My Very First.

Learning to be an educator has required a lot of work over the past few years. As a junior, I am even deeper into my studies and am taking 4 classes that deal solely with teaching education. The feelings I have about this profession range from excited to scared, confident to intimidated, but most of all I’m just awed that I am this close to actually being in the classroom. Life is going by very fast and it is awesome to have people who have been here with me in my classes since day one. But I've still got a little while to go.

Social Studies Methods is a class that I have honestly been dreading. History has never been my favorite class, but I have had a recent change of heart when it comes to this subject area and the other 4 strands involved. I have taken my western civilizations classes along with American Century and Global Understanding, and every time I was in one of those classes, I remained stubborn as to not enjoy the material being taught. But over the past few months, while I was in Global Understanding, I found that this “stuff” I was simply memorizing, could actually be useful. And *gasp* actually interesting! Who would have ever thought I would be the one to say something like that?!

On the very first day of class, I could already see how this class was a little bit different. I have only had experience with 2 professors in the education program here at Gardner-Webb, so I was looking forward to a different point of view. In this class, I have been overstimulated to the max. I was not at all expecting to learn so much about technology in this methods course! It has been a very shocking surprise, but a much appreciated one. Even as a student of the 21stcentury, I hardly know how to work computers and different devices. I have learned many websites that I can use for my future classroom as well as ways of teaching.

This class has thus far, been incredibly helpful to my growth and helpful towards some other decisions in my life about school. First of all, a few of the articles I have read for class have been very informative and forced me to think critically about my profession and beliefs about the education system. Not only what I believe about them, but how I could have an impact on the system. Also, I have been thinking about changing my major to become a middle grades teacher since sophomore year and the only problem that was holding me back was what I would specialize in. I've been able to learn over the past year that social studies would be something I would love to teach to middle school kids. It could prove to be difficult, but also, I could show students what I never learned at that age; this information is really interesting!
Here’s to future learning!
Much love,
Brittany Kertesz

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