Welcome to the official trailer of The Social Studies Teacher Podcast. Words cannot describe how excited I am to be putting on this podcast for educators. This is literally months in the making!

I’m going to be sharing with you a little bit about myself, why I am creating this podcast for educators, who it’s for, and also what to expect with this podcast -such as what type of episodes are we going to be chatting about.

My Educational Background

My name is Kirsten Hammond, and I have been an educator for over a decade. I taught kindergarten, third grade and fifth grade, and of course, upper elementary has my heart. I just love teaching third and fifth grade.

Most of my teaching career, I have taught ELA and social studies. I am always finding ways to put a creative twist on standards or topics that might be or feel a little boring to teach.

I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology, and I received a Master’s degree in Elementary Education, and it was during my master’s program when I received a teaching certificate.

I am certified in the state of Texas where I live in EC through sixth grade. I’m also certified to teach ESL and Gifted and Talented.

To learn some extra fun facts about me, listen to the podcast trailer!

How I Help Other Social Studies Teachers

I own a TPT store and business called The Southern Teach, and this started when I was a student teacher in 2013. I just had a couple of resources in there that I uploaded, and since then it’s grown and expanded into so much more.

For most of my time in the classroom, I had dedicated my heart and soul to the teaching profession. I wasn’t really doing much with my TPT business and it wasn’t until the 2020 pandemic when I decided to pick it up and dust off my little tiny TPT store and add more teaching resources for others.

In 2021, after our second son was born, this is when I decided to leave the classroom to be a work from home mom. So right now, I support teachers and students with resources I created for my own students in the classroom in the past, as well as resources I really wish I had while I was teaching.

Why I Created This Podcast for Educators

I’m going to talk about why I created this podcast.

There aren’t many podcasts for educators, particularly in social studies.

The first reason is that I feel like there aren’t very many podcasts that are tailored specifically for upper elementary social studies teachers.

There may be some specific niche history podcasts that are great for secondary teachers. But most of the time in elementary school, social studies is being taught in conjunction with other subjects.

In my case, I taught ELA and social studies. I know there are teachers who teach science in social studies. There might be social studies teachers who teach fifth and sixth grade, or third and fourth grade. So, I wanted to create a podcast for educators who also teach social studies in upper elementary because I feel like it’s just something that’s much needed.

I love to share tips and ideas with others!

The second reason I created this podcast for educators is that I truly have a passion to share ideas and tips based on my own experience with social studies.

Teaching social studies was very frustrating, particularly because Texas is its own little island with social studies skills compared to other states.

Most of my planning time for social studies was basically searching all over the internet to find the right resources that not only align with my state standards, but also resources that weren’t too easy or boring for my students.

I also may or may not have been scrambling at the last minute to come up with some type of lesson or activity that aligns with a current event or holiday or Celebrate Freedom Week, which is required in our state to teach.

And then just in general, trying to figure out a schedule that fits social studies with all the other 150 million things that I had to cover before state testing.

As you are probably aware, with upper elementary comes standardized testing in most states, and so a lot of the focus was on reading and math and social studies really did not get much priority.

I want to help your students get excited to learn about social studies.

I have a third reason on why I created this podcast for educators! After eventually figuring out how to fit social studies into my schedule and finding and creating engaging activities that made it fun for my students, I got into this really amazing groove.

I personally love all things social studies, so when my students shared that they also enjoyed what we were learning, it made it even more worthwhile.

I want that same experience for you. I want your students to be super excited that social studies is happening and they’re going to be learning something interesting and new.

So that is why I’m creating this podcast, so you could get those actionable bite-sized tips to easily implement into your classroom.

What To Expect From The Social Studies Teacher Podcast

All right. Now we’ll talk a little bit about what you’ll be getting from this podcast for educators.

Hopefully you have a feel, but I do want to give you some takeaways and best practices in planning social studies to make it more efficient for you.

I’ll be sharing with you lesson and project ideas and activities that are appropriate for upper elementary students.

I’m also going to be sharing ways to make social studies more engaging for students, something that makes it fun and something to look forward to.

Most importantly, the episodes will be short and sweet. I know you are busy. You might be listening to this on the way to work. You might be listening to this as you’re doing some chores at home or in your planning time, so I’m not going to take a ton of time.

My goal is to make these episodes within the 10-to-20-minute range, so it’ll leave you just at the tip of your toes wanting more and looking forward to the following week.

I’m hoping you got a great idea of where this podcast for educators like you is going, and I hope you can subscribe in your favorite podcast platform wherever you’re listening to this trailer.

A couple of other ways you can connect with me as we’re going through each of the episodes is to follow me on Instagram, I am @thesouthernteach. Additionally, I have a Facebook group for upper elementary social studies teachers called Upper Elementary Social Studies Teachers.