The Heart and Soul of Social Studies Teaching

0:01 This podcast. Spotlight for success is our way of highlighting the incredible success stories happening in education right here in our home state of Georgia. Today, we're thrilled to be joined by Joann Wood. Joann Wood, who is here from the Georgia, DOE with social studies here at the Georgia Council for Social Studies. She has made a significant impact in the field of Social Studies education, and we'll explore her journey, insights and the positive changes she's created for students and teachers. So let's get started. Joann, can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Sure, I've had a kind of multi-chapter career in social studies.

0:41 I started teaching in 1975. I started teaching third grade in Fayette County. I taught there for four years and then taught in Fulton County and then most of my career was spent in Cobb County. I taught third, fourth, fifth and sixth grades and through time, over time, I became a social studies person. I didn't start out that way, but I fell in love with history mainly, and that really excited me, so I kept growing in that field. At a certain point I became the elementary social studies supervisor in Cobb County and then retired from that job in 2014 and then went to work for the Georgia Department of Education as a social studies program specialist.

1:32 So I've done all the different things you can do in social studies just about. Joanne, that is wonderful. Can you tell us a little bit about during your wonderful years in the classroom? What are some moments that really like you're, like this is a golden moment while I'm teaching in the field here. A couple of lots of things. I left the classroom very reluctantly because I loved teaching and my favorite grade was fifth grade. I taught that more than any other grade and I love those moments when kids really internalize something, they really learn something they didn't know before. They have an aha moment. That's what I live for. I also loved integrating good children's literature into my social studies lessons and that actually made me a passionate advocate for that.

2:22 Gosh, that's wonderful. What are some things that brought you to your transition from being in the classroom to working at the DOE? Well, I met my wonderful colleague Dr Eddie Bennett, who was the social studies supervisor in Cobb and they had developed a new role for elementary and he recruited me kind of for that role and I left the classroom reluctantly because I loved teaching. It did give me an opportunity to grow social studies in my district. So I kind of just exchanged one kind of passion for another and then I really grew to love working with teachers and that's what I've done.

3:05 The second half of my career so kind of half the career has been with children and the other half has been with teachers. So it's been really lively. That is really something Wanted to ask. What kind of things have you done? Have you brought things into the curriculum that weren't there before, and what kind of changes are you wanting to see in the future as? well, that's a great question. I had the great experience of being part of a Teaching American History grant actually three grants in a row and that actually taught me what had been missing from my own teaching was using primary sources, and so I fell in love with the idea of using those and making them accessible to my elementary students, and then, in my work with teachers, I became kind of a crusader for using those primary sources.

3:58 So I think that has been a continuous strand that has shifted my teaching, made it more powerful and then made me a better teacher developer. That is wonderful. So now we're here at the Georgia Council for Social Studies, so what kind of things are you involved with here at the council that you can share with us today? Lots of things. I have my finger in everything and I've been involved for quite some time. I'm actually about to step aside and let a new generation kind of move into some of these roles, but one of the things I have done is I've been the GCSS secretary for the past 13 years, so I've been really involved with a number of board members as we've changed board members through the years and as we've changed leadership through the years.

4:48 All been wonderful, they've been. They're like family. So this in a way is like a reunion every year when I come back to Athens and just the best people in the world teach social studies. So I'm thrilled to be part of that community. That is wonderful, Joann. Well, thank you so much for your service all of these years and I wish you the best in your future endeavors. Thank you. I'm sure you're never going to be leaving this community. No, and actually I'll just mention that my my period of exclamation mark on my career is I'm back in school to get a doctorate now. Oh wow! so never too late to learn, that's my motto.

5:28 But so I'll be doing social studies till I die. That's wonderful, Joanne. Well, thank you so much for coming on to ABC Spotlight for Success and we look forward to hearing about all your future endeavors. Thank you so much, it was fun.