March 27, 2025
When Memorization Takes a Backseat
How do we move beyond textbook-driven social studies instruction to create truly engaging learning experiences? Bruce Stubblefield, the 9-12 Curriculum Director for Hamilton County Schools, offers a compelling vision during our conversation at the Tennessee Council of Social Studies Conference in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction to Bruce Stablefield
00:36 - Hamilton County Teacher Presentations
01:49 - Bruce's Journey into Education
03:54 - Trends in Social Studies Education
04:47 - Final Thoughts and Farewell
Transcript
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Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company.
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I'm Devin Pintosi, your host.
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We are here in Gatlinburg, tennessee, at the TCSS Conference, the Tennessee Council of Social Studies, and we are here with our special guest, bruce Stablefield.
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He is with Hamilton County Schools, the 9-12 Curriculum Director.
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So good to see you here, bruce.
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Thank you for having me All right, and so tell us a bit, bruce, about your experience here at the conference and some key takeaways.
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Great yeah, so this is my second time attending TCSS.
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I've recently gotten involved with the Tennessee Council for Social Studies board, so I serve on the board but, more importantly, in my role as curriculum director for Hamilton County.
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We don't just work with curriculum, we work with our teachers.
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We want to develop leadership within our teachers and presentation skills, and so we've encouraged our leadership council to develop proposals and submit, and so we actually had probably about six different teams here today presenting yeah.
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Wonderful.
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So what are the key presentation topics today at the conference?
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Oh man.
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So myself and my content partner, we actually just finished up a presentation around like strategic questions and social studies, like developing good, thought-provoking, worthy questions.
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But we have another team that they did a session on interactive notebooks, both hard copies and digital, and it was packed in there, so I was really, really proud of them.
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Oh, wow, that's wonderful.
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And so that's amazing.
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Six teams here, yeah, wow.
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And so was it elementary through high?
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Yep, okay, fantastic.
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And so tell us a little bit about your process, of how you got into curriculum.
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You were previously an educator At American Book Company in Woodstock, georgia.
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Bye-bye.
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Yes, so I was in the classroom for nine years, had wonderful teachers when I was in high school that inspired me to become a teacher.
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So after college I jumped straight into the classroom, taught middle school for a couple years and then taught high school, and then, about three years ago, I had an opportunity to apply for the current role that I'm in, and that's what I've been doing ever since.
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Is this all in Hamilton County?
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All in Hamilton County?
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Wow, that's wonderful, yeah.
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And so what made you decide to become an educator in the first place, when you were in college.
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So again, it really was like my high school teachers.
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I had some amazing high school English and history teachers that really pushed me and challenged me and it had a big impact on my life, my thinking and I just it was one of those things I wanted to do for other students, because not everybody gets that right.
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Yes, yeah, that is so good.
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You stood in the gap or the.
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You know you got to be, you got to give back by going into education.
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That's wonderful.
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Um, what is, uh, uh, what are, uh, some of the schools you were at?
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Were they all in Hamilton County?
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Every school was at Hamilton County.
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Like I said, I taught sixth grade middle school for four years and then US History, economics and IB History of the Americas at the high school level for five years.
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Oh, wow, okay, so you've been at this for a while.
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Yes, that's great.
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So are there any things you see like key trends for next year in high school social studies?
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Are there any things you see like key trends for next year in high school social studies?
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Yeah, and we're trying to be proactive in our own county around it because a lot of times social studies tends to lag behind curriculum development compared to other subjects.
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But one of the biggest trends I'm seeing nationally and then also we're pushing in our district, is the idea of inquiry.
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Is the idea of inquiry and it's not a new idea, but really trying to build some structures and processes to keep the focus on compelling questions in social studies, the focus on the sources, as opposed to just rote memorization or read the chapter, answer the questions in the textbook right.
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We want thought-provoking conversation projects, different types of alternative assessment that come with inquiry.
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Okay, that's wonderful.
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Is there anything?
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else you'd like to share with the TCSS community.
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Come to TCSS.
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It's a great professional development.
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You won't regret it.
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That's great, Bruce Doublefield, Hamilton County Schools thank you so much for participating today.
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Thank you for having me Appreciate it.
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Thank you.
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