About Mr. Bargen
I grew up in Nora, Nebraska (I challenge my World Geography students to find *that* on a map!) and attended a 4-room country school from kindergarten through sixth grade. Although my school didn't have hot water until I was in the 5th grade, it really was an ideal learning environment. It demonstrated to me the importance of direct student-teacher interactions and attention.
I attended college at the University of Nebraska at Kearney where I majored in political science and minored in history. I was employed by the university as a tutor for both of those fields. More importantly, I met my wife Amy while there. After college, I applied and was accepted into the political science graduate program at the University of Iowa. This placement was fortunate for me in that, because Iowa is a large research-driven institution, much of the teaching load (especially for introductory courses) falls on graduate students. Therefore, I was almost immediately placed in classrooms with students who were freshly-minted high school graduates. While at Iowa I was awarded an Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award by the university, and was recognized by the university Greek community for my teaching. I was also rewarded by my department with two courses that I taught on my own (rather than being a teaching assistant for a professor).
At the end of my graduate career, I accepted a tenure-track position as an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas at Tyler. During this time, I was becoming more and more aware that that I was not ideally suited for academe. While I have great respect for those who are academics, I was never able to develop a personal appreciation for the research side of the enterprise. This, coupled with my passion for the classroom, led me to the realization that my calling was at the secondary level--to become a high school teacher. With that goal in mind, I enrolled in and completed the Teacher Certification program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. During my student teaching experience, I was named the Student Teacher of the Year for Nebraska's 1st Congressional District by the Nebraska State Council for the Social Studies.
I have served as a member of the Social Studies Department at Lincoln High School since the fall of 2008. I have taught Geography, Civics, Government & Politics, AP Macroeconomics, AP U.S. Government and Politics, and AP U.S. History. I also teach dual-credit courses in U.S. History and U.S. Government and Politics through Nebraska Wesleyan University's Honors Academy.