"Hello all, my name is Justin, and I am a local High School teacher. I love everything to do with social studies, and most of all love watching students have successful educational journeys with social studies. It is a very important subject matter that prepares students to be active, engaged citizens when they turn 18, the very foundation of our country. That is why I went to Millersville to get my secondary Education degree in social studies. Ways that I like to teach are giving me a brief overview of the information and then turning it over to the student for them to explore the topic in prepared resources. Depending on the level of the student determines how prepared these resources are; younger students will need everything laid out for them, while older students will have the research skills needed to retrieve their own sources. I value a grading system with my current high schoolers that rewards retrying items until they get the answers correct. They often have multiple attempts at things before their grade is final. This rewards a striving to actually learn the content and does not punish mistakes the first time. This encourages students to take academic risks that they would not take." less...