Friday, March 16, 2007

Sunday Scribblings: Inspiration

Part of the beauty of teaching is that you get to do things over again. A successful lesson can be repeated the next year; a failed lesson can be revised for greater success the next time around. I've always loved that challenge. In the last few years, I've felt inspired to help my students to see history from the point of view of real people. It's easy to make people excited about the lives of people like Jane Addams or George Washington, but I want them to see a fuller kind of history in the lives of the rest of us.

To that end, I use a collection of historical letters that are available online at the Gilder Lehrman Institute. My students read them and we talk about the ways that the letters reflect the experiences of real people in history. I like them to see that history isn't a series of distant events or might-have-beens, but rather real events that happened to real people. And the documents are intended to serve as an inspiration to let their imaginations take flight. After we read them, I ask the class to imagine themselves as a figure in history and then write a letter to loved ones reflecting on their experience with a moment in time.

This afternoon I read the letters my current U.S. History class wrote as they imagined themselves caught up in the Civil War. I've done this assignment before but this year's class really excelled. I read letters by imaginary nurses in field hospitals, average soldiers struggling with the horror of battles like Shiloh or Gettysburg, and wives left home to tend the farms and raise children. And in the work of my students I see imagination, a real knowledge, and a growing understanding of what the Civil War really meant to Americans who lived through the experience.

We'll do a similar assignment when we study World War I and I can't wait to see what they will be inspired to write. Their work makes me excited to do what I do, an inspiration of its very own.

9 comments:

Zandria said...

I think what you're doing to inspire your students is really awesome. If a teacher truly loves what he/she is doing, student interest is sure to follow. Really cool. :)

Daily Panic said...

I love to read letters, I like short stories most of any thing I read. Letters are the most intimate of short stories and I think they are beautiful. Terrific way to inspire! Go you!!!

Regina said...

Wow- I wish I would have done things like this in school! What an awesome teacher you are!
Inspiring kids is just about the best thing one can do, I think...

gautami tripathy said...

I am a mathematics teacher.I too tackle problems in different ways if it does not get across. I love teaching and get inspired by my students too. I make use of models to get across figures and other formulii!

gautami
Fillip

TMTW said...

It's a very creative idea. You should see if you could collect several years' worth and publish the letters in book form.

Anonymous said...

If more teachers were like you, think of what a creative world it would be!

GreenishLady said...

Sounds like a wonderful project. I think I'd prefer reading those letters than any book of dry historical facts.

Kimberley McGill said...

Your students are blessed to have you as a teacher. We need more like you.

Unknown said...

Great inspiration, well applied. What a great idea!