5 Key Takeaways from The Social Studies Teacher Bootcamp

Kirsten 0:00

This is the social studies teacher podcast a show for busy elementary teachers looking for fun and engaging ways to easily add social studies into their classroom schedule without feeling overwhelmed or pressed for time. I'm curious to know if you southern teach an educator and mom who is passionate about all things social studies, I love sharing ideas and strategies that are low prep and easy to implement. So let's dive in together.

Welcome to another episode of the social studies teacher podcast. Today's episode is a little bit different. I wanted to share with you a little bit about the social studies teacher bootcamp that I recently hosted last week. In real time, if you're listening to this, it was from July 17 through July 21. But I don't want to give you any FOMO. I want to share with you five key takeaways from this boot camp. With other social studies teachers and upper elementary. It was so fun to host and put on. And it was really great PD just kind of get you pumped up for the school year, I wanted to share with you some main takeaways that I think you could utilize as well.

So the first takeaway is what could happen when we put social studies on the backburner? We know that there's not a lot of time to teach social studies because reading and math are usually at the forefront. Those are high stakes subjects. And science even I know in fifth grade with Texas, that's when Star starts in standardized testing in fifth grade. So science becomes a really important subject. In fifth grade. We're thinking science, we're thinking reading and we're thinking math, we're not really thinking that much about social studies just because of the nature of things. Some districts don't even put it on their daily schedule. It's just you got to somehow integrate it with ELA. And when especially when districts are already de prioritizing it, it's so hard to try to do it yourself. And as a team, maybe you're trying to put in social studies concepts, but there's really no room there's no wiggle room. So it's really important that you take the time to give it some love. But because when you put it on the backburner This could result in a lack of awareness and appreciation for other cultures, global interdependence, how we relate to the world and where we are in this community, against other communities or with other communities. And also, it could result in lack of awareness of one's own his stray of one's own community's history. And we want students being informed about, you know, other cultures and the world around us. We want them to understand that. And so when we put them on the when we put social studies on the backburner, we're putting this ability to do that at risk. And I know it's hard out there because you know, there are certain topics that are coming into light that and so there is this kind of fear and backlash of what should I be teaching? What should I not be teaching? But there's so many topics that could be utilized that you don't have to get permission for anything like that. So don't be you know, don't use it as an excuse of, well, I, you know, I am not I'm my hands are tied, I can't teach certain topics we can, there are certain things we can do. And so just researching to make sure what you're doing is aligned with what is in your state's curriculum, or what is allowed in your state and making sure that gets included in your social studies block.

The second takeaway had to do with a survey question that I gave to my audience a couple months ago. And I thought it was really eye opening, and I wanted to share it with the members of the bootcamp. So here's what the question was, if you could summarize how you felt about teaching social studies, in one word, what would that word be? I'll give you some time to think about, I'll just give you a couple seconds to think about how do you feel if you could just feel what word comes out to you. So the results of my audience were pretty telling. There were some positive and there were a lot of negative, some of the most common positive were that it was exciting, and that they love it. And the most common negative one is that it's forgotten. So that was really telling but some other positive words, it's fun, interesting, honored. And some said it's a landmine challenging struggle, difficult board. So right now, Social Studies is not exactly fun, or engaging. Especially, you know, even the history textbooks or social studies textbooks, you know, there's only so much you can do with a book. And we don't want it to be a repeat of what we grew up with, with, you know, a textbook, and then we have to answer the five comprehension questions in the textbook. And then we have to write it on a piece of paper and make sure we do it in the margins. We don't want to do any of that. Hopefully, we're not doing that. But it is something that was telling is that mostly negative of how we feel about teaching social studies. And I can bet that why that is, is because we're not really given the tools, or the time to teach social studies in general.

