Content Passion

Today I received Teach Like a Pirate in the mail. I'm excited to start a new adventure and delve deeper into my late summer PD!

The author, Dave Burgess, suggests that there are three categories of passion: Content Passion, Professional Passion, and Personal Passion.

The first question posed by Dave Burgess that I am going to focus on is as follows:

"Of all of the topics and standards you teach as part of your curriculum, which are the ones you most enjoy?"

As a History teacher, the topics that I most enjoy include colonial America, the Civil War, and the Progressive Era.

Growing up, I was a huge fan of the author Ann Rinaldi. She did an amazing job at taking historical events and putting them into a story that a young girl like me could enjoy. Aside from my dad, who absolutely lives and breathes history, Rinaldi is one of the people that had the largest impact on my love for history. One book of Rinaldi's that I absolutely love is The Fifth of March. It was the first book of hers that I read, and once I finished it, I set on a quest to buy each and every one of her books--a goal that I met, by the way. This book, focused on the Boston Massacre, sparked my interest in learning about all things colonial America. Not just Jamestown or the Revolutionary War, but all colonial history. It continues to amaze me that people could completely leave their lives and set out in a world completely unknown to them--and this still happens today! Immigration is so often looked at as a negative thing (at least here in the United States), but people rarely stop to look at the perspective of the person who is emigrating from what used to be their home, setting out into a vastly different horizon. It's incredible to think about.

The Civil War era is another time period that fascinates me. I have been incredibly interested in the Civil War ever since my family visited Gettysburg when I was 12 years old. I brought my dad and my sister back to Gettysburg in July of 2013 for the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. I planned the whole trip so we would be able to see as much as we could and do as much as we could, including marching Pickett's Charge on the 150th anniversary. I planned so much that my dad and sister still refer to the Gettysburg trip as an "edu-vacation"... and they no longer allow me to plan vacations! They enjoyed it, but we were all exhausted when the trip was over.

I love teaching about historical individuals that have changed, or have done their best to change, the world. The Civil Rights Movement is awesome, as are revolutions, but my favorite time period to teach about change is actually the Progressive Era. The one thing that I like best about it, and most other historical periods actually, is that there is no true beginning or end to the Progressive Era. Sure, history textbooks find a way to define it, but the beginning and end dates are certainly up to interpretation. I love working with my students to uncover why this time period is called the Progressive Era and how all of the reforms during this time period have drastically altered the world that we live in today. Many students become very engaged when we talk about Upton Sinclair's The Jungle (rat poop in the food, disease everywhere, etc) as well as when we discuss Nellie Bly's Ten Days in a Mad House (where she pretended to be mentally ill in order to expose the horrible way that the mentally ill were treated), but there is so much more to the time period. I certainly use those excerpts as hooks, but students get so into discussing Progressive reforms and especially when answering the question: "Were the goals of (insert Progressive Era Reform here) met? Explain." I get so many students that go beyond the yes or no answer and discuss how some aspects of the reform have been met, but others still continue to be issues today.

I bet you can tell that these are my historical passions... I meant for this post to be short and sweet, but I got so excited that I couldn't stop writing! I want to allow my students to bring their passions into my classroom as well. I first have to remember that we are all passionate about different things. Even though I am in love with history, there will be students that aren't! I have to find a way to bring their passions into my classes too.