My Philosophy of Teaching American History

As American history educators, we are responsible for our actions both in and out of our school environment. Through our actions, we show our morality to everyone with whom we have relationships. For educational success to occur, educators must explore and discover their personal relationship with themselves. Once this has happened, they may begin to explore and discover their relationship with their students. I agree with this statement from Moral Crisis in the Schools—What Parents and Teachers Need to Know: “A teacher cannot share the meaning of a world of knowledge, unless and until he or she has courageously reached within to discover the real self, the underlying values, drives and principles convictions and even emotions that conspire to make the teacher the unique and genuine person who is ready and willing to share a portion of life with students. A teacher at any level cannot convincingly present a world of meaning, if he or she presents himself or herself as a person devoid of meaning.”¹ Teaching is a “moral enterprise” and necessarily involves the development of conscience. All teachers/educators need to be connected with every influential environment in their lives. They must use these environments to help their students understand the importance of books, historical data, and scientific discoveries to propel us through the twenty-first century—with a craving for knowledge that meets our conscience sense of morality.

Next is my personal philosophy for being a successful American history teacher. First, always let your students know that you are passionate about the curriculum you are teaching. You do not have to announce that you are passionate; they should be able to pick this up from your actions. Second, make your curriculum relevant to your students. Use stories from today to connect to your American history timeline. Finally, bring students to a location that connects to your American history curriculum. Once you are at the site, have a scavenger hunt or some type of relevant work for them to accomplish as a group. Review this information with them over the next few days in class. Don’t just take them on a field trip and have them run wild and get nothing educational from the trip. (This last point comes after having witnessed some less-than-productive Gettysburg field trips taken by other schools.)

Finally, I have three pieces of advice for beginning American history teachers. First, master your classroom. If you cannot maintain proper classroom management, the students will not learn the curriculum. Second, give respect; get respect. Do not try to be students’ friends. To provide a proper learning environment for all students, you must maintain your teacher/facilitator identity. Finally, have fun every day, because you are getting the opportunity to educate the next generation about American history and how to be an engaged citizen.

To conclude, the following chart showcases one example of how the Civil War could be incorporated across multiple disciplines in one school.

TEACHING OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

Time frame	American Civil War connection
October–November	• Language arts teacher—Civil War Literature—Ambrose Bierce, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and Ann Rinaldi, “Girl in Blue.” • Another subject area teacher—Civil War In 4 videos by the Civil War Trust and the movie Gone with the Wind. • Science teacher—engineering during the American Civil War packet; this includes balsa-wood bridge-building. • Social studies teacher—H.S.I.—Historic Scene Investigation: “Growing Up before They Had to—Children of the Civil War” (includes primary source materials from children—obtained from an online source and tweaked by Mr. Rinehart); various Civil War Trust videos (summarized by students) and Civil War Trust 360 battlefield panoramas (summarized by students)
January	Research individual student American Civil War trifold projects: In the computer lab—during our instruction and enrichment period—trifold projects are due at the end of March
A Saturday in late March	Applebee’s pancake breakfast fundraiser: Proceeds go to help fund battlefield preservation and service learning.
A Saturday in Late April	American Civil War day at Southampton Middle School: The day includes guest speakers and student...