All right, number three, this was the third takeaway that I have for you. There are some ways to fit social studies in your schedule, you can make it happen. And something that I shared was something really easy. It's just focusing on one topic a week, not trying to fit in some whole unit about, you know, the five regions of the US. I mean, like, that would be way too much work. But what you could do is spread it out one week, you're talking about the Northeast region, when we're talking about the southwest region when we're talking about the Midwest region. So spreading it out, you can start by doing that. And then I also gave some examples of for Schedule Options. So let's say you have 90 minutes for a whole week to teach social studies. And that's it, nothing else. Well, instead of trying to do 190 minute long activity, there's four different ways you can do this, you can do three days a week for 30 minutes, spreading it out, pretty easy, you know, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. A second way is to do 15 minutes a day. And then Friday is 30 minutes, assuming that on Fridays, if you're like me, we had assessment days, we had quizzes and reading and other subjects. So there was a lot of extra time to do other things. So 30 minutes, extra time can be spent on social studies. And it could be something that students look forward to like they know that they're going to be doing something really fun with social studies can always do some type of assessment or project or really engaging activity, save those big activities that require more class time, on Fridays, and then 15 minutes you can do some short activity like current events activity, a daily passage or something like that. The third option Shen is having two days a week for 45 minutes dedicated to social studies. This is something I personally did, I had to split my science and social studies time. So I did two days a week for social studies. And the other three days in that same timeframe was science, I was really the only way I could get something in. Because otherwise I would have, I wouldn't have been able to fit it in. And I just would not have the time and would just end up really overwhelmed and frustrated. So this was my way to make it work. The fourth option could be interesting, you can have 30 minutes on Monday, 15 minutes, Tuesday, 15 minutes, Wednesday and 30 minutes on Thursday. So you can stick to the same topic, one topic, and 30 minutes that first day you're going to you're doing a slideshow or guided notes, you're really introducing the concept. 15 minutes are some type of review activity or quick activity. And then that last day, you do some type of assessment or project. You could also sub the 30 minutes on Thursday and skip a day and just have it on Friday as well. So there you can make social studies fit in your schedule, whether you've got 15 minutes a week, or 90 minutes a week, or 120 minutes a week, whatever it is, you can definitely find a way to make it work.

All right, the fourth key takeaway is a quote. This is from a book called atomic habits by James clear, I read this book last fall. And it's something that I kind of really took to heart, I don't normally you know, with self help, with self help books, I don't really, this one kind of stuck with me. I will say that not just in as an educator and business owner, but also as a mom. And you know, just it just helps me with different ways of thinking outside of teaching and business and all of that stuff. This quote was really interesting. We rarely think about change this way, because every one is consumed by the end goal. But one pushup is better than not exercising, one minute of Guitar Practice is better than none at all, one minute of reading is better than never picking up a book, it's better to do less than you hoped than to do nothing at all. I can think of so many things inside and outside of the classroom that relate to this quote, one minute of talking about some type of current event that's happening or a historical event or holiday is better than none at all. So I hope that you can take this into the next school year is that something is better than nothing. So I say this can help me outside of the classroom because I'm thinking like, even if I didn't get around to maybe doing all the laundry at least I did a load of dishes. That's better than not doing anything at all. So it's something that you can apply to a really a lot of things in life.

The fifth takeaway was a another survey question, what would be most helpful as a social studies teacher, so from the audience who responded 100% said engaging resources for every unit 89% said a quick place to find quality resources. 62% said resources that align with standards 37% set a place to collaborate with other teachers 31% said support with implementing social studies lessons and 17% said on demand PD. So if you've been following along with me for the last several months or so, or even further into that, like way back, I have been planning and making this type of thing happen.

And that is part of where the Smart and Simple Social Studies membership comes in my idea way back when it was in the early stages, was a hub for upper elementary teachers who didn't really have a curriculum that they liked, or they're picking and pulling resources from different places, wherever just to get what they need. And they want a place where they can just get what they need in social studies. And it's easy, it's super easy, where you have just type in what you need. You download it, print it off, and go. So like thinking about a one stop shop, where you don't have to keep paying for it every time you know. So that's why I created the social studies membership. Something that I pride myself in are the type of resources I make. I have been in the camp of working smarter, not harder. So my resources are always easy to prep, low prep, you just print it, assign it, make it digital if you want it And it's also fun for students. And it's rigorous for students. And it's not just fluffy activities, it's actually something where students are learning the information. So this membership, Smart and Simple Social Studies, membership is open right now, it's only open until the end of the month, July 31. If you're listening to this in real time, there are currently over 160 resources that I've added to the platform. And that makes up the bulk of the membership. It's a resource library where you can search by topic by domain by resource type. And there's a ton of different resources in there, from task cards to projects, to daily passages, web quests under every topic under the sun that you can think of. And if it's not there, you have a way to request certain resources so that I can add that to my list of things to make for the members. So that is something that I'm offering for you if you are interested. If you joined the boot camp and or you're listening to these takeaways, and you realize you need something better so you can make social studies are a thing for your classroom throughout the school year and not randomly or every once in a while you want to be purposeful with what you're assigning and how you're assigning it. This membership is made for you. I highly recommend that you check it out if you go to smarten simple social studies.com. You can also click in the show notes, of course, where all the links are. And you can always take a look and join and you can get access to the resource library and the other special bonuses as soon as you checkout and purchase.

So that is the end of this episode. I hope you enjoyed these key takeaways. And if you weren't able to join the bootcamp, don't worry, I will be doing another one next summer. So that's something you can always look forward to. Well, that's the end of this episode. I hope you enjoyed it. And I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week. Thanks for listening to the social studies teacher podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, hit that subscribe button and leave a review. I would love to hear your thoughts. You can also find me on Instagram at the southern teach. I can't wait for you to join me in the next episode for more teacher tips and strategies.