My entire life, I’ve known I wanted to be a teacher. I love helping people, it’s what I’m best at and what brings me the most joy and fulfillment. When it was time to figure out what exactly I wanted to teach, it wasn’t too long before I landed on history. I grew up with the privilege of learning history outside of the classroom through stories my dad weaved together as I explored artifacts and asked questions. I wanted everyone to learn history the way I did without having to leave the classroom, and I figured there was no better way than to do it myself. I aim to be a teacher that challenges students to think differently than they ever have before, to ask questions, to explore the unknown, and to find stories previously untold.

            My students won’t just be in my classroom to learn facts and timelines, it’s my job to teach them how to think critically, ask hard questions, and analyze information like historians. The textbook is crucial to content knowledge, but if I want my students to develop their skills they need to break out of the binding and discover a new route. History is all about perspective, so it’s incredibly important for my students to be able to know how to find it, to balance it with the information they find online or in their textbook, and find a new, true, story in-between the lines.

            I think the best way for students to learn is to allow them to find their “muse” of sorts and look to me for guidance along the way. This looks like students receiving a collection of primary sources and a graphic organizer to help them dissect and analyze the information displayed in front of them. Using these sources, they can weave together the story of what happened without having to drag through text blatantly explaining it. It challenges them to find the answers to their own questions from the people that actually experienced it. My job is to support this endeavor, to ask additional questions, and provide context to help fill out the story. History can be an exciting subject of uncovering new truths and realities, but only if it’s presented that way.

            It’s incredibly important to assess these skills in a multitude of ways. I will never undercut the efficiency of multiple-choice questions, but it doesn’t necessarily lend itself to the mastery of critical thinking and finding perspectives. Assessment shouldn’t just be based on fact recall, it should be more interpretative. I’ve given you the facts, now what are you going to do with them? This may come in the form of a timeline showcasing different events and concepts of a unit, showing the intricacies of how they all lead to one another and why they’re so essential to the American Story. This also gives students the opportunity to showcase any skills they may not be able to demonstrate in the average assessment. Rather than being tested vaguely on a series of events they know little about; they can go all-in on the events that really matter to them and hone skills that will help them even more down the line. There’s no question that knowledge comes before reasoning, but once you have reasoning under your belt, the possibilities are endless.

            Following the book is easy and fact-recall isn’t necessarily a hard skill. I recognize that some of these concepts I want to use in my classroom are harder to master, but I’m not looking for perfection. What I’m asking my students to do is take risks and think like historians. The best way I can help them as they make this adjustment to a new style of thinking is to provide a soft place to land. While I’m teaching them critical analysis, it’s essential that I emphasize how okay it is to fail, how encouraged it is to explore a new question and reach a dead-end, how crucial it is to ask for help when it gets tough. By showing that failure and slip-ups are the foundation of radical historic discovery, my students will see that they have every skill they need to be a historian. They’ve already made the first step by showing up, and lucky for them, they have a great leader to guide them the rest of the way.