Brienne Peers

While reading Ronald Evans’ “The Social Studies Wars,” I was intrigued by the development of the social studies field over time. As I read through the development and gained an understanding of the different forces involved, I was surprised by the changes that have taken place within the subject area of social studies over the years. In all honesty, I did not know the field of social studies went back as far as it did with such depth, but it was interesting to read the various changes that have taken place over the decades. I had not thought previously as to the controversies that have arisen, but as I read about the differing forces, such as the National Council for the Social Studies and the AHA Commission on Social Studies, I was fascinated by the way in which issues occurring in society during the time a committee or group met were reflected in the decisions made for social studies curriculum. As I read through the history of social studies education, I found this theme reoccurri...

This unit's readings made me reflect on why we teach social studies. I was recently having a conversation with someone who, after finding out I was a social studies teacher, said, "I am surprised they still teach social studies in schools today." While at first I was taken by surprise at this comment, it made me stop and think about to what purpose we teach social studies. Do we teach it to learn from the past so we do not repeat the same mistakes, as is often the case made for studying social studies? Do we teach it with the hopes that our students will one day vote in elections? As I read through this unit's readings and reflected on the comment that had taken me by surprise, I had to think about to what purpose social studies holds in schools today. While I grew up with enjoyment in learning history and studying social studies, I know that many of my students do not. I have been asked by many students  why  they need to take this class when they will never us...

Growing up attending public schools, attending a university, and now teaching in a public school, I always assumed that teaching citizenship was only a part of the job of a social studies teacher. I assumed students received their education on what it meant to be a citizen and how to participate as a citizen when they took social studies courses, specifically the required high school civics course. As I thought about my own idea of citizenship and what it means to be a citizen and read this unit's readings, I began to rethink what it means to teach citizenship and who's job within a school that is. It was John Dewey's Creative Democracy that started my thinking on democracy and citizenship less as concepts we study in school and more as a way of life. While I taught the required high school civics course during my student teaching internship, I prided myself on being the teacher that taught students how to participate in our democracy in various ways. While I certainly d...

Hello! I am Brienne, a middle school social studies teacher in Michigan. Growing up, I always wanted to be a teacher. It has been the only profession I ever saw myself in and now that I have been teaching for a few years, I am happy with the decision I have made. I graduated with my undergraduate degree in History Education from Michigan State University in 2016, along with a minor in Political Science and social studies endorsement. I completed my student teaching internship at Waterford Mott High School where I taught U.S. Government and A.P. Human Geography. I then taught for two years at Quincy Middle School where I taught eighth grade U.S. History. I am going to be starting a new teaching position at Avondale Middle School this fall where I will be teaching seventh-grade social studies. I am looking forward to starting a new curriculum and working with a diverse group of learners. While I enjoy teaching history and building relationships with my students and colleagues, I al...

Can the internet teach me a new style of handwriting? This is the question I went into my Networked Learning Project (NLP) to investigate. As our society becomes increasingly reliant on the internet, I was tasked with seeing if I could learn a skill that I was interested in through only internet resources, such as videos and help forums. I can proudly say, after weeks of searching the internet and practicing, that the internet can indeed teach me a new style of handwriting – brush lettering. Figure 1: Practicing letters using a brush lettering marker | Photograph taken by the author Through this experience of learning how to write words and quotes in brush lettering, I am walking away with not only a new skill but also an understanding of what it is like to learn from the internet. From someone who did not have access to much technology beyond a computer lab or two in high school, this was a new experience for me. As I spent time searching online for help when I was stuck with w...

To continue with my study of 21st century learning , I am considering how to incorporate aspects of 21st century learning that have been missing previously into my classroom. I have struggled with the way social studies has been taught previously in which students were expected to memorize a list of presidents or several dates of various events. While I would not say those are unimportant, I do not think it is where the focus of instruction should be. I am moving towards what Bransford, Brown, and Cocking (2000) call learning with understanding in a knowledge-centered environment. Bransford et al. (2000) share that “students’ interest or engagement in a task is clearly important” (p. 23). I want to create lessons that are engaging and interesting for my students, while there is still meaningful learning occurring. Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash I was tasked with writing a lesson plan for my curriculum that includes technology. I immediately thought about TPACK, a framework...