Nick Bones

Edu 202

Robert Shkorupa

25 October 2018

Social Reconstructionist viewpoint

Taking time off is sometimes exactly what is needed to gain some perspective from time to time.

But, what happens when you get too much time off? The perspective can become warped and distorted, it

then can become frightening and intimidating to try to come back to. This is exactly what happened to me

when I finished school back in 2002. I took too many years off school when I graduated high school and

the entire idea of school became this nightmarish, overbearing, fearful place that I built up in my head that

scared me too much to attempt to return to. When I finally decided to try to go to community college it

had been thirteen years since I had stepped foot on any school property. However, when I finally went

back it was nowhere near as scary as I had imagined it would be. In fact, it was an amazingly eye-opening

experience that gave me a new perspective on what school could be. It made me rethink the way teachers

had instructed me throughout my high school years and reimagine the powerful perspective that teaching

could instill in their students.

When I first considered teaching as a prospective career that I could, just maybe, think about

doing was another realization that shook me to my core. I was running study groups for my Geography

and Meteorology classes before school a few days a week, because it was a subject that I was genuinely

interested in, and it seemed to be coming easy to me. The professor, whom I had the utmost respect for,

pulled me aside and mentioned that he was over hearing me helping people and that he thought that I had

a natural inkling for teaching. Coming from someone that I considered to be a great teacher this was an

unexpected honor and a pleasant compliment.

 Jump forward a little while and I had finished my core classes in college and was moving on to

my education focused classes (this is actually my first one) and right on cue, the fear crept right back up

into my mind. Everyone in my classes either knew way more than I did about education, or just finished

high school and knew what current classroom culture was like. I knew nothing. I have now been out of

school for sixteen years. When I was in school cell phones were nearly nonexistent, school days were

longer, and the school I went to was neighboring nothing but cornfields. What did I get myself into? I

know nothing about the current school system or how to teach. I felt that way all the way up until last

week when I finally stepped back onto a high school campus for the first time in nearly two decades.

I now know what it feels like to be a time traveler. I felt both like I was back in high school but

woefully out of my own time with kids now walking around with headphones constantly connected to

their phones all hours of the day. I was scared and worried and anxious about meeting my first teacher

that I was going to be observing. As I walked into the classroom and met my teacher that was teaching

my first lesson I did not know how he was going to react to me. Luckily, he was gracious and kind and

made me feel at ease with polite conversation and instruction on what he was planning for me that day.

He had me observe a different teacher each period that I was at the school so that I could get a feel for

many different teaching styles. This brings me to my point of this essay (sorry it took me so long to get

here). I realized exactly what type of teacher I wanted to be, and possibly ever more Importantly, what

kind of teacher I did not want to be.

The teaching style that stood out the most prevalently to me was without a doubt, a social

reconstructionist theory. I want to take subject matter and apply it to current, real life, functionally

relevant issues. The teachers that I saw being social reconstructionist teachers, two to be exact, were the

most inspiring to me as an observer. I have always felt that teaching should be a conduit for useful

material that will benefit students in real situations that they will encounter. You can make every subject

deal with current social issues and teach though the lens of what the students will want to learn about.

Because, without the information being relevant and practical what is the point of teaching them.
 I know that not every part of every subject can be taught this way. But you can always explain to

the students how you are using the information as building blocks for something greater that is on the

horizon. The students that I spoke with while observing made me realize that high school students are not

empty vessels to fill up with whatever knowledge you want. They are active entities that need to be

steered into the information in an instructional manner that can be beneficial and relevant to the lives and

times that we are currently living in.

This is why the teaching methodology that spoke to me the most was the social reconstructionist.

Students today want to know that the information that they are receiving is practical, useful, and socially

relevant. I mentioned earlier that all I felt was fear about the future of my own personal education, I now

have nothing but hope for my future as an educator.