Dr. Myra L. Pennell
Appalachian State University
Dr. Myra L. Pennell is a professor in the Department of History at Appalachian State University. Professor Pennell has devoted her 37-year career to History and Social Studies education. For 18 years, she was a high school History teacher where she became increasingly involved with initiating beginning teachers into the teaching profession. In the following six years, Pennell viewed teaching from a supervisory perspective, first as a school-level administrator, then as a district-level supervisor of Social Studies education. In 1996, she accepted the opportunity to return to Appalachian, her alma mater, to direct the History education program from which she graduated.
Pennell believes that her background in the public schools drives the way she designs her instruction for pre-service teachers. She states that "research on cognition has identified the act of teaching as the highest form of learning because it results in a deeper level of understanding and a longer rate of retention than any other instructional activity. That is why I design assignments for my students to do the work that real teachers do, mastering and preparing content for delivery in the classroom."
According to Pennel, "some of the most crucial teaching I do happens when I am coaching my students once they enter the 'real world' of the classroom during student teaching." She provides her novices with instruction that ranges from "free History lessons" for content they are laboring to master to "coaching notes" that describe various ways she has seen veteran teachers accomplish a certain task to "refocusing on the bottom line" through discussions of what type of work high school students should be doing in a Social Studies classroom.
Dr. Pennell says that the History Department's program for History and Social Studies teachers has grown to be one of the largest in North Carolina. Since she came to the university 14 years ago, almost 600 prospective teachers have graduated from the program. "I am so grateful that I get to do the work I do. What could be more important? With the retirement of the baby boomers, we are experiencing a massive turnover in the teaching profession, and it is an incredibly important and humbling task to help raise up a whole new generation of teachers. There is no greater thrill for me than to walk into a school and see one of my former students teaching in the Social Studies Department. Every time that happens, it is a very good day."
Dr. Pennell is a graduate of Appalachian State University where she earned a BS degree in History, Secondary Education in 1974 and an MA in History, Secondary Education in 1981. Pursuant to her growing interest in working with beginning teachers, she earned a license in public school administration plus a doctorate in Curriculum and Teaching with a concentration in Social Studies education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in1992.