I'm not a fan of writing journals, so I thought blogging would be tedious. To be honest, when we were required to create a blog I thought to myself, "do we really have to?" It's not that I don't like to reflect on things going on, but I just thought blogging was a little pointless; who cares what I write? I used to just reflect in my head, or vent to people about my thoughts, and for me that was good enough. But let's face it, the older you get, the more your memory goes, and those reflections in my head are not going to last forever (at least not the way I originally remember them as). Blogging has been helpful throughout this semester because I am able to go back and look at my reflections. If I change my views or if I want to add something to my blog, I just do it! If I can't remember what happened in a lesson one day, I can go back and read about it. If I want to remember a cool quote, cartoon, or image, I can blog about it. It's just a really fun way to reflect and record. Thank goodness for technology; I love blogging! I can't imagine myself handwriting all of these things!
Not only has my opinion about blogging changed since the beginning of this semester, but my opinion and understanding of "Social Studies" has also evolved. Prior to this course, I thought that Social Studies = History... and I strongly disliked history because it was memorizing facts from a textbook. I have learned that Social Studies is much more than rote memorization. Social Studies is a type of science; information is discovered, analyzed, and synthesized. Social Studies is interactive and encompasses many topics. Social Studies teaches students how to become productive citizens of our society. Social Studies is more than a 45 minute boring lecture; it can and should be integrated across disciplines to tie the curriculum together and give it a purpose. Social Studies = fun!
