"Sometimes you just want to be awesome!" -Shawn Saldate
I want to be an awesome history teacher. I want my students to love this subject as much as I do. My son explained to me once (see the picture to the left) when I asked him why he had stickers all over his face that "sometimes you just want to be awesome" and I thought, I wish it were that easy. I wish I could snap my fingers and be awesome! But mine is an uphill battle.
High School students usually do not think History is Awesome.
When they list their favorite subjects, History always comes in last. They consider it "the most irrelevant" of school subjects, not applicable to life today. "Borr-r-ring" is the adjective they apply to it. When they can, they avoid it, even though most students get higher grades in history than in math, science, or English. Forced to take History, they repress it, so every year or two another study decries what our students don't know.
High school students hate History textbooks. You know what? Students are right: the textbooks are boring. The stories they tell are predictable because every problem is getting solved, if it has not been already. Textbooks exclude conflict or real suspense. They leave out anything that might reflect badly upon our national character.
But not at Millennium! At Millennium my goal is to ensure that history class is full of fantastic and important stories. I want engaged students. I want to challenge them. I expect them to pursue fact and not the perception of truth as written by biased observers. I want history at Millennium to come alive! I want it to matter. It should be relevant and inspiring. It should promote making connections to the present by interpreting what has past. History textbooks have a beginning and an end; I want history courses at Millennium to tell a story that never ends. I want us all to be awesome.
High School students usually do not think History is Awesome.
When they list their favorite subjects, History always comes in last. They consider it "the most irrelevant" of school subjects, not applicable to life today. "Borr-r-ring" is the adjective they apply to it. When they can, they avoid it, even though most students get higher grades in history than in math, science, or English. Forced to take History, they repress it, so every year or two another study decries what our students don't know.
High school students hate History textbooks. You know what? Students are right: the textbooks are boring. The stories they tell are predictable because every problem is getting solved, if it has not been already. Textbooks exclude conflict or real suspense. They leave out anything that might reflect badly upon our national character.
But not at Millennium! At Millennium my goal is to ensure that history class is full of fantastic and important stories. I want engaged students. I want to challenge them. I expect them to pursue fact and not the perception of truth as written by biased observers. I want history at Millennium to come alive! I want it to matter. It should be relevant and inspiring. It should promote making connections to the present by interpreting what has past. History textbooks have a beginning and an end; I want history courses at Millennium to tell a story that never ends. I want us all to be awesome.