Nichole Matzke
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Hello! My name is Nichole Matzke and I am currently a junior at Grand Valley State University pursuing a major in Integrated Science and a minor in Elementary Education. I have had a lot of experience working with students in elementary classrooms. I spent the last half of my senior year in high school working with a second grade class on mostly reading and writing. The biggest reward for me during this time was noticing the big improvement from the day that I started to the day that we had to say our goodbyes. Most of the students went from writing one or two sentences to writing pages in writing workshop. This past summer I worked in a kindergarten classroom for about three weeks and was there to help with whatever needed to be done. It was a big range of tasks such as helping students with reading, writing, science, helping during recess, snack time, a full day of outdoor activities, and would also be in charge of keeping the whole class on task, and doing different lessons or parts of lessons with them, and even did things such as handing back papers, grading papers, etc. I have also done many observations and have had tutoring experiences with elementary aged children.
I have had a couple of positive experiences in elementary or middle school with social studies when I was younger. One positive experience that I remember having is making maps. I feel like I have made several maps (of the United States and of the world) throughout elementary and middle school. One big concept that I remember from doing this is that color coding maps made it much easier to understand and grasp the main concepts. Creating compasses also went along with this so that we could tell the directions of certain states or countries in relation to where we live. One thing that will always stick with me is the saying to remember the directions north, east, south, and west; never eat soggy worms. Another positive experience that I have had with social studies was performing mini skits in front of the class. We had to get into small groups and come up with a creative way to tell a certain story involving different tribes that existed or everyday life for people from a long time ago to show how much has changed from back then to what now takes place in our own lives. I thought that this was a fun and creative way to learn this content.
One experience with social studies that was not so good for me was the content involving the different branches of government, political system, etc. I don’t think that I have ever really grasped the concept of anything having to do with this because my teacher’s taught it in a way of requiring memorization rather than understanding. I honestly have very little knowledge about how the government works and everything involving that because I was never taught it in a creative way to where I could understand it. I feel like this is a very important area of content which I lack knowledge and I find that very unfortunate for myself and others that are in the same boat as me. This is stuff that takes place in everyone’s lives and I wish I would have had a better experience with this and actually understood how the government works, etc. The one thing that I do remember is having my mom quiz me every night and trying to find ways in which I could memorize concepts, such as the different branches of government (not trying to make sense or actually understand it).
Something that I would like to do similarly when I teach social studies is having my students do a lot of hands-on activities. For example, when we put on skits for the class it was a very fun way of learning for my classmates and I feel that it helped me learn the content better by putting myself in the shoes of someone else. It required me to think and act like someone from long ago might have whether that have been dressing like they would have, did chores that they would have done, how they would trade or hunt for food to support their families, etc. I feel that hands-on activities such as this one gives students a better understanding of the content being learned because it is presented in an interesting way. What I want to do differently when I teach social studies is not to make students think that all they need to know is what they are going to be tested on. Having to memorize content (like I did with the system of the government) does not teach students anything, it was actually very easy to forget anything that I might have learned soon after the test was taken. Rather, I want to make learning fun and exciting and something that all students look forward to doing no matter what it is that I am teaching.
Thank you for taking the time to learn a little bit about me! Feel free to contact me with any questions.
I have had a couple of positive experiences in elementary or middle school with social studies when I was younger. One positive experience that I remember having is making maps. I feel like I have made several maps (of the United States and of the world) throughout elementary and middle school. One big concept that I remember from doing this is that color coding maps made it much easier to understand and grasp the main concepts. Creating compasses also went along with this so that we could tell the directions of certain states or countries in relation to where we live. One thing that will always stick with me is the saying to remember the directions north, east, south, and west; never eat soggy worms. Another positive experience that I have had with social studies was performing mini skits in front of the class. We had to get into small groups and come up with a creative way to tell a certain story involving different tribes that existed or everyday life for people from a long time ago to show how much has changed from back then to what now takes place in our own lives. I thought that this was a fun and creative way to learn this content.
One experience with social studies that was not so good for me was the content involving the different branches of government, political system, etc. I don’t think that I have ever really grasped the concept of anything having to do with this because my teacher’s taught it in a way of requiring memorization rather than understanding. I honestly have very little knowledge about how the government works and everything involving that because I was never taught it in a creative way to where I could understand it. I feel like this is a very important area of content which I lack knowledge and I find that very unfortunate for myself and others that are in the same boat as me. This is stuff that takes place in everyone’s lives and I wish I would have had a better experience with this and actually understood how the government works, etc. The one thing that I do remember is having my mom quiz me every night and trying to find ways in which I could memorize concepts, such as the different branches of government (not trying to make sense or actually understand it).
Something that I would like to do similarly when I teach social studies is having my students do a lot of hands-on activities. For example, when we put on skits for the class it was a very fun way of learning for my classmates and I feel that it helped me learn the content better by putting myself in the shoes of someone else. It required me to think and act like someone from long ago might have whether that have been dressing like they would have, did chores that they would have done, how they would trade or hunt for food to support their families, etc. I feel that hands-on activities such as this one gives students a better understanding of the content being learned because it is presented in an interesting way. What I want to do differently when I teach social studies is not to make students think that all they need to know is what they are going to be tested on. Having to memorize content (like I did with the system of the government) does not teach students anything, it was actually very easy to forget anything that I might have learned soon after the test was taken. Rather, I want to make learning fun and exciting and something that all students look forward to doing no matter what it is that I am teaching.
Thank you for taking the time to learn a little bit about me! Feel free to contact me with any questions.