A message from Edward J. Blum, who just co-founded a new blog dedicated to discussing the teaching of U.S. History: Teaching United States History.
“Well, it’s about that time, that delightful and dreadful moment when classes begin again. Unless you are privileged to have a sabbatical or be on fellowship, the end of August is when the kids come back and time flies away. Alas, school’s back from summer! This marks the beginning of my second decade of teaching, and I wanted to try something new not just within my classes, but about my classes. So, I’ve decided to start an interactive blog about teaching the United States history survey. I wanted to work through the changes that I’ve made, give my fellow teachers a platform to post and to discuss their teaching strategies, and to give students an opportunity to see behind the process of teaching and to participate in what is taught. I grabbed one of my favorite colleagues and teachers, Kevin Schultz from the University of Illinois, Chicago, author of a great survey textbook, Hist, and author of the tremendous new monograph Tri-Faith America, to help with the endeavor, and away we go. I invite you to join us over there with your own posts, reflections, thoughts, and considerations. http://teachingunitedstateshistory.blogspot.com/“
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Thank you for this resource. I will definitely be following along. I am a high school history teacher and am looking into implementing a blog in the near future.
Thanks again,
J.J.
Very good idea! My critique of secondary teacher training is that it does not afford prospective teachers enough time in actual high school classrooms. Additionally, it does not give these candidates adequate “behind the scenes” exposure to the life of a teacher. Student teaching is great but one semester is just simply not enough to prepare a teacher for a lifetime of teacher-student interactions. The old model of training does not really connect the dots from paperwork and basics (such as what is learned in a college teacher education class) and what actually happens once that candidate has their own classroom. This can be used to not only help aspiring teachers with lesson development but also show them collaboration, interaction with colleagues and even professional ways of critique. While I am certainly proud of my History Education Program, I know that this extra resource could have had me even more prepared for what awaited me beyond graduation.
-Brad Marcy