Teaching Students Stuff.
I went to graduate school at Georgetown and earned a Ph.D. in history because I wanted to teach. I've always found stories and debates about the past to be fascinating. Thus when I hear someone say something along the lines of "history is boring," I tend to think that they don't understand what the discipline of history involves. The study of history is not rote memorization; there's certainly a lot more to it than flipping through the pages of a thick book, moving numbly from one benchmark to another. And as for historians, they don't necessarily excel at "Jeopardy" type trivia games or spend most of their free time watching the History Channel (side note: doesn't seem like the HC is always playing something about World War II?). Rather historians are people who know how to access, analyze, and use information about the past. Taking the evidence that has been dug up, historians do much more than simply recount the past. Historians make arguments, have opinions, and revise previously held conceptions. The focus of these debates can involve most any aspect of society, at any place on the globe, at any time from which some sources of information remain. How, my friends, could this be boring?
OK, I'm off my soapbox. I have taught a wide variety of courses over the past couple of years. Right now I am teaching courses on The Legacy of the Civil War and The History of College Athletics. These are seminar courses that use in-class analysis and discussion of primary documents, as well as critiques of Hollywood's attempts at history. I am committed to trying new things in the classroom because everyone learns differently.
Here are some of my recent courses:
The Legacy of Failure: Losing and "Losers" in America
American History through Sport
The Legacy of the Civil War
College Athletics: History, Ideals, Realities
I have spent some considerable time and energy analyzing my own performance in the classroom. Some of the results of these efforts were published in a recent issue of History Teacher.
OK, I'm off my soapbox. I have taught a wide variety of courses over the past couple of years. Right now I am teaching courses on The Legacy of the Civil War and The History of College Athletics. These are seminar courses that use in-class analysis and discussion of primary documents, as well as critiques of Hollywood's attempts at history. I am committed to trying new things in the classroom because everyone learns differently.
Here are some of my recent courses:
The Legacy of Failure: Losing and "Losers" in America
American History through Sport
The Legacy of the Civil War
College Athletics: History, Ideals, Realities
I have spent some considerable time and energy analyzing my own performance in the classroom. Some of the results of these efforts were published in a recent issue of History Teacher.