Hear from two South Dakota Teachers!
What stood out to you the most about Studies Weekly South Dakota?
1st & 2nd grade teachers, SD: The first thought that I had on it was, it was realistic where this is something that I can plug into my classroom during my social studies block or when specials are running late and I need to do a quick 5-minute lesson. I can plug it in then too. You can literally pick like one thing and be like, hey, look, we're gonna do a quick 5-minute lesson on this while we have this free time. Or you can expand it into a 25-minute lesson or whatever and keep the kids' attention for however long you need.
What are you most excited about?
1st & 2nd grade teachers, SD: There's pictures, they catch your attention, the little blurbs, they catch your attention, they tell you what's correct or like, what's important to know. And I instantly, like I was looking at the kindergarten one and I was like, oh, look at that! Oh, that's so cool! Like it was so just fun. And I was like, the kids are going to love this. My kids will love having something to take home with them. And then I think that helps bridge between school and home where they're able to take it home and they're able to show their mom, 'Hey, I learned about Julius Caesar today!' and they can tell them stuff that they learned in class and then their parents are going to go, 'Whoa, you're only in 1st grade and you're learning about this? That's awesome!'
What advice would you give another educator about Studies Weekly?
1st & 2nd grade teachers, SD: It was totally doable where I looked at this and I go, I can teach this right away. There's not a lot of prep to it. There's not a lot of having to overthink and pull resources everywhere. It's there and then it's on the website for everything that I need. So when you're a first-year teacher, you feel like the world is spinning around you and you don't know which way to go and it's easy to just grab what you need for a quick lesson or a unit and it's there for you. Piggy backing off of that, just go for the basics. Don't think you have to be a Pinterest or Instagram teacher because that's all a lie. Just do the bare bones, the basics, do what is right there in the reader. If you are passionate about it, if you know more about it, if you want to expand on it, then go for it. But don't feel like you have to. What's in the reader is perfectly fine to teach your kids for social studies.
