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My name is Maddie Helm and I am currently in the Teach in 12 program. I am in my second semester, so I am in my practicum 1 and am really enjoying it! I am from St. Louis. I graduated from Missouri State with a bachelor's degree in Psychology. I worked as a special education paraprofessional my first year out of college and fell in love with teaching. I am seeking certification in elementary education and special education!

The most enjoyable thing I did during winter break was spend time with family. I have a big family, so the holidays are always really nice as I get to see all my family that I don't get to see often otherwise.

I had a really good experience my senior year of high school with social studies. My teacher that year was awesome. He was super passionate about the subject, which made learning the material so much more enjoyable.

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I am an instructor of your social studies methods course (6253) and a new assistant professor at UMSL.  I originally came from South Korea and taught social studies in Seoul several years ago. Before I joined UMSL last August,  I worked as a researcher for the Democratic Knowledge Project at Harvard University

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We partner with K-16 schools and educators to co-design curricular materials. These materials cover foundational civic knowledge (e.g. the philosophical foundations of democracy, separation of powers, the three branches of government, etc.) and also engage learners in thinking about their own civic identities and values in support of the acquisition of the skills of an engaged citizen.

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2. What's the most enjoyable thing I had during the break?

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2. What's the most enjoyable thing I had during the break?

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I have visited home in Korea during this winter. This is where I was.

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3.  What is my best (or worst) memory of social studies class? 

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3.  What is my best (or worst) memory of social studies class? 

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I have many stories to tell, but want to hear yours first!

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Hi everyone! My name is Rachel Dearham and I am in my P2 in the Teach in 12 Program. My focus is elementary education. I am originally from Minneapolis but moved to St. Louis after undergrad at Mizzou. The most enjoyable thing I did over break was went to the grand canyon for my friends wedding. The picture above is from the grand canyon and it was beautiful. My best experience of social students learning was learning about the civil war in middle school and high school. Growing up, my grandpa loved to watch movies and history shows about the civil war and I think that influenced my interest in it as well. If I went to a U.S. history trivia night, the category I would shine in would be the Civil War. It was very interesting to me. I am excited for this class and to work with you all this semester.

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Hello everyone,
My name is Laura (on the right), and I am in my second to last semester of the Teach in 12 program for Elementary Education. I just started my student teaching in fifth grade at Guffey Elementary. I graduated from UMSL years ago to pursue a career in Criminal Justice and my life has led me to a career in teaching. I am from Saint Louis but if I could move anywhere it be some place with a beach.
The most enjoyable thing about Winter break was no homework, getting to spend time with my nieces and nephew, and seeing friends I hadn't seen in a while. I got to go bowling with friends and family. I am terrible at bowling, but it was tons of fun.
The best experience I had with social studies was I believe in elementary school or middle school. I went to a K-8 school. Our school had survivors of the Holocaust come in and speak to us. It was surreal.

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Hello everyone , my name is Adetutu Adekunle but you can call me Tutu for short .I am in the Teach in 12 program.(Special ED) my desire is to teach in the special school district . currently working in the health sector with people living with disabilities . I am originally from Nigeria and got my bachelors degree back home in philosophy . I did not really do much this winter except taking the kids to the movies or game centers because i am not a fan of cold seasons .I enjoyed social studies because it made me understand people views better and broaden my knowledge about life , history and nature . understanding that we are all social beings with diverse culture and interest . i look forward to learning and working with everyone this semester

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My name is Cierra Brown and I am attending UMSL under the teaching 12 program  for secondary education with special education. I am in the process of completing my P1 experience at Kratz Elementary. I  am from St. Louis, MO.
The most enjoyable thing I had over winter break is an abundance of family time. We visited Branson, MO and had so much fun. We tried different BBQ restaurants  and we rode one of their famous coaster rides. We made plenty of memories and had a good time.
My worst experience of social studies learning is not not retaining the information in my long term memory.

