Lynne: Introduction to Teaching

Clio - Muse of History

 

I have been teaching both History and Humanities classes at Germanna as an adjunct instructor since 2001.  While I teach many different courses, both online and f2f, my focus is typically on social and cultural aspects of the past. 

 

 

 

 

I have always loved history, and I chose this discipline because my intellectual and academic interest has always been to discover who we are, where we came from, why we do what we do and believe what we believe, and how we can possibly use this knowledge to make the world (or just our own lives) better.  My desire is to encourage students to share this interest.  Like most of my colleagues, I am always searching for ways to present materials that will make learning more personal for my students with the belief that this will help sway them to my way of thinking about history. 
  

 



Declaration of Independence

To personalize history, it is necessary to go beyond the old-school memorization of names, dates and events, and to create assignments that will turn students into historians.  In a survey course, the best way to do this is to use primary source documents and have students examine what has been said and understood about the past in the words of those who were actually there.  From this point, they learn how to interpret the past and consider what this means from their own world view.  I encourage students to expand their understanding of themselves and their fellow students by sharing their individual “take” on an event, idea or person as they interpret it through these documents.  Typically, this takes place on the Discussion Board of my online classes, but it could just as easily be presented as a Blog, documenting a student’s process of analysis, presenting their interpretation, and allowing for commentary from their classmates.

 

  

 In addition, I think that the Blog would be a useful tool for me, as a facilitator, to use at the end of each Learning Unit to summarize the ideas, interpretations, comments, and questions that emerged out of the students’ work.  Students could then add comments or further questions if they desired.  I intend to replace some Discussion Board assignments with Blog assignments in the future and will be curious to see if students’ responses change under this new format.

Useful Links:

 

Four Reads:  Learning to Read Primary Documents, Bayard Faithfull

http://teachinghistory.org/teaching-materials/teaching-guides/25690

Blogger Getting Started Guide

https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/1623800?hl=en&ref_topic=3339243