Findlay High School is the largest, and only high school in the Findlay City

School District with 2,171 students enrolled. It is also the second largest in
Northwest Ohio. More specifically, the class I observe, Mrs. Daviss class, has about
20 students in each of the three periods I am there for. Each one is divided almost
exactly 50% boy to girl with the exception of the last class, which is of a vast
majority male. Being a school in northwest Ohio it is predominantly white, with 3 or
four students of minority in each period. The classroom is decorated from wall to
wall with motivational posters, artwork, and work of students from this year. There
are 7 desks in the room, each circular, so the students face each other instead of all
in one direction. Sometimes this seems to cause problems concerning attention but
all in all it seems to be a positive thing, allowing the students to more easily
collaborate with each other when assigned group activities ( which is often.)
Last week brought a boring week in Mrs. Davis class, it was test day. I spent
my hours there helping Mrs. Davis catch up on grading papers while the students
used the entire period to take the test, and then read if they finished early.
One note on this activity. During the grading of papers I came to situation
where my grade on a students extended response would put the student in a less
than favorable grading position for the class. If I scored to low, then he would fail
the test, and because of the lack luster performance in the past weeks, the student
would also fail the quarter unless the student scored extremely high on the test
given that day. It was a peculiar position, and one I havent found myself in in quite
a while. The rubric was simple, for this situation specifically it was Have a complete
thesis statement as the last sentence of your first paragraph in the essay. The
student in question did not accomplish this task, and in my opinion not even close
enough to be given partial credit. This miss-step in the students writing along with
the underwhelming content of the essay created the situation that we found
ourselves in. Realizing the gravity of this specific situation I opted to get Mrs.
Daviss attention on the matter and default to her on what to do with the grade.
If you give (the student) points for something (the student) did not do, and
raise the grade on grounds of simply not wanting to fail (the student) then you have
tainted all of the other grades on the paper. Its a teachers burden to introduce
failure to a student, and for many for the first time.
After this she simply turned back to her stack of papers and continued on. It
wasnt a cold-hearted thing to say, or a statement born of malice for a certain
student. It did however really make me think, and I will be referencing this situation
further in the future. Giving that student a failing grade was in my opinion, my first
real world experience as a teacher, and one that will stick with me for a long time.
So, lets get to it, what do you need to know to teach social studies?
The obvious first. You need to have a broad knowledge and understanding all the
content in which your silence covers. Geography, government, modern history, and
economics are the broad areas needing mastery at the high school level. You also
need a deep understanding of what it means to be a citizen, and a responsible one
at that. You would need to hold yourself to a higher standard than other teachers, or

people in general; for example, if a social studies teacher doesnt vote, then the
very basis for an American government class has fallen thru. It is a daunting task to
wrap my head around it all, there is so very much information in the coming years
that I must understand well enough to teach, and the curriculum only gets bigger
with each passing day.
EQ What do you need to know to teach social studies?
SQ1- How important is it to know your students on a deep level?
SQ1A Extremely. As we learned from previous readings there are a
multitude (three types in the reading for the blog post) of types of teachers. This
would mean that there are also different types of students. It is the teachers
responsibility to form a firm understanding of all his/her students for the betterment
of the classroom. A room(s) full of students will quickly come to know you as the
teacher, and it will be fairly easy for them as you are leading the class, your voice is
heard the much and your decisions are valued the highest. Their level of knowing
you helps them achieve to your standards, appeal to them, and with time establish
you what kind of teacher you are in the students eyes. Best case scenario is for this
understanding is a two way street.
SQ2- With all of the content a social studies teacher is responsible for
knowing, what level of mastery is required for each and every subject/topic?
SQ2A- In my experience knowledge of the subject being taught,
although very important, takes second place to your ability to teach in general. With
the disclaimer that it is in your best interest to get to as high of an understanding as
possible for the topics at hand, and you shouldnt attempt to teach a subject that
you have little to no understanding of. There is a saying in the military, People
dont rise to the occasion, but fall back on their training. Assuming that by the time
you get your own classroom, you have a pretty good idea on how to teach
something, you can always, and should fall back onto what you were trained to
do. Knowledge will come with time, and teaching the subject, its the art of actually
facilitating learning that is the difficult part.
SQ3- After you pass the OAE and get a job, what other responsibilities
to continued learning do you have?
SQ3A- With the professional requirements for each job aside, it is in
your best interest, and one of your biggest responsibilities to the class/school to
keep learning. I think of a class full of kids playing the game of stump the teacher.
It is very easy to lose credibility, especially in this time of instant information. You
dont have to be an all knowing master of everything, but you can always try to be.
There isnt any fault in saying I dont know to a class, but there is a certain
expectation for you to be actively trying to always be improving your knowledge
base, but not so you dont get stumped or so you can get a pay raise with a new
degree. Pursue learning for the mere reason of wanting to learn. You will never be
worse off for learning more.

Works Cited
Social Studies. (2013). Retrieved November 02, 2016, from
http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Ohios-Learning-Standards/Social-Studies

Findlay High School. (n.d.). Retrieved November 02, 2016, from

http://fhs.findlaycityschools.org/