As both a high school and post-secondary teacher, I have struggled with how to foster an inclusive classroom discussion without resorting to punitive measures. Certainly teachers would rather use “carrot” methods of incentivizing over the punishing “stick,” but often resort to the latter. This begs the question: what, in fact, is the carrot of classroom…
In my first college-level history class, I can distinctly remember the professor pulling out lecture notes from his frayed-edged leather briefcase. The worn legal pad pages were curled, having been weathered by repeated use. To say this professor had been at the university for decades felt like an understatement – rather, I’d say he had…
This semester, I’ve been wrestling with curricular issues in world history, as well as investigating the role of teacher purpose, particularly when it comes to history classes. Teacher purpose, whether implicit or explicit, impacts teacher content and pedagogical decisions. When I talk about teacher purpose, I don’t just mean content deliverables or state-mandated learning targets. Instead,…
When I first decided to write a post about media literacy and my classroom practice, I was worried “fake news” essays had already reached saturation since the term became ubiquitous after the 2016 election. I even checked to see if it was the Oxford Word of the Year for 2016. I was close. It’s “post-truth.”…
As a classroom teacher, I would not be able to count the number of questions asked each day. Sometimes my high school students resembled my niece and nephews – each question followed with “but, why?” Over and over and over. Having taught courses at the high school and college level, people frequently ask what the…
When people hear that I am a social studies teacher, their responses typically fall into two camps: they either tell me how much they love history or hate it. The reason for any negativity towards the subject is typically because, “I’m not good at memorizing dates.” And indeed, students’ image of a social studies teacher…
