About
Plymouth State University Program in SSE
Students who wish to pursue a teaching license choose the BS Social Studies Education (5-12) Option. Social studies courses prepare young learners for college, career, and civic life. Future social studies educators must be prepared to think deeply, critically, and adaptively about historic and current events to support their students’ understanding of a complex and ever-changing world. This option can be broken down into three themes: history, social sciences, and pedagogy. Students take the core history courses in the major and at least one other upper-level history course. Students take lower and upper-level courses in Political Science, Economics, Geography, and the behavioral sciences such as Psychology, Anthropology, or Sociology. Woven through each year in the program, students take courses in teaching methods, child development, special education, and the professionalism expected of teachers. Students work directly in schools every year and, during their last semester, they participate in a full-time teaching internship.
Why Plymouth State?
Original New Hampshire Normal School
Plymouth State University was New Hampshire's original Normal School, starting as a teacher seminary in 1808 and forming as a teacher school in the 1870s. Learn more about this in our History tab.
Strongest Program in New Hampshire
The social studies education program is an accredited program that leads to certification led by veteran educators. For more information about accreditation, interstate reciprocity, and licensure requirements, see the Holmes Center for School Partnerships and Educator Preparation section of this catalog or consult the program coordinator.
Career Focus from Year One
Practicum experiences in schools and in the field are essential to teacher preparation. Plymouth's program gets students into classrooms within their first year and has enriching opportunities through National History Day and The Remedial Herstory Project partnerships. 100% of the classes of 2022-2025 were either in graduate school or employed within schools by summer after graduating.
Program Coordinator
Kelsie Brook Eckert
Kelsie Brook Eckert (she/her) is the Coordinator of Social Studies Education at Plymouth State University, the Executive Director of the Remedial Herstory Project, the New Hampshire State Coordinator for National History Day, and a Board Member for the New Hampshire Council for the Social Studies. She taught high school social studies and was a two-time New Hampshire History Teacher of the Year awarded by National History Day and the Gilder Lehrman Institute. At PSU she won the 2024 Transformative Teaching award and was recognized with the Theo Kalikow award for her work advancing women. She has developed dozens of inquiry-based lesson plans on diverse women’s history hosts a podcast on women’s history. She has a TEDx talk about the importance of diverse women’s history titled It Has to Be Half. Eckert is a world traveler and an avid former college athlete, now a many-time ironman triathlete. She is also a wife and the mother of two amazing boys.
ECKERT's AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS
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2024, Transformative Teaching Award at Plymouth State University
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2024, Theo Kalikow Award
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2019, NH Gilder Lehrman History Teacher of the Year, nominee
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2016, Outstanding Graduate Alumni Award at Plymouth State University
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2016, Albert H. Small Normandy Scholar Institute
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2015, Patricia Behring NHD in NH History Teacher of the Year Award
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2013, Outstanding Graduate Assistant Award
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2012, Outstanding Graduate Assistant Award, nominee
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2012, Denise Maslakowski Graduate Scholarship at Plymouth State University
PRESS AND PUBLICATIONS
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In December 2023, Eckert presented "Beyond Pop Up History: Deep Inquiries in Women's History" at the Library of Congress poster sessions during the National Council for the Social Studies Annual Conference.
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In December 2022, Eckert presented "Beyond Pop Up History: Deep Inquiries in Women's History" at the Library of Congress poster sessions during the National Council for the Social Studies Annual Conference.
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In October 2021, Eckert presented her talk, "It Has to Be Half" at the New Hampshire Council for the Social Studies Annual Conference.
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In August 2021, Eckert presented her talk, "It Has to Be Half" at the Remedial Herstory Summer Educators Retreat.
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In July 2021, Eckert presented the Keynote Address, "It Has to Be Half" at the National Women's History Museum Summer Educators Institute.
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Eckert was honored with a feature on the Doing Good in New Hampshire blog. https://stayworkplay.org/blog/doing-good-nh-with-kelsie-eckhert/
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Eckert was featured on the Unconventional Teacher podcast in January 2021. www.anunconventionalteacher.com/episode-9-an-interview-with-kelsie-brook-eckert-2017-new-hampshire-history-teacher-of-the-year/
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In May 2019, Eckert and her colleagues Anne Jung-Mathews and Etienne Valee presented their collaborative National History Day work to university librarians at their annual conference. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/acrl_nec_conf/2019/panel_discussion/3/
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In October 2019, Eckert presented her research on the D-Day invasions at the New Hampshire Council for the Social Studies Annual Conference.
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In October 2018, Eckert presented her research and lesson plans on Inclusive Women's History at the New Hampshire Council for the Social Studies Annual Conference.
