Index IntroductionAn Effective TeacherChild DevelopmentConclusionIntroductionTeachers have been overlooked as an important factor in society for years, but have endured discrimination, slander, and mockery out of the love and passion they have for creating doctors , lawyers, politicians, artists and many other professions as they aspire to make a difference in the lives of students academically, socially and even spiritually. In the diverse culture of Trinidad and Tobago society, the education system must holistically develop well-adjusted youth and children who can relate to and contribute to peace, harmony and cohesion in society. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Social studies is considered the systematic study of an integrated body of content drawn from core disciplines, such as history, geography, anthropology, economics, and politics Science that is used to infuse each individual's experiences to form a body of knowledge that facilitates growth and development within a structured society. Social studies emphasizes skills and processes along with settings and perspectives to help students become informed, confident, and effective citizens. Social studies plays an essential role in cultivating young minds to function competently and effectively in today's fast-paced society, where we continue to see rapid growth in the advancement of technology and communication and children are now removed from the realities of life. Social studies was established to remember and showcase essential skills such as communication, critical thinking, problem solving as an integral part of life and capable of contributing not only to the society they live in but globally. An effective teacher is one who is seen as respectful, positive, safe, and provides a student-centered learning environment. They continually reflect and evaluate the effects of their choices and actions. A student-centered teacher would develop a relationship with his or her students through acts of kindness, care, empathy, ensuring trust is maintained if information is shared privately. Critical thinking skills and communication skills between teacher and student are taught to enable reasoning skills, information processing skills and allow children to motivate their opinions and actions, inquiry skills which allows them to ask questions relevant, creative thinking skills and evaluation skills. A teacher's dedication and passion in teaching and engaging students in learning allows us to see that not only the knowledge of the subject area which is of the head is shared, but also the hand and heart that show concern and value towards students. Being organized, having a clear vision of the objectives and understanding what "the teacher" would like to convey to his students is also a quality that makes an effective teacher. This then helps make a difficult topic easy to understand by taking the time to make a lesson memorable by using metaphors and analogies and a variety of natural resources to enhance the lesson. An analytical and synthetic approach would also mean that the teacher is well versed in knowledge of past, present and future directions, which would help in creating awareness in students about people, the way they live, their development, their choices or also about how they are the same based on human rights, values and interdependence. Child development Growth and developmentof a child depend on what they learn in the stages from nursery to secondary school and as such teachers should include example as an effective teaching strategy as this now provides students with an example to follow. Studies of attitudes have concluded that after about the age of thirteen (third form) perceptions and attitudes become extraordinarily difficult to change, and middle childhood is therefore a "critical period" for the development of children's attitudes towards themselves and their world . By looking at the four stages of growth and development in primary school, this would give us a greater appreciation and understanding of the curriculum and how we can easily guide our students in this course. In the first stage, up to about three years of age, children learn by watching, touching and listening. As a teacher of the Social Studies curriculum I would ensure that children of this age group learn through various skills such as using safety scissors and crayons, being able to observe, compare objects or group colors, make inferences, express their ideas verbally and feelings and visually and being able to share materials and work in groups, creating graphs and being able to show on a map where they live and where they go to school, which would help create or determine their attitude and perceive positioning. This is usually done across the curriculum by creating ME maps that help them understand themselves and those around them. The second stage of development is the age of five. Children should have a good idea of being able to work in groups and on those around them as they come from a nursery school. The same skills and attitudes learned are now strengthened by greater responsibility and cooperation and problem solving should have been added to their learning. They would be taken out to identify different changes in trees, weather or perhaps animals over a period of time. They should be able to identify the different ways children go to school and we can do this as a Map project with community and transport allowing them to put the building on the map using squares and also creating streets and walkways. The second phase continues from about six to seven, where children are more interactive and show interest in learning more outside of their communities and cultures. They have the ability to do research on their own and therefore can be assigned a project related to the environment which allows them to be creative and also show independence in learning through the use of technology. The third stage is around the age of eight, where many different changes occur in their physical, mental and emotional characteristics. At this stage, coordination improves, their reading ability increases, which allows them to interact with authority figures and discuss more topics based on current events, make choices based on the environment, and learn needs and wants. A mapping activity can also be carried out at this stage, but it would now involve larger areas of the community or industrial parks which can show via an ATLAS the locations and their uses. In the fourth stage, starting from the age of 9, they begin to think abstractly. They are willing to work in a team. At this stage they are learning to work with time and be able to identify problems and consider alternative solutions. At this point they will be given a project to draw the map of their country and they will now have to insert the various counties and identify the different areas on the map. To be an effective social studies teacher we must keep in mind that we and children learn and remember 10% of what we hear, 15% of what.
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