. When I entered college I decided that I would focus on early childhood education and charged down the gauntlet of courses requited to accomplish that goal. It was not until my junior year of college that I decided early childhood was not the route I truly wanted to take. Through my education courses and many hours of perplexing thought I realized that teaching at the secondary level was where I truly felt called. I made this change because I felt my purpose for teaching was truly to prepare young adults to actively, knowledgeably, and respectively live and participate as citizens. I decided I could accomplish these goals best through teaching social studies. I had always had the raw desire to teach, then I narrowed my goals to specifically teaching social studies, now I recognize the need to focus on adding substance to my purpose for teaching social studies. In order to ensure my success and effectiveness as an educator I need a plan, a framework to outline and guide my enthusiastic passion to educate students through social studies.

          It is my goal as a teacher to not only enrich student’s lives with the factual content associated with social studies, but more importantly to equip them through those lessons with knowledge and values that they can carry with them into their journey as adults. Social Studies is a unique subject in the way it provides an avenue for teaching students about participation in society. When teaching social studies, no matter if it is political science, economics, or history, I believe you are in fact teaching about society; the way people live and have lived, the way that people interact with each other and as part of society, the decisions people make, and the value systems they use to make those decisions. Social Studies is an outlet to enable students to learn about their own lives and their roles in society through learning about past historical figures and events.

May 3, 2004sp;  However, in order to cultivate a true desire for understanding and knowledge in the classroom I must seek a way to “actively engage” each student. As a teacher I will be unsuccessful in guiding my students to live as active, knowledgeable, and respectful citizens if I simply require them to memorize key dates and figures. It is imperative to my effectiveness as a teacher that I cause my students to think a little deeper, to think cognitively and critically about the material presented in the classroom. I want to focus my lessons and my students on finding the answers to questions of why things happened, why decisions were made, the effects of decisions, and how this affects my students lives and our society now and in the future, not simply what happened in the past. The practice of critical thinking associated with answering these questions will not only allow the students to better understand social sciences, but also provide them skills that they can apply to all areas of their lives. It is my vision that when my students leave my classroom they will have learned to challenge all aspects of life and society through original thought and critical thinking. As an educator I want to encourage my students to apply the thinking skills they practice in my classroom to all areas of their lives.

In order for students to reach to the higher level of “active engagement” I feel that they need an environment where they feel comfortable to think freely. I am dedicated to creating an environment in my classroom where students feel comfortable to express their opinion and respectfully challenge the opinions of other students and myself. I want my classroom to be a place where students not only feel comfortable to learn, challenge and explore, but also a safe haven for individuality to grow and be nurtured. I will constantly be striving to instill in my students a knowledge that it is okay to be unique in thought and personality. I feel that one way of reinforcing individuality in the classroom is to create lessons that highlight perspectives that go beyond the typical “winner’s version of history.” By including information and discussion related to the viewpoints, events and people that are frequently ignored in the classroom the students will be provided with additional opportunities to explore and identify with the past, present, and future. It is important to me to not only teach individuality and original thought, but also to teach students to be respectful and tolerant of opinions and beliefs that are different from their own. This can be accomplished through a wide variety of classroom activities, but also through content that brings to light relationships between people that share different opinions and how their relationships affected history and society.

          I ultimately feel that it is my responsibility and role as an educator to wear many hats in the classroom. Naturally I will be a source of content information and knowledge for my students. I will present lessons and activities that teach them about our past present and future, our government, our society and the world around us. Secondly, I feel it is my role to encourage my students to practice active engagement through critical thinking. I will encourage my students to question, critique, and challenge the information the encounter in my classroom and in all aspects of their lives. Also, I feel it is my role to be a motivator and inspiration in the classroom. I will strive to encourage my students to perform to the absolute best of their ability and I will hold them accountable to the highest standards. Finally, I hope to be a role model and set an example to the students in my classroom. I want to personify all that I am attempting to teach them. I want to show my students through a constant example what it means to be an active citizen, constantly challenging the world and myself, and all the while maintaining my individuality and embracing the diversity of those around me.

In conclusion I want to stress that this is rationale is a work in progress. I acknowledge that I truly do not know how to best accomplish my goals as a teacher. I believe that I will, for the rest of my life, constantly question and reevaluate my goals and reasons for teaching and more importantly the best way to accomplish those goals. I believe that I will update and improve my rationale as time goes on and my experiences as a teacher are enriched and expanded. However for now, I will allow my limited knowledge be guided by my passion and dedication to create the best possible learning environment for my students.