End of the Year Reflection: "I Failed My Students."

I remember the moment quite vividly. It was the end of May and the 2016-17 school year was beginning to wind down for the 8th grade US History students sitting in front of me. It had been an up and down school year with some amazing teachable moments while at the same time having some of those unexplainable days that every teacher has where nothing seems to go right and we question our career choice. Teaching is a very rewarding career, in my humble opinion, but it is also one of the only careers I can think of that relies a lot on reflection. I had just sat down at my desk after helping students work on their "Causes of the Civil War Investigation." The realization hit me hard at that exact moment (some 140 days into the school year). The realization was simple: I had failed my students. Yes, I said it. Me, a teacher, in the in-between of a new teacher and a veteran (this was the end of my 5th year) had failed to provide what I deemed to be good, quality instruction for each and every one of my students. This is not to say that I did nothing all year and my students ran wild and learned nothing. Sure, there were some fantastic lessons and I probably worked hundreds of hours to find valuable primary and secondary sources for my students and set high expectations for their work. Sure, they performed well on my tests and quizzes, turned in assignments, and did pretty well on a new historical thinking common assessments my district experimented with. But, sitting there at my desk at that moment I realized the problems with my students not meeting my expectations was not their fault, but rather mine.

Let me go back in time (not a historical pun...but fact). When I graduated college with a degree in American History and Secondary Education I made a commitment to myself, and future students, that I would not be the history teachers I had growing up--the old school lecture, memorize, repeat style of learning that so many generations of students grew up on. In fact, I am certain it's the reason that so many people in this country feel that history isn't relevant (but I digress...). This style has made the job of history teachers today much more difficult. I have to fight decades of bad teaching in the field of history that have left students bored, disengaged, and don't see a purpose to the study of the past. I decided that I wanted to bring real learning experiences to my students and give them an appreciation of the past. History is something I am passionate about--not just a subject I teach for a paycheck--but I actually live and breathe this stuff. But, that didn't always translate into great lessons nor motivation for my students. It's like the old saying...passion can only take you so far. I delved into research and settled on developing historical thinking skills for them. This is because I did not want my students to memorize history (dates, names, minutia of facts, etc) but wanted them to develop thinking skills that could cut across subject areas and allow them to leave 8th grade with skills they could use again when analyzing information (i.e., the real world application of "Fake News").

So, I set out to accomplish a culture of "historical thinking" and figured my students would love it and I could create a bunch of little historians ready to go on to get PHDs in History and be the next generation of historians. I poured over the work of Sam Wineburg, Bruce Lesh, and others to see what I could do in my little classroom. I spent every weekend planning out my lessons--sitting at my home office desk from sun up until well into the evening consuming way too much coffee and stopping only when my wife insisted I eat something. All this time allowed me to develop great lessons: A Boston Massacre Investigation complete with a CNN "Breaking News" Trailer, a Constitutional "Bootcamp," an Alien and Sedition Acts simulation, experimenting with and creating my own BreakoutEdu games. I even spent hours making "artifacts" such as clubs painted with "blood" for our Boston Massacre scene, and a to-size replica of the box that runaway slave Henry "Box" Brown shipped himself to freedom in. I made over 60 flipped videos so that I could avoid lecture instruction as much as possible and used a 360 camera to develop my own virtual reality field trips (complete with a class set of VR headsets). I picked a ridiculously difficult student growth goal, but it had value and required students to analyze and process. I edited hundreds of documents to be reader-friendly to 8th graders and read close to 50 historical books to gain more content knowledge for my students. All of this may paint the picture that this year was awesome. The reality wasn't that simple.

Everything didn't gel the way I wanted it to. Upon reflection, I am confident that where I failed my students was in preparing them for all that I wanted them to do. Here are my reasons as to why I think it failed this year--let my experiences, and thoughts, be an example for you:

1. Classroom Management Is Crucial
If you're a teacher and you're reading this, I hope you already know that. But, I thought I did too. I thought I had learned from mistakes made in my first 4 years of teaching and wouldn't make the same ones. But I did. I gave my students rules at the beginning of the year but didn't stick to them. I also failed to develop those rules with the learning of students in mind. I did not create classroom norms that would ensure all students could learn. I also did not take the time to train my students in how learning should take place in my classroom. All of this created a "perfect storm" where as months went by, I couldn't reign in some of the disruptions and I was fighting an uphill battle that took away from learning. Number one, get your classroom management ducks in a row.

