Eleanor Roosevelt Reflection

During my time as a undergraduate at Sweet Briar College I took many classes to gain a deeper understanding of what I would be teaching my elementary students. Throughout my student teaching experience I felt well prepared to give my students more knowledge of what they were learning than the SOLs stated. I discovered that this helped a lot when trying to hook the student to a new concept. For example, when introducing my students to Eleanor Roosevelt I started by talking about her childhood. I had learned about the importance of Eleanor Roosevelt’s childhood in a class on special education as a ways to illustrate how people with disorders can grow up to be amazing people in society. Although the students in my first grade class did not need

to know about her childhood, I used it as a to catch the students’ interest in a person from history that they had no prior knowledge about. The students were horrified with the fact that Eleanor Roosevelt’s mother was abusive and the fact that she was sent away to boarding to school. The students understood that even with this sad past she grew up to be an amazing women who helped people.
By using my knowledge learned on the topic that I was teaching I was able to relate a hard to remember concept to my students own lives. The student were then better able to remember the content that they needed to remember based on the Virginia SOLs. My knowledge of the content allowed me to answer my students’ questions on what we were learning so I did not have to pass up any teachable moments.