Dr. Webb's Vision for Place-Based Learning

0:02 This podcast, Spotlight for Success, is our way of highlighting the incredible success stories happening to education right here in our home state of Georgia. Today, we're thrilled to be joined by Dr Rhonda Webb, who is the Director of Georgia Council of Social Studies. Thank you for your time today. Absolutely we're glad you're here as well. Thank you. We'll be exploring her journey, insights and positive changes that she's creating with the help of GCSS, for students and teachers. So let's get started. Absolutely Okay. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, Dr Webb? Well, I was a classroom teacher for 30 years and retired at the end of the 2022 school year, but I'm actually back in the classroom this year, halftime, so I do GCSS as the executive director, and then I'm also part-time US history teacher in 11th grade, which is where I retired from.

0:59 Wow, what a flow there. So are there some things from the classroom, like things that you were passionate about, that you saw, some milestones that you have brought with you into GCSS? I really believe that place-based learning for teachers is key, and so what we are hoping to do at GCSS is to expand our reach. We are known as an incredible conference and we do other things as well, but I really hope that we're able to expand to more regional opportunities where we've got some things in the works, with taking teachers on trips around Georgia where they can be in the space and be able to experience what they're teaching in Georgia history, in US history and in all of the content areas that's tied to the standards.

1:50 So stay tuned, Georgia. So, Dr Webb, are there changes to Georgia's curriculum that you can speak to or things that you know about in the air? I don't know that there are specific changes to the curriculum. I think what we're doing as an organization is trying to expand our outreach to really support teachers. I know when I was a teacher, I would not be in the role that I'm in today if it were not for an old program that doesn't exist anymore. It was a federal grant program called Teaching American History and they were grants from the federal government that school districts could apply for and they would fund. It was basically professional development for teachers.

2:33 Where you were, university professors were paired with our group and we traveled the country. We went to Boston, we went to Philadelphia, we went to San Francisco. We went to Chicago. We went to Savannah, we went to I'm trying to think where the other trips were, but anyway it was over three years and we traveled to all of those spaces with historians, university historians, and that changed my life. At that point I was just completely enamored with everything social studies and history and academic growth for myself. And because of those connections I made with those professors and the other teachers on those trips, I went and pursued my PhD.

3:20 That opened up enormous opportunities for me, and here I am, after getting out of the classroom. To be able to do this would never have happened if it had not been for those trips that I took with a group of teachers and a group of professors that fed my just thirst for knowledge, and so I want to recreate that word GCSS for our teachers. Okay, and is that being done through that place-based learning that you were mentioning Well? Well that's what I'm hoping to do. We've got to work through some things, because that takes money and those grants don't exist anymore. So we've got to really be creative in how we do this and maybe on a smaller scale than going to Bostoniladelphia and the other cities, but certainly we can make some things happen for teachers in georgia that can help them.

4:10 You know, just grow and just feed that. We try to have students become curious in our classrooms. Teachers are curious as well and we need to feed that and it not be the daily grind of attendance and the forms and all of this. They need to be fed intellectually as well. Oh, that is great. Are you also presenting here? Not this year. No, I'm the detail lady. So that's kind of where we are. Okay, wonderful, Dr. Webb. Well, thank you so much for your time today. Thank you, yes, Thank you, for being part of ABC's Spotlight for Success. Well, we appreciate ABC and all that they do for Georgia Council for the Social Studies. We have beautiful programs here.

4:51 We have beautiful lanyards for everyone who's attending our conference and if you didn't come this year, you can come next year. There we go. You heard it from the coordinator herself. Thank you so much, Dr. Thank you, we appreciate you.