This One's For Dad: Go For What You Want (and an announcement!)

 I would not be alone if I said that 2020 is a horrible year. But for my family it has been exceptionally bad. In February we unexpectedly lost my dad to a heart attack at the age of 63. The sudden loss shook us all to the core. Two weeks later my wife laid in an emergency room bed--the same emergency room where we lost dad--and then spent three days in the ICU with multiple organ failure due to complications from a preexisting condition. Then COVID hit. While I was in the ICU with my wife news came that Michigan schools were shut down and would move online. We lost dad, almost my wife, and schools shut down. And this was March 12, 2020. 

In March we had no idea what the remainder of 2020 would have in store. We had no idea we'd be shut down and put under Safer At Home Orders. That every grocery store visit would be curbside pickup. That we'd have to make mask wearing a part of daily routine. But, with all that being said, my family has had our health through all of this. Sure we've had our ups and downs. I had to telehealth my doctor and admit that I was not doing well and the stress was having physical manifestations. I had to open up and talk about the loss of my dad (something I am still struggling with). 

With all of this still going on, I had some professional setbacks in my education career. A couple of job opportunities to advance my career opened and I eagerly applied and began preparing, only to not be selected for the jobs. Loss, heartbreak, pandemic, anxiety, and now rejection. What else could 2020 have in store?

Then, a couple of weeks ago I opened my email to find that I had been named the Michigan History Teacher of the Year by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. I was floored. I picked up the phone and out of instinct, I dialed Dad's number. A couple of rings in I realized what I was doing and hung up the phone, sunk to the floor and lost it for a number of minutes. After about ten minutes passed I was able to pick myself up and dial my wife who was at work and I could barely get out the news. Here I was sharing news of the biggest honor of my educational career and I was a mess. Dad was the first person I dialed for a reason: this award was all dad. Dad was always the first to hear of good news. The one I went to for advice. The one I called when I had a bad day. So Dad was going to be the one to share this news. But it's more than that. This honor was a culmination of Dad's purpose and work with me as his son. 

Dad always taught me to value myself and advocate for myself. He would laugh when he said if you're not willing to advocate for yourself why would anyone else? If you don't believe in yourself why should anyone? He was a hard worker who never failed to provide for his family. Through all of that though, he always taught us to go for what we want. Donn't be afraid if we really believe in something--just do it. He was that way when I told him I wanted to go into education. Dad was a designer to General Motors and his dad worked in the auto industry as did his sister and many other extended family members. He was fully supportive when I said the auto industry had no appeal for me. Dad pushed me to be the best teacher I could be and would constantly ask about my students, lessons, and other news of school. 

A few years ago I began transforming the way I teach. I was horrible before. I wanted to teach history better for my students as they deserved it. So I took Dad's advice and went for it. I read books, articles, emailed professors and historians and radically changed the structure and content of my 8th grade US History curriculum. So when that hard work was honored as Michigan History Teacher of the Year, it had Dad's fingerprints all over it. 

That being said, I am going to use this honor to go for it even more. I want to help people. Dad helped people. He always put others before him. So I am going to follow suit. I want to help teachers do better. History teachers need to do better. We all can do better. So, I am going to go for it. I am pleased to announce that coming very soon I will be launching a Podcast titled "The Teaching Better History Podcast."

The goal of this podcast is not to be a soapbox for me to act like I am better than anyone. But, rather a forum for me to share my experiences and transformation in the classroom and successes and failures I have had with that. In the coming weeks I will launching and releasing a few episodes to begin before making it an open forum for any history teacher that wants to talk about their experiences of teaching better. In this way, we can transform history education and transform the way students learn history. All honoring Dad's legacy of "going for it." If you're interested in participating, please let me know!