Not Another History Teacher | Category | Motivation for Teaching

Yesterday, I taught one of my favorite lessons (soon to be a future post) connecting the legacy of the Civil Rights movement to today. When I told my students this lesson was one of my favorite lessons. One student raised his hand in the back of the room and said “Mrs. Seideman you said the lesson last week was your favorite on Vietnam” and then another student said “no the impact of WWII on the homefront was.” After a few minutes of discussion, most of my class agreed that I claim a lot of lessons are my favorite.

Most people would say choosing a favorite would be easy. For me it’s easy to choose my favorite, Ben and Jerry’s Fish Food ice cream, my border collie, watching the Notebook, and snuggling with my husband have to be on my top ten list of favorite things to do.

In terms of teaching, I have so many favorite lessons and I will admit I claim them all the be my favorite. My response to my class when they said I always say a lesson is my favorite was good then I am doing my job. Teaching is unlike any other profession in the world-You have the unique power to change a students life in so many different ways. It requires passion, compassion, strength, creativity, and an unbelievable ability to “run” on limited amounts of sleep. All of these characteristics make a good teacher GREAT.

To many teachers get burnt out and forget the real reason they entered the classroom: to make a difference in a child’s life. A history teacher in my department who was nominated for teacher of the year said it best “we are there for the kids.” When meaningful connections are made with students and the content, schools truly are a special place to be. I am happy I choose my profession and I am proud to say (even in this economic climate) that I am a Teacher.

As I am preparing for the end of the semester, I can’t not help but think about how much of a challenge and joy it will be to teach a new group of students to enjoy history. All too often history teachers rely on textbooks, test scores, maps, and routine memorization to teach history.When students are not engaged they become bored and passive in the classroom.

I think it is more important to teach our students to think critically and reflect about the past. We want our students to analyze social institutions, ask who benefits, who suffers, and how our country got this way. My last project of the semester was the final realization when I stepped back and realized my students were asking other students critical questions about our recent president’s. No standardized test scores or multiple choice questions could measure that amount of interest and intrinsic motivation for learning.

To get students motivated and keep their interest, I design student centered lessons that are engaging and reflective. On my end of the semester evaluation, many (if not most) of my students reflected their favorite lessons were not the ones where they were learning history but the lessons where they were “doing history.” Project based learning has so many benefits and is often undervalued in education.

For more information: Here is some more information about project based learning: Seymour Papert, a distinguished professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is among a growing group of scholars who support project-based learning. Read a short introductory article or watch a brief introductory video.

Video from Project-Based Learning: An Overview

Category Archives: Motivation for Teaching

Mrs. S you said last lesson was your “favorite”

“Doing History”