either work hard, or you might as well quit

In the midst of one of the most hectic semesters of my life--survival is my main goal.  This semester I'll be blogging about one of the classes I'm most excited for: teaching social studies in the elementary school (let's pretend the class DOESN'T run from 5:00-7:00 on Wednesday nights.)  I find my excitement ironic as I am THAT student that complains about history classes.  The one who finds no purpose in learning all the minute details of the past and who couldn't continuously pay attention in class to save my life.

I am confident that this class will be different.  Not only do I find myself oddly excited to learn about the methods of teaching Social Studies (maybe because I haven't seen my cooperating teacher do a Social Studies lesson), but I am most excited because the professor, Dr. Duncan, has given us a choice of what assignments we can do to constitute 50% of our final grade.  Conveniently, the assignments I have chosen to do either have A. flexible due dates or B. are due at the end of the semester.  Now before you go ahead and call me a slacker or a procrastinator, consider this: I am taking a 19 credit hour semester, 6 of the hours end the last week of February, and I am expected to spend time at my cooperating elementary school.  Flexible and late due dates are my best friends right now.  And for this I am extremely grateful.  

I have chosen to do three Social Studies related Read Alouds (one of which is already complete!), five current events (one of these is done too!), I am writing this blog, and doing an evaluation of the North Carolina Museum of History.  

Goals for myself:

• Improve my Social Studies disposition and get ready to share enthusiastically with my future students.
• Learn as much as I can and take risks by trying new things.
• Continue to work hard.  Either work hard or you might as well quit!  : )

Countdown until the end of block classes (and the return of my life to some assemblage of normalcy): 34 days.