ELMAC teaching intern Ongkon Deb wins Student Teacher of the Year award from the Michigan Council of Social Studies

Ongkon Deb, an ELMAC teaching intern, was presented with the Student Teacher of the Year award at the recent Michigan Council of Social Studies annual conference. The award recognizes an outstanding pre-service educator. The annual conference gathers educators from across Michigan for two days of professional learning, collaboration, and inspiration—all centered on the content area of social studies. Sessions offered attendees practical tools, research-based strategies, and age-appropriate approaches for building students’ source analysis and reasoning skills.

“The conference was great. I learned a lot from other educators and experienced teachers,” says Deb. “This year's theme was about inquiry and developing critical thinking skills to support ideas. I learned more about incorporating civil discourse and discussion in the classroom, how to engage students in social studies with images, finding and analyzing primary sources, and more. This was my first professional conference experience, and I see myself attending more in different fields and topics throughout my career. I'm really grateful for this opportunity, and totally did not see it coming!”