So Long Social Studies Methods!

The last couple days of social studies methods ended with the class conducting mock interviews. Interviews  are the thing that everyone fears at one point in their life.  I survived my first job interview when I got my summer job.  Of course I was horrified, but as I was going through it I just kept thinking of the outcome.  I was going to work in classrooms with students who have special needs. I knew this was going to be a great experience and I wanted this job! This is the mindset I try to keep with all interviews!

In class, we had 4 administrators. which were our colleagues, and they went around to each of our fieldwork groups asking us different questions about social studies, cooperative learning, and technology.  All of the interviewers did a great job with the questions the prepared! They really helped to sum up what we learned in the course and got us thinking about what we actually might want to say in a real interview!

My favorite questions that they asked were the ones that had us comparing ourselves to toys, superheros, colors, and songs.  It makes the interview more personal and it also helps you to think on your feet.  I appreciated these questions so much because I did not think that these would be questions that actual principals would ask us.  Rebecca told me that when she attended a job fair, a principal informed her that he asks a question about comparing yourself to a superhero to throw the interviewee off. He wants to see how well they can think on their feet and come up with a logical answer.  I really appreciated the questions like this because this is something that I will take with me when I go into interviews.

I also appreciated how the administrators gave us feedback at the end.  For my group they wanted us to relate back to our prior experiences, in college, when we answered questions.  I believe that when we are being asked questions, that we just try to answer it as quickly as we can.  However, relating back to past experiences shows the exposure you have had to different things.  They want to hear about our past experiences because it shows what we have done and the things we have used before stepping into our first job!

Once we finished the interviews, nine of us got hired! I got hired to Alisha's school which was super exciting and even though I was not actually going to work for her, we were still looking forward too it!

I could not believe that after these interviews, we were coming to a close on social studies methods. 
It felt like yesterday that I just finished Science Methods and was getting ready to take on Social Studies.  I had a blast this semester preparing lessons with my fieldwork group to teach and watching what the other groups prepared!

Overall, I am so grateful for the experience I had with Dr. Smirova.  She taught me about so many different technologies and types of lessons that I can integrate into my classroom.  I know when I am in my real job interview, I will refer back to the things she taught me this past year! Now it is on to finish my classes next semester and student teach next spring. It has been real blogging to my viewers this past year. Now, I am going to be signing off for a little while to finish my studies.  I hope to start a blog that follows me as a teacher in my classroom.  Until then, wish me luck!