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Hi everyone! My name is Hollen and I am getting my teaching certification through the Teach in 12 Program here at UMSL. I am originally from Saint Louis, have lived here since birth, and don't plan on leaving any time soon! The most enjoyable thing I did over the winter break was get my puppy, Finnegan. (See picture above!) He is a little ball of energy and has definitely kept me busy until classes started. My best experience of learning social studies was when I took a world history class in high school because my teacher made things so relatable in put things in terms I understood.

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Hi guys! My name is Emily Pudlowski, and I am in the Teach in 12 program getting my Elementary Ed 1-6 certification :) I’m 22 years old and have lived in St. Louis my whole life, except when I was in undergrad at Mizzou studying business.

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Over the break, my favorite thing that I did was my ski trip in Galena, IL. My extended family took a little vacation up there and did some skiing at Chestnut Mountain. It was sooo much fun and I love to ski.

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Unfortunately, I had bad experiences with social studies when I was in school. My middle school SS teacher was not very well-liked among the students, and it made going to class something to dread. Endless empty notes and a monotone lecture style did not leave room for much enjoyment for me. I hope to be better at teaching social studies!

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My name is Sierra, and this is my second semester in UMSL's Teach in 12 program. I am getting my certification in Elementary Ed. I've just started my first semester of practicum at Flint Hill Elementary, and I couldn't be more excited (and overwhelmed). I'm a St. Charles County native, and right now I'm picking up sub jobs wherever I can in the Wentzville and Fort Zumwalt school districts. My background is in Psychology, and I just finished my B.A. in pysch last May.

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For most of my Winter break, I spent my time relaxing with my family. These past two weeks, however, I've been grinding away at my first intersession course ever. Working on school through the Winter break gave me a good head start on some other assignments, which I appreciate.

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One of the best social studies experiences I've had was in my 7th grade world history class. If my memory serves me correctly, we were on our Greek unit, and my teacher divided us students up into city-state territories in the classroom. We stayed in these pods for the majority of a semester, and we had opportunities to win points for our city-state by competing in weekly challenges. On the last week of the school year, we even competed in mock Olympic Games, complete with Wii Sports Boxing. Looking back, this teaching strategy seems like a great way to involve students in the course material.

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Hi all! My name is Samantha Bonfanti. I am in my second to last semester of the Teach in 12 Program at UMSL, studying elementary education, with just my student teaching left to go next semester. I was born and raised here in St. Louis and currently live in Wildwood. The most enjoyable thing I did over Christmas break was simply enjoy the time off school and work and spent my days with my four month old daughter, soaking up all the precious moments. My best experience of social studies learning was US history in high school. I really enjoyed learning about the Vietnam war and the 60s / 70s portion of our country's past. I also had a teacher for that class who was very clearly interested and passionate about what she taught, and that made it more interesting to me. I look forward to learning alongside each of you this semester!

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Hi hi, my name is Kaitlyn Phillips and I am in the teach in 12 program like many of us here. I was born and raised in St.Louis and have lived a majority of my life here outside of the 5 years I spent teaching in Japan. I work for the Special School District of St.Louis currently which has inspired me to reconsider my exact path in teaching once again. There's just so many roles and subjects that interest me!

Over winter break, the most enjoyable thing I did was stay in town- I spent New Year's going around to my good friends' parties and it was so much fun. Around 3am, I convinced my boyfriend to stay up and watch the new year's sunrise with me. We drove down to the arch grounds with hot tea and watched it rise over the river before finally crashing at 7am.

The best experience I ever had of social studies learning are just too many to count. I just had so many great teachers from middle school to university who were just so passionate it made me engaged too.

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My boyfriend and I visiting the Museum of Icecream in Chicago

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My name is Abby Bourbon and I currently am employed and doing my practicum 1 at Henderson Elementary in the Francis Howell School District! I am a before and after school care facilitator and I work as a Special Education Paraprofessional in classrooms throughout the school day. I love my job and it is what made me feel so compelled to begin my career in education.

The most enjoyable thing I did over winter break was definitely visit Chicago. I hadn’t been since I was a young child so it was really cool getting to have fun in the city for a weekend.