2. Failure to "Front-Load"
At the beginning of the year I made it a point to try to build a sense of community in my class. I wanted the kids to be comfortable enough to try new things and speak their mind. What that did, however, was take time away from setting the groundwork I would need for them to be successful in my class. Behavior problems developed (as stated above) and I didn't do a great job there. But, my biggest mistake (one that I didn't fully realize until the school year was in full swing) was that I failed to properly teach them how to "be historians." I didn't give them enough of the support they needed at the beginning of the year as I was teaching them how to do things they had never done in a social studies class before. This caused them to struggle with the material and lead to frustrations that manifested early and and persisted throughout the year. I was also woefully ill prepared to deal with this as we went along. I didn't know some kids were struggling until it was too late. In the future, formative assessments will help here and check-ups on their thinking. Don't forget to properly prepare them!

3. Don't Go Too Far Above Their Heads
I am not trying to sound egocentric here, but I am at a higher level of historical thinking than my students. What I find interesting about history I realize they may not. Another mistake I made was to go way above their heads on some things. I incorporated some material that was too advanced for them and as a result, they got nothing out of it because they shut down once it was "too hard." For example, during our Constitution Unit, I wanted students to debate, experience, and see in today's world. how states and the federal government work together in the system of federalism. I sent them out with an assignment, but never really took the time to fully make sure they knew what federalism was, or if they even knew what governments do. I assumed because I know what takes place in government that they would too. I don't know why I was so naive, but I was. This summer, I need to back down some of my materials. I don't mean that I am going to dumb them down by any means, but I need to meet my students where they are if I am expecting to take them where I want them to go. There is no shame in starting them off simple and building complexity. We have a limited window to hook them on history and if we make things too complicated, and go over their heads, we lose it and can't get it back.

4. Involve Students in Their Own Learning
Like I stated before, students don't always feel that history is the #1 most important subject in the world. Meeting them where they are at is huge for history teachers. Give them the choice about what to learn on some topics. There is no problem is giving up a little control to get students hooked on history. This is something I struggled with this year. I had kids who wanted to dig deeper into certain topics but I couldn't give them the time to do so because I felt the pressure to cover all the content I had to cover. From my point of view, students only get so much history instruction in their educational career. I am ok with not covering every standard if I can get some thing, and lessons, to stick in their minds in the future. Giving students more choice in their own learning is a top goal of mine for next year.

5. Don't Miss the Opportunity to Make History Practical
History is all about experiences. The people we study in history lived and experienced that time period. We are currently experiencing our own time period that will be "history" someday. Don't miss the opportunity to connect that with students. Take the time to go off on a random tangent and how some themes in history keep coming back around. This year I tried to fit a lot of these discussions in, but again sacrificed these meaningful conversations for content. History, more than any other subject has the opportunity to really have an impact of students socially and their outlook on the world. I am not trying to say that Math isn't important, but Math cannot teach you how to be a better person, an aware citizen, or an active member of our democracy. History can teach you to appreciate the struggles of the past and show compassion and empathy towards others. If we miss that connection we miss the whole point of history education. This year I missed out on a lot of those connections because I was dealing with the problems outlined above.

Final Thoughts
My struggles may be the struggles of others or you may have found a system that works for you and you do it well. Whatever the case may be, don't forget to fully prepare and plan ahead. (Think of the "5 P's": Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance). This school year will push me to be the best teacher I can be next year and I will embark on a summer of learning to dedicate myself to being the best teacher that my students could possibly have when they see me in September. Always be the best teacher you can be, your students deserve it.

Father to Father at Gettysburg

This morning, before Day 3 of the CWI began, I took some quiet time to visit some places on the actual battlefield here in Gettysburg. I wanted to get out early before there were other people out and wanted to experience the quiet reflection time that offers.

My mission for the morning was to make a personal visit to old Gettysburg soldier that died here. It is a story I have read about and thought was interesting, but in my prior visits here before never felt obliged to visit. This morning I paid a visit to Amos Humiston, a SGT in the 154th New York Infanty who was killed in action on July 1, 1863. His body was found with no identification with the exception of a small ambrotyoe that he had clutched to his chest. The picture he had with him was of 3 young children but no other identifying characteristics. The image was published in Northern newspapers in the hope that someone would recognize the children and help figure out who he was. (At the time, the technology did not exist to reprint the ambrotype so the newspapers had to describe it...imagine how many responses they got). His widow ended up seeing the photo magazine, recognized the children, and then realized why she hadn't heard from her husband in months (this was now October 1863). The community took up the sad cause and sold copies of the photo and an orphanage was opened in Gettysburg a stones throw from where he is now buried.

