"Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. "
- President Teddy Roosevelt
One of the greatest benefits of teaching for a while is watching former students pursue their passions. When everything begins to come into focus, and they find something that they deeply love to do, and that the world will benefit from their doing. It is one of my deepest hope that my children will find that love in their lives. (Noah rocking this tricornered cap is as good a start as any, huh?) I am one of the lucky ones, in that I have the pleasure of hearing from many of my former students pretty often. Everytime that I see an email, or letter, from someone that was in my class long ago - it makes me excited.
So recently, when I received an email from a former student who is pursuing her Masters of Teaching, I was thrilled. For one of her classes, she was in need of some "nugget" of advice from a history teacher. I was happy to try and help her out. I always find that when I am asked for advice, I end up merely relaying some amazing things that someone else taught me along the way. My response was no exception. I thought I would share some of what I have learned in my 13 years "behind the desk." Here is some of what I offered:
1. "We have to live ourselves into new ways of thinking." It is an easy trap to build our classes around the idea that if a student just thinks about things (history, or anything else) enough - it will change him/her. In my experience, all of us have to live into new ways of thinking. So, as a teacher, I have to try and give my students an opportunity/environment to experience a new way of doing things. (And make no mistake - as a teacher - I have to exude passion for my craft and content all the time, in order to usher my students into this way of thinking.) Most of the time, my very life has to be the example for these kids to know that it is okay to act this way. :) I believe that this will give a student the most memorable experience.
2. The most important content that we (a teacher) can provide our student is to instill curiosity about ..well...everything. If we make our students curious - learning history will be one of the many byproducts of this approach. So, truly, we are trying to provide a shift in perspective for many of our students, and the method by which I try to do it is outlined in #1.
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