My worst experience in social studies was in middle school when we were learning about ancient civilizations. I felt like more emphasis was placed on dates and memorization rather than overall general historical knowledge. I really didn’t like that class and my grade in the class reflected such.

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Hey everyone! I'm Scott and like a lot of folks I'm in the teach in 12 program currently doing my first practicum. I came to St. Louis right before the pandemic from the east coast. I was born in Baltimore, but grew up mostly in Virginia.

This winter break I was lucky to be able to celebrate my nephews first birth day. He's the cutest little guy I've ever met and you may find me bringing him up at any opportunity.

I think my favorite Social Studies experience was in 10th grade AP European History. My teacher invited me and three other students to participate in a local college's experimental model EU. I'd always loved history so it was a lot of fun to embody a country for this event. Things did take a turn when, in order to spite the teams playing Germany and France, the other countries banded together and began dissolving the EU. While funny at the time, it does seem weirdly prophetic now.

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I am Tony Orlando, and I find it somewhat humorous that we are all in the Teach in 12 Program, have introduced ourselves before nearly every class and have yet to meet each other in person.
This is a career change for me. Most of my adult life has been spent in a sales role. I first graduated from Mizzou in 1986. To my classmates, I had to lean on the kitchen wall in order to call my friends. I am nearly a lifelong resident of Ferguson. Other than college and a few years of bachelorhood, I have spent my life here. My wife of 27 years and I are empty nesters. Our only child lives in S.C. with her husband.
I have always enjoyed our topic. I view SS as a mix of history and sociology. The human condition is so, so complex. I am fascinated by modern history, the 1700's and the building of nations to the B.C.'s when we learned of the first systems of government.

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We hosted 20 people for Christmas, my family, including some great-grandkids. Our daughter was able to visit for 4 days through the end of the year. That made mom and dad very happy! We watched the movie "The Menu" at the theater. A bit bizarre, but really enjoyed it! We hosted 4 other couples for New Years and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Friends and family are blessings.

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It has been so long since I've studied SS. I'm not sure I can remember any specific time that was good or bad. I think I just grew up at time when great change happened. I am in the last class of "Baby Boomers", born in 1964. So, I have witnessed both joy and despair in my lifetime. I have an appreciation for the social aspects of history. I'm looking forward to this experience.

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Hi there! :) My name is Emily, that's my husband Scott on the left. Like a lot of us here, I am in the Teach in 12 program and have just begun my Practicum 1 semester. It's going to be a very full and productive semester! I grew up in Wildwood and currently live in St. Peters with Scott, our two boys, 2 dogs, 1 cat, 2 fish and several chickens.
My favorite part of winter break was spending some downtime at home with my family. Life is very busy these days, so I have found myself trying to savor every single free moment we've got.
My favorite experience with social studies was in high school. My cheerleading coach happened to be the social studies teacher, which created a "favorite class" environment for a lot of us. This may not be social studies specific, but I do know that when you truly enjoy your teacher or instructor, it makes it that much easier to enjoy whatever subject it is you're learning. I hope to carry this forward into my future with teaching.

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Hello! My name is Hannah Eldridge! I am 28 years old and have lived in Saint Louis my entire life. I have a BA in Psychology with a certificate in Child Trauma and I am currently working on my Masters in Elementary Education through the Teach in 12 Program. I am doing my Practicum 1 this semester at Guffey Elementary, part of Fox C-6. I love to travel, enjoy delicious food, and read (you can see two out of three of these in my photo from NYC).
This year's winter break was spent relaxing with family before the upcoming semester that I knew was going to test me like I have never been tested before. My semester started early as I had a winter intersession course the first two week of January. I made the most of my winter break by relaxing and reading.
In my experiences with Social Studies, those teachers have always been some of my favorite and most memorable. In middle school we had a lot of fun Social Studies teachers who always made me want to learn and do well in the classroom because they were goofy and kept it interesting. Don't get me wrong, I have had boring teachers, in which I did not excel in the class, but overall my experience with Social Studies has been a positive one.