Beyond the Textbook

As a future secondary social studies educator, I have been always concerned about the issue that some students do not find the topics related to social studies relevant to them.  My rationale for why this is occurring is because I believe our educational system is not implementing relevant ways to teach social studies to students.  Social studies education is vital because it allows students to look at the world and society as a whole in a bigger picture.  Without it, how would students be able to understand the causes and effects of the American Revolution or even point out some of the special geographical features in California?  In order to resolve this issue, I believe that we should go beyond the textbook when it comes to social studies education.  In addition to this, we should allow our students to view primary sources and take them to museums to examine artifacts related to their studies.  

  Recently, I was browsing some applications that I may want to implement in my classroom, when I teach social studies someday.  One application I came across is called Civil War: America’s Epic Struggle from MultiEducator Inc.  Students and educators can download it from an application store like iTunes and view it from an iPad or other device and it is very user friendly since it is easy to navigate. It not only covers textual information on the American Civil War, but it also features a wide variety of multimedia information including primary sources like music, photos, and art work from that time period.  

By using applications like Civil War: America’s Epic Struggle in my future classroom, I can give my students the capability of exploring a time period beyond the textbook by examining primary sources on the application and truly get a stance on what life was truly like.  I believe that going beyond the textbook is highly important, especially when teaching history.  Our students need to realize that these events really did happen and its critical to learn from history.  The application also has the capability of furthering my students curiosity, to the point where they can even do their own research outside the classroom.  This would be great for a long discussion or even a question and answer session in class about the Civil War.  It is my hope as a future educator that others follow suit in this approach to social studies education.