THE 3 R's of ALL classes:

RESPECT RESPONSIBILITY REALITY

As a history teacher, I want my students to make connections. On one hand, I want them to develop and articulate a clear and coherent historical narrative: to make connections between events and people and institutions, to understand the forces of cause-and-effect and change-over- time. Sometimes the simplest teaching techniques can work the best. I use charts and diagrams and other visual representations to show relationships. The visual impact of seeing how these events relate is powerful, and students learn that chronology is important and complicated. At the same time, I want my students to develop a sense of historical empathy: to make connections with their subjects, to understand that history is not just the study of what happened but also the study of how it happened and of how people understood, explained, and lived with what happened. Current events are also critical in connecting what their learning to what is reality today. Secondary source readings with a steady stream of primary source material is essential to every unit of study. I push my students to question these sources, to look past the words to the people who produced them, to look beyond the images to the context around them. The ultimate goal is to trigger all students deeper understanding of the forces of history.