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This is a timeline of my social studies journey throughout my life. Making this I have noticed

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This timeline is a chronological order of significant historical events, allowing me to understand how events relate to each other over time.

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As I look over my Social Studies Timeline, it is clear that I remember large assignments and interactive experiences the most. The positive experiences are associated with great teachers and visual projects. The more negative experiences are associated with poor instruction and difficult or boring assignments. Since becoming a full-time educator, I have realized the power of social studies education and how much it encompasses (beyond just history).

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engagement / agency / grounding / integration

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engagement / agency / grounding / integration

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It’s interesting that I don’t remember much from elementary school social studies. I notice that a lot of what I remember from middle school stems from events (within which I was an active participant), hands-on (or voices-on) activities, and media. This makes me think that engagement, agency, grounding, and integration are important to social studies experiences.

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Courtney O’Reilly: Social Studies Timeline

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Courtney O’Reilly: Social Studies Timeline

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My early connection with history through my dad’s stories reminds me how powerful storytelling can be in making social studies come alive for children. However, my 3rd-grade experience of dressing up as an “explorer” (colonizer), emphasizes the importance of sensitivity of historical narratives and being upfront and honest with kids about our history. My experiences in high school and college show how the right teachers and learning environments can spark a passion for social justice and critical thinking, reminding me of how essential it is for social studies to challenge students to engage with real-world issues. Social studies should be used as a tool for empowerment and change, and inspire activism and community involvement. This makes me think that to facilitate meaningful social studies experiences for children, we must create learning environments and lessons that are exciting, inclusive, thought-provoking, critical and relevant to the student’s lives.

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If it isn't legible, I tried to choose just a couple of standout moments from my own social studies learning. I called it "Sustaining Action" because I saw that as I grew older and learned more, a pattern emerged where I was inspired to take action, or find the best way for own action to find its output. My curiosity and self-study - which was mostly a necessity because I grew up in a rural area hostile to intellectual development - have poised me to be a teacher who puts social studies connections at the center of learning. We truly are political animals, as Aristotle said, and I think part of that truth is that our stories, our histories, and the other structures we have created to make sense of the world which fall under the social studies umbrella form the "why" for all our learning. This is why I as a teacher I believe a student's own personal story must be connected to and brought alive in the classroom to foster their curiosity and motivation.

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ellie pitkowsky- social studies timeline 

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ellie pitkowsky- social studies timeline 

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Something that immediately stands out to me from this timeline is how little social studies I took in college. Though I went to a school that stressed the importance of the liberal arts and had many requirements for what kinds of courses you had to take, I really had very limited social studies experiences in college. I continue to be surprised by how the school I currently work at does not prioritize social studies and am excited to think more deeply about why that is and the effect that it is having on students.

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Mariana - Social Studies Journey Timeline

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Mariana - Social Studies Journey Timeline

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Creating and looking at this, social studies is so woven into almost every facet and level of my life.

The study, appreciation and interest in it has been a gift in my life and fueled my educational and professional journeys. I have tried to weave social studies into almost every story and curriculum/unit I've ever created or taught. I will very likely still studying social studies as my elderly self! - Mariana Elder

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Something that surprises me is my lack of memory about high school social studies learning. Even though this was the time in my life when I probably learned the most social studies content. This makes me think about how the things that stuck with me were more hands-on experiences. Doing debates in middle school or being active in social justice related activities after undergrad.

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I noticed in reflecting about my experiences in social studies that the most memorable experiences were student-directed individual or group projects. I also remember teachers/professors that made social studies really interesting with their obvious passion for the subject. This is inspiring me to make social studies more constructivist and project-based.

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Social Studies Timeline - Michelle Perkins

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Social Studies Timeline - Michelle Perkins

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As I reflect on my personal social studies timeline, I noticed that I found myself thinking back to the big ideas of history, geography, economics, politics, etc. However, as I thought more broadly to the term of social studies as the study of human society throughout various branches. I often feel social studies is considered less important than other core subjects, especially in elementary school, and can sometimes be looked past. However, I think back to the vivid memories I have of social studies in my early years and notice that many of the events that stand out to me are related to hands-on projects and interactive experiences.

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Purple is childhood - gentle open learning time. Green is a time when I became upset, shocked, outraged about all the inequity in the world, and enamoured of the idea of travel. Brown was a time of cynicism, feeling hopeless about the lack of connection and mutual aid and understanding in the world, and the poverty that persists. Light blue and brown overlap as I started to feel that I have agency to make change, that there is hope, that people can care across difference. Dark blue, to the present, is a time when I feel observant, deeply curious, and more calm. The map shows that travel and a few dynamic teachers with whom I had strong relationships made an impact, and that it was through my music that I learned the most and that my learning was best integrated into my overall schema. The other thing that is apparent in my map is that although I didn't have negative experience of note, there are large gaps - places where I don't remember anything I learned. These are times when I had no travel connection, no strong relationship with my teacher, and no connection to the material through my own interests. Finally, I notice that it was in learning contexts where I was an active participant, an agent, that I really learned and the learning stuck with me and mattered down the line.