Today I visited the spot where he was killed. There's a small stone marker there right next to the railroad tracks in the town of Gettysburg. As I stood there, I couldn't help but think about what was going through his mind as he sat there losing his life and looking at the image of his children. As a Father-to-be in August it moved me. I thought about all the things I would do for my future daughter and how much I would fight for her to live in a better world. That's exactly what he was doing. I can only imagine Amos wanted to fight so his children could grow up in a unified, strong, country that would be better than the one he grew up in. I connected that to today and how I would feel the need to volunteer if a major conflict ensued so my daughter could grow up in a world without evil

Later, I felt that it was equally important to go pay my respects to this American hero where he is buried in Gettysburg National Cemetery. I took the time to walk amongst the graves to find where he is buried. It was a moment that I felt I needed to do in order to complete the circle on my thoughts. After I found his grave, I placed a small American flag at his grave in order to thank him for the country that he helped preserve. A country that I love, with all it's faults, but also a country that people like Amos Humiston have fought to preserve and a country I will bring my daughter into it. It was a powerful, and moving experience.

The Importance of Change and Embracing the Moment

The Gettysburg Address

One of the troubles with getting 8th grade students excited about studying the Civil War is that they don't seem to see a point to studying all of the details, especially when it Michigan the 8th grade unit on the Civil War and Reconstruction come at the end of the school year when they are often mentally done. Keeping their interest is difficult. A teacher has to walk the fine line between overwhelming them with the immense content that is out there and them taking nothing away from the study of the most defining moment in our nation's history.

For the first day of the 2017 CWI, the biggest moment that stuck out to me was Martin Johnson's talk about Lincoln and his "Gettysburg Moment." As a historian I was engaged in the lecture and hung on every word he was saying. He talked about the drafts for the Gettysburg Address that Lincoln went through, what changes he made, why he might have made the changes, and why we have such a fascination and hold on the Gettysburg Address. His lecture would be too much for my 8th grade students. But the reflection, and lesson, that I will take away from it would be connected to them.

Lincoln was making changes to what we now know as the Gettysburg Address even in the morning before he gave the short speech. It's a lesson is revision, drafting, making changes, going over your work, etc. that even 8th graders can connect to. One of the stories Mr. Johnson told in his lecture was that on the morning of November 19, 1863, Lincoln walked part of the Gettysburg battlefield with his Secretary of State William Seward. The moment had such an impact on him (the physicality of being on the spot where it all took place) that caused him to want to revise the speech again. In pencil, on the draft that he carried in his pocket, where the part of the speech says "but we can never forget what they did here," Lincoln underlined the word "did." He was so moved by the experience that he wanted to emphasize the sacrifice of the soldiers because he knew the audience was made up of many wives, sons, daughters, family members, veterans, that had all lost someone or who were injured at Gettysburg.

The takeaway for us is simple: never be afraid to make changes to your work and know that every little change you make can have an impact. This is a lesson I will share with my students and will be good to teach the revision process (if Lincoln could do it you can!). 

I bought Martin Johnson's book last night and started reading it. I have had a hard time putting it down since then! I would recommend it!

Expectations for CWI 2017

I was selected as one of a handful of teachers to receive the Robert Glass Endowment Teacher Scholarship to attend the 2017 Civil War Institute Summer Conference held at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, PA. I am honored and humbled to have been selected for this and look forward to learning from some of the best in the field.

I cannot wait to collaborate with the other Teacher Scholars that are attending from around the country and talking about how they teach the American Civil War and learning from all of their years of experience and the professional connections that will come from that. I also am excited to learn new content to improve the way I teach my 8th grade US History students. Battlefield visits to Antietam and Gettysburg will allow me to use my 360 camera to create virtual field trips for my students and bring these historic locations to them and help them connect to history in real life.

Overall, the thing I am looking forward to the most is actually being a student again. Sure I'll have time to talk with others and present to them my work in virtual reality, investigations, and document work with students, but it's been awhile since I have been able to sit down and learn new things from some of the brightest minds in the field of history. I think spending the time learning as a student will give me some good observations about how my students feel and class and will help to improve my instruction in the coming years as I am always looking to improve my instruction and the way I connect to students.

I want to thank the CWI for accepting me as a teacher scholar and for my amazing school district for allowing me to attend at the end of the year!