Teaching History Requires that Students Relate

I recently read an article from Education Week from the perspective of a history teacher that works with some sort of diploma recovery/adult-education program. As a result, these students have definitely never caught the spark of history that we all have.  The article talks about how the teacher relates what she and her student is talking about to relevant issues of the day.  I also love how she answers his questions without saying that there is not time to do so.

That is one of the things that I love about where I teach.  Because the regular curriculum that the students have covers everything, I know that they will eventually get there.  So, we can spend time on what the kids are interested in learning about, and what I am learning about.

Even though this is an English story from today---I think it still applies. We are currently starting a poetry unit, and we were going through some common poetry terms. I set it up with the kids that some of them might know them and they might not know others.  It opened up everyone up for questions, and I love it when I am scrambling to think of the answers to the questions that they ask.  They love it when I pull up Google on the projector and we go looking for the answer.  That is the type of inquiry that I love!

Thankfully we don't use chalk anymore!