The social studies education program will take the stage at this year’s Huskies Showcase. Graduating seniors Sarah Miller and Joe Nagel will team up for their second Huskies Showcase presentation April 23 in Atwood Memorial Center.
Excerpt from Miller and Nagel’s Huskies Showcase PowerPoint presentation.
Having worked well together in another class, Miller and Nagel elected to team up again in their SST 453 class last the fall to create a curriculum plan for a 12th grade U.S. Government class and will present by way of oral presentation with PowerPoint.
Teaching Social Studies in Secondary and Middle School (SST 453) is taught by Professor Cindy Fitzthum. SST 453 is one of the last courses social studies education majors take before student teaching in their final semester.
“Philosophy, methods, and materials in teaching social studies in the middle and secondary schools” makes up part of the course description. Students create an 18-week curriculum plan that incorporates state standards, assessments, teaching strategies and use of technology, among other things.
Sarah Miller at Alexandria High School where she is student teaching.
Fitzthum stated in an email that what stood out most about Miller and Nagel’s work was the “focus on interdisciplinary social sciences throughout their lessons and planning, such as adding economics standards into the political science curriculum.”
Students in the social studies education program are carefully guided through curriculum planning, literacy, special education modifications and research. Fitzthum stresses to her students the understanding how curriculum planning for grades 5-12 is crucial to getting through all of the state standards.
Miller, from Osakis, Minnesota, is currently student teaching with courses in U.S. history and world history at Alexandria High School.
Joe Nagel at Dassel-Cokato High School where he is student teaching.
Nagel, from Mundelein, Illinois, is currently student teaching with courses in geography and history at Dassel-Cokato High School. Teaching civics there in a prior trimester, he was able to use facets of the curriculum he and Miller created.
In addition to Miller and Nagel’s curriculum presentation Tuesday, nearly 20 social studies education students will present projects completed for Professor Robert Galler’s HIST 385 course. Concepts and Theories in History for Social Studies Teachers (HIST 385) is a required course for secondary social studies education majors.
Stephanie Olson, a December 2018 graduate of St. Cloud State, landed her first teaching job at Tech High School in St. Cloud. There, she teaches 10th grade world history and practical law and ethnic studies for grades 11 and 12.
While the curriculum was set for world history at Tech High School, Olson is able to use curriculum she created at St. Cloud State for her practical law and ethnic studies class. Assigned a curriculum theme of social issues in SST 453, she created a lesson plan based on immigration and inequalities like race, gender and LGBTQ issues.
Having gone through the curriculum process at St. Cloud State, Olson is able to more easily plan backwards and prepare for lessons and units – providing a calendar outline for students. She feels she was well-trained and ready to take on new curriculum as a new teacher.
The Huskies Showcase celebrates University and community research, creative works and scholarship across all disciplines at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Each year, a dimension of the Our Husky Compact is chosen and this year’s dimension is “Act with Personal Integrity and Civic Responsibility”, which emphasizes the need for integrity and civic responsibility as ethical and productive difference-makers in a global society.
Huskies Showcase
9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tuesday, April 23
Atwood Memorial Center