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Spirals of Social Studies Learning 🌀 ✨ Mollie Jones Part 1 

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Spirals of Social Studies Learning 🌀 ✨ Mollie Jones Part 1 

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I didn’t go to school till age 10, so my classrooms were in the natural environments, museums, and ever changing living rooms of the places my Army family lived. Once settled in Orlando, seeds were planted in a 6th grade simulation about immigration… I begin to see a spiral start unfolding that leads me to see connections I hadn’t seen before…

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Spirals of Social Studies Learning 🌀 ✨ Mollie Jones Part 2 

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Spirals of Social Studies Learning 🌀 ✨ Mollie Jones Part 2 

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from middle school to college, through service learning & travel & personal research projects, I grew to have a wide picture of the many reasons people (including my own family) come & go from one place to another. Interconnection stuns me as I work on farms, learn from all kinds of people, become a teacher of world history, move to NYC, marry into a Jamaican-Jewish family from Brooklyn & see that my rich life & community would have been illegal & impossible just decades ago - on multiple levels.

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In my timeline, I tried to figure out where exactly in my schooling journey I decided I wasn't a "history" person, even though I now love to teach social studies. I don't remember ever feeling this way in elementary school, where units were accompanied by immersive experiences like the Ellis Island simulation (really interested in seeing what people think of this in class.... oh 2003)

My dislike of the subject had to do with two things, I think. One, the idea that everyone else had way more background knowledge than me, and Two, that I didn't feel a personal connection. These are ideas I want to carry forward with me as I try to design lessons for my students.

There was a definite shift for me in 11th grade, when I (SOMEHOW) learned about feminism for the first time?? along with the notion of intersectionality, and suddenly history class became political. But isn't it always? Why hadn't it been before?

I also originally had my timeline going from College->Now, but realized it didn't make sense to say social studies had no presence in my life when I was no longer a student and not yet a teacher.

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Elizabeth Berkowitz Social Studies Timeline

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Elizabeth Berkowitz Social Studies Timeline

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Social studies has always been my favorite subject. I'm a voracious reader, and my parents put books about all sorts of topics in our house. Everything was a discussion that related to education or history. Evrery trip was to a monument or museum, not to a beach or shopping spree. Sometimes I begrudged my friends who got to go to water parks and horseback writing, but I feel so lucky now. I had an education they never got. I plan my own trips and adventures frequently, learning more about my enviroment and I try ot pass that on to my students.

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brown educational history of art timeline graph

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What became so fascinating to me was seeing how much of my life I have spent trying to figure things out. When reflecting on major milestones, I could only think about the uncertainty that lied in each event. It became hard to correlate the actual impact of each event, but looking back upon my life I began to recognize each one. It was so cool- like watching a puzzle piece come together!

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I have always loved Social Studies and this timeline really highlighted that for me. I found projects most engaging when they demanded I use all parts of my brain to read, write, analyze, create, and imagine. As an educator I relish the opportunity to dive into Social Studies content before teaching and I am excited by all that I will learn and re-learn.

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Reflecting on my experiences learning social studies made me realize how much trips have contributed to my learning. I definitely learned a lot in school, but the times when I was out of the classroom taking in how other people live or learning about things from the past are still vivid in my memory. One of my favorite memories from childhood is going to the Cloisters with my mother. She would tell me the stories that the art represented and I loved imagining the lives of the people in the paintings. I think that field trips are a very important part of curriculum development, and we are doubly lucky to be in a place like New York where there are so many opportunities for enriching field trips!

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Well thats it....I wonder that I don't have anything incredible to share but a dry and simplistic recall of a generic curriculum that could be the norm everywhere. As I sat and wrote this assignment, i thought what Social Studies have I been taught what history do I know. I swemingly know some historical facts but i lack the where in the hell did I learn it? When did I learn these facts? How did I use these facts over the course of my life and most importantly how was i really going to incorporate some stories into my classroom to effectively teach to my Elementary students? I don't want to just wing it.  I start my journey in Social Studies with just embracing the fact that there is a natural interest and for that I am grateful.  Now lets learn progressive ways to teach Social Studies to students and feel comfortable in my skin. 

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Semone Israel-Lucas- Social Studies Timeline  ["A time" Before the seizures]

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Semone Israel-Lucas- Social Studies Timeline  ["A time" Before the seizures]

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While creating this timeline, I realized that I barely had any good memory learning social studies in my early years. As someone who grew up in another country (Myanmar), I had to mainly memorize most of the lessons and I barely had any time to explore more. I didn't have time for it.

Now I am an educator myself, I would like to use my past experiences as a student and want to make the lessons fun to listen and learn.

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There is not to much that I remember however this timeline just made me think how much I have and seen so much in the world, and realize my age.

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I noticed as I was making this that only the more unconventional projects I've done over the years really stand one. The ones that didn't involve just writing papers and reading secondary sources. I also noticed how my elementary school curriculum had far more of these memorable projects than my high school curriculum. Lastly, even though I only mentioned one thing from college, I should point out that the professor of that experimental archaeology class was my favorite teacher I've ever had. I took my first course with him in my Sophomore year, and I took every class I could with him after that. He is the reason I ended up being a History major, and he's also a major influence for what I see as my teaching style.