Joining a Professional Organization

Action #2

I recently joined around 26,000 educators from around the nation and became an official member of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS). In their own words, the NCSS is a professional organization that exists to "strengthen the social studies profession and social studies programs in the schools." During my Foundations of Education class last May Term, we were encouraged to join a professional organization such as this one to broaden our knowledge of what was happening nationwide in our area of study and also to learn teaching strategies from other experienced teachers. Joining an organization like this would even give me a place to voice my opinions on matters relevant to the field should the need arise. While it took me awhile to finally take the plunge and join a professional organization, I am now quite pleased that I did!

I received my first packet from the NCSS yesterday. In it, I found a welcoming letter, informing me what I would receive as a member, and a sticker for my non-existent car. I also found lots of information regarding their upcoming annual NCSS conference in Atlanta, which I will not be attending. The sessions looked very interesting, however. The NCSS newsletter, The Social Studies Professional, published 6 times a year, was also included in this packet. Perhaps the most interesting and certainly most helpful publication included in the packet was the newest issue of Social Education, the NCSS' official journal. In in,I found lots of fascinating articles published by experienced social studies teachers hailing from all over the country and from a variety of different concentrations. Though it did cover a range of topics in the social sciences, history was the most mentioned. Since my primary concentration is in history, I was pleased to see this!

I think being a member of the NCSS will be very helpful to me. Already, the journal has made me rethink some of my previously held ideas on how to best approach teaching. For instance, there was an article extolling the benefits of the lecture, when many of my education books had hinted that one should avoid lecture as often as possible and instead focus on interactive, innovative learning activities. While I believe an excellent teacher should use a combination of the two when teaching, the article presented a valued point and helped fully restore the lecture in my mind. Also, there were two articles dealing with teaching about genocide, one focusing on Rwanda and one more specifically on the Holocaust. Since the class I observe at Goshen Middle School is currently studying the genocide in Rwanda, it was fascinating to read what other professionals had written and apply this to my own observational experience. Throughout the rest of my college career, I hope to keep learning and applying what I read from these publications into my lesson plans so that I, too, may be well on my way towards becoming an knowledgeable teaching professional.