A Visitor

With the new inquiry model of social studies that we just started, we needed to find new ways to teach the students the standards.  I went to the workshop, and left still unsure and not confident.  So far however, it has been pretty awesome.  I was so nervous to give up the control to the students.  I wasn’t sure if they would step up to the challenge.  We are working on a civics unit, and they are in charge of coming up with what direction we will go with this.  One of the main parts to this standard is learning the difference between the different levels of Government.  My coach and I decided to try and get someone in to the classroom to help the students learn this.

Today we had the Mayor of Woodridge come in to talk with the students, and answer questions on what her role is.  Mayor Cunningham couldn’t have been more helpful.  We prepped the kids for a few days before she actually came.  We first talked about the role of a mayor to give them some background about some of the responsibilities a mayor has. This led to them asking questions to our mayor about anything that they still wondered about.  We practiced asking the questions for a couple days just to make sure they were comfortable with this.  We also made sure they knew exactly how to act during this time.  We didn’t want 23 hands flying through the air with “ooh oohs” being belted out.  I walked into this pretty sure they would do well, but I guess you never know.

When she came in, they were so pumped.  Mayor Cunningham first started off telling us a little bit about herself and her role as a mayor.  She told us how excited she was to be here, and that this was her favorite part about her job.  The kids then got a chance to ask her their questions.  They did amazing!!  They sounded so professional asking their questions, and were so polite about it.  Some of her answers were very detailed, so the student waiting had to be patient while she talked.  They did just that.  I was so proud of them and how they handled this situation.  Everything that was said today is going to drive our instruction for the rest of this unit.  I think they got so much out of this!  They now really know what a local level of Government entails, and now we can take that and learn even more about the state and national Government.

It is nice to see my class really surprise me.  They are a good class, but like every class, they definitely have their moments.  Some more than others.  Every single one of them did perfectly.  Perfectly!  I can’t wait until tomorrow to really follow up on this with them and get their thoughts.  So far I am really enjoying this new style of teaching.  I am not too sure where it will go from here, but I am excited to find out.