Amber Nicole- Stimulating History
As a pre-service Social Studies teacher, I am excited to bring Social Studies alive!
When I was in Kindergarten, I knew already that I wanted to become a teacher. My dedication to my education has always been strong. As I grew up, it was just deciding which level I wanted to teach and in which content area. After having fantastic history teachers since seventh grade, I knew needed to teach history. It pains me to hear "history is so boring" I believe that it is quite the opposite because someone is always interpreting it in a new way and history expands its narrative and keeps that one moment continuously growing. I enjoy analyzing and piecing together the events of history and putting my signature on an event. Memorizing and rote learning were never my strong suits, which those approaches make history boring.
I am a coffee drinker: cream and sugar. It is not simply a caffeine habit but the taste that I enjoy. However, the stimulating from the caffeine has an effect on my energetic personality. I know that I will be the type of teacher that will be walking all over the classroom using my hands to talk and telling terrible jokes. Humor is very important to me because laughing is what keeps the soul young. I laugh very loudly and often, and I am not embarrassed by it at all. Laughing is part of my energetic nature. Ever since I was younger, I have been dancing. The physical connection between me and the music is very strong. Turn on music and some sort of movement will occur. My favorite teachers always used music to connect the topic to our lives. Music is catchy and will automatically engage the students and stimulate higher critical thinking.
I also teach group fitness classes. It requires tremendous energy and enthusiasm to perform a physically demanding task. Many a times, my participants will want to quit, and I encourage them to push their limits because I believe in them. This experience has prepared me for the school classroom. Creating a routine is similar to creating a lesson plan. There are many outside-unpaid hours that go into planning for a single class. Then there is the need to be flexible according to your participants needs and based on how well they are picking up the material, just like students learning about a historical event. Also, I learned to break down the routines for those who are not at my level. In teaching these classes, I feel prepared to teach in a school classroom. The energy inside me is ready to go out there in hopes of inspiring that same "aha!" moment that my seventh grade teacher gave to me through her energy and passion of history.
I am a very passionate person and feel deeply without fear. My life motto is "Enjoy Life. This is not a dress rehearsal." Unfortunately, the author remains anonymous. I would love to give credit for such wonderful words and imagery. As a dancer, I have experienced many dress rehearsals. These are the moments where almost everything goes wrong and that is exciting! It is during this moments that the greatest learning occurs. You becoming more acquainted with the space and the role your body plays within that space in relation to your fellow dancers. There are so many great moments to make new connections and to learn about how to avoid collisions. But, there are no dress rehearsals. Life only gives you one take to make the scene right, so with passion and courage, we have to dive straight in. Yes there will be times that the scene will flop, but as my dad always said to me "Keep Going!" It's a good thing that there are no dress rehearsals because life would be too easy. If we got to redo everything we messed up there would be no learning because we would fall into a mindset that this time doesn't count. We can still learn the same lessons we would in a dress rehearsal .Each moment we have in life that we go for it there are intentions of succeeding because this is the only one that will count.
As a motivated person with great passions, I feel that I will be able to connect with my students and provide the stimulating and encouraging environment to inspire them to pursue their dreams and goals just like I did. It takes a strong and optimistic personality to overlook all the negative attitudes in the world and still see the potential our future will have all because of the students sitting in our classrooms begging us to give them the tools they need to succeed out there.
When I was in Kindergarten, I knew already that I wanted to become a teacher. My dedication to my education has always been strong. As I grew up, it was just deciding which level I wanted to teach and in which content area. After having fantastic history teachers since seventh grade, I knew needed to teach history. It pains me to hear "history is so boring" I believe that it is quite the opposite because someone is always interpreting it in a new way and history expands its narrative and keeps that one moment continuously growing. I enjoy analyzing and piecing together the events of history and putting my signature on an event. Memorizing and rote learning were never my strong suits, which those approaches make history boring.
I am a coffee drinker: cream and sugar. It is not simply a caffeine habit but the taste that I enjoy. However, the stimulating from the caffeine has an effect on my energetic personality. I know that I will be the type of teacher that will be walking all over the classroom using my hands to talk and telling terrible jokes. Humor is very important to me because laughing is what keeps the soul young. I laugh very loudly and often, and I am not embarrassed by it at all. Laughing is part of my energetic nature. Ever since I was younger, I have been dancing. The physical connection between me and the music is very strong. Turn on music and some sort of movement will occur. My favorite teachers always used music to connect the topic to our lives. Music is catchy and will automatically engage the students and stimulate higher critical thinking.
I also teach group fitness classes. It requires tremendous energy and enthusiasm to perform a physically demanding task. Many a times, my participants will want to quit, and I encourage them to push their limits because I believe in them. This experience has prepared me for the school classroom. Creating a routine is similar to creating a lesson plan. There are many outside-unpaid hours that go into planning for a single class. Then there is the need to be flexible according to your participants needs and based on how well they are picking up the material, just like students learning about a historical event. Also, I learned to break down the routines for those who are not at my level. In teaching these classes, I feel prepared to teach in a school classroom. The energy inside me is ready to go out there in hopes of inspiring that same "aha!" moment that my seventh grade teacher gave to me through her energy and passion of history.
I am a very passionate person and feel deeply without fear. My life motto is "Enjoy Life. This is not a dress rehearsal." Unfortunately, the author remains anonymous. I would love to give credit for such wonderful words and imagery. As a dancer, I have experienced many dress rehearsals. These are the moments where almost everything goes wrong and that is exciting! It is during this moments that the greatest learning occurs. You becoming more acquainted with the space and the role your body plays within that space in relation to your fellow dancers. There are so many great moments to make new connections and to learn about how to avoid collisions. But, there are no dress rehearsals. Life only gives you one take to make the scene right, so with passion and courage, we have to dive straight in. Yes there will be times that the scene will flop, but as my dad always said to me "Keep Going!" It's a good thing that there are no dress rehearsals because life would be too easy. If we got to redo everything we messed up there would be no learning because we would fall into a mindset that this time doesn't count. We can still learn the same lessons we would in a dress rehearsal .Each moment we have in life that we go for it there are intentions of succeeding because this is the only one that will count.
As a motivated person with great passions, I feel that I will be able to connect with my students and provide the stimulating and encouraging environment to inspire them to pursue their dreams and goals just like I did. It takes a strong and optimistic personality to overlook all the negative attitudes in the world and still see the potential our future will have all because of the students sitting in our classrooms begging us to give them the tools they need to succeed out there.