|
|
Associate ProfessorLinda Bennett
Department of Learning, Teaching, & Curriculum“The diversity of student population that online classes provide strengthen what classroom teachers are exposed to, because they are interacting with teachers throughout the U.S.,” Bennett says. She explains that her students are from across the nation and that it is interesting for students to learn from each other about the different structures in education. Bennett gives the example of the Texas’ education system being more state-driven, while Missouri is more locally-driven.
Online Learning
In her online classes, Bennett tries to do unique projects that will allow the students to learn from each other. In her seminar in history and social science, she assigns a project that allows students to choose a certain area in history that they would like to learn more about. This gives students the chance to really learn about a topic they are unfamiliar with, and as they present their projects to each other, they teach other students what they have learned.Bennett also likes online courses because she can teach them from anywhere. One summer she taught from Europe.
Live and in person
But Bennett does not stop with online courses. She also teaches in the classroom. First semester she teaches junior-level Elementary Social Studies. “I like the balance of teaching both online and in the classroom,” Bennett says. “I also like the balance of teaching both graduate and undergraduate. They’re different, but it’s important to teach both.”But moving into the classroom does not stifle Bennett’s creative flair for student projects. In her classroom teaching, students’ first assignment used to be creating a Web page. Last semester she altered the project by having students design an about-me power point. “It was something they talked about as being one of their favorite assignments by the end of the year,” Bennett says. In her projects, Bennett tries to implement some aspect of technology, whether through online work or power point presentations.
Editorship
When she is not in the classroom—or in Europe teaching online classes—Bennett is working on her new project, acting as editor of Social Studies and the Young Learner, a nationally distributed quarterly journal affiliated with the National Council for the Social Studies.Bennett is responsible for choosing the theme for the issue and choosing the manuscripts that teachers send in from across the nation that will go in the journal. Bennett says the manuscripts have a 55 percent acceptance rate.
“I’m learning by reading all this great stuff,” Bennett says. “It’s theme-based, so I get to decide what gets published, and that’s a lot of power. I get to decide what gets printed across the country.”
Bennett also enjoys working with the teachers who send in their work. “Teachers are not normally those who write, so helping them write is really fulfilling.”
As editor for the journal, Bennett has a five-year contract, and so far, she has really enjoyed the work. “It’s a new challenge professionally, and it’s related to teaching,” Bennett says.
“As an educator, our service, research and teaching should go hand in hand, especially in the College of Education.” In her work with teaching, both online and in the classroom and her work with the journal, it seems that Linda Bennett has followed her own advice and echoed this sentiment precisely.