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Dan Ring - Short Essay D
"Historical memory is the key to self-identity, ...to one's connections with all mankind; and all American students must have equal access to well-prepared history teachers and to engaging, balanced, accurate and challenging curricular materials." (NCHS, 1996 42;56)
One of my goals for this year is to have my students participate more in their own education. They need to have a stake in their past so that they might identify and relate to the historical past as a part of their own heritage. I shall strive to rely less on a top-down method of instruction. I do this because I know that what students retain is better facilitated when students craft their own inquiry, with guidance of course.
While I feel that I am fairly well-prepared to teach U.S. History, I do not have a sound method of delivering into the hands of students the materials which I have used to acquire and thus develop my own historical identity. part of the inadequate method is a result of logistical and technological difficulties within the school district. With improvements made late in the last school year and the refocus supplied by the McRAH program, better methods will now be available.
In my teaching I have felt that my presentation has been balanced and accurate. The lessons I have taught have frequently been engaging, but I feel that there is more that I can do to involve my students. The challenge to my students can be heightened by using my existing store of curricular materials in a more effective manner. In addition to using materials available as a result of the technological revolution which are more suitable to the learning styles of today's youth, I must encourage my students to work in groups, to use hands-on materials and more primary sources. i must guide them better in doing research. Students shall be encouraged to write more as a result of their finding from research.
I have a tendency to give students the answer instead of letting them
find the answer. In a way, I have caved in to pop culture. It is a
culture that is unambiguous and all facts are certain and immutable.
Yet even as I teach, I know the open questions and gray areas. Perhaps
I do this just to cover the prescribed materials in the time allotted.
But I realize that the key to true understanding is to know that we
as historians do not have all the answers and perhaps we can inspire
our students to answer some of the imponderables.
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