The Journey of A Reading Man: Can You Use Literature to Teach History?

The Journey of A Reading Man

Arrows may have slayed Smaug The Dragon, But his jewel-encrusted belly will always gleam on the bottom of the long lake.

Bard the Man could have saved more of his people, if only he had shot closer to Erebor.

A Hobbit changed the fate of Middle Earth, But it was his Uncle who saved the fate of a Kingly Dwarf. Is one better than the other in the end?

Gandalf the Wise guided the story, But the players were not swayed by a wizard.

Twas adventure that most called to the Robber, A most likely Thief indeed. 

Gully Foyle Jaunted through space, But in the end he took the secret of how he did it to the grave.

While he could cover the marks on His face, Anger reveals always reveals what we all truly feel in the end.

Anger a man who changed his stars, and you'll find a Hero lying inside. 

The Gouffre Martel could not hold Him, And the Love of His life was fittingly evil.

Olivia, Robin, and Jisbella, Three names that really hold the power of Man.

Jaunting through space and time to save them, Saving Himself in the end.

Hemingway was truly a man Who held the Stars as his Destination, But Running Rum was what he chose to express.

He Taught many to be Strong and Courageous, But it's not like Women can often relate to his Words.

Moby Dick is not the only Fish to vex a Man, For a Marlin too stymied an Old Man.

Fighting Franco the Fascist a Man named Jordan fell in Love, But He still had to die a Lonely death worthy of the Man who created Him.

Same goes for Jake and Frederic, Two Men who never really got to Hold the Women they Love.

Ernest's Contemporary more elegantly displayed the hold of a women's mystique, Making them equal or better in His eyes.

Hemingway thought Fitzgerald drank to much, But it was the longer lived who's Liver too ran out of time.

Boats may beat us back against the Current into the past, But in the Present of the story no other could describe so eloquently the intricacies of a relationship.

In the end Fitz and Zelda were Beautiful and Damned, But it is the Hope of a Green Light at the End of a Dock that Holds my Fixation.

All tales Great, All Magical stories, But what is it worth if we only measure life with Gold?

Tolkien, Bester, Hemingway, and F. Scott, Not far apart in the time line of a Man. 

But their stories all different, yet are still the same. 

Be it Space, or Earth, or the Realm in between, The Escape created by these Stories is always Serene.

Give me Life, Give me Pain, Give me Love, Then let me Die,

For the Journey of The Reader is But to Wonder why?

This is just something I jotted down while subbing a well-behaved class. I've been thinking about what shaped me in High School and what continues to do so in my world today. I know literature, especially classics such as the ones exampled above have molded me into who I want to be, interestingly these are all stories that are well steeped in history, even Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination" uses what was his modern time and the figures in it to shape the past of the dystopian future he created.

While this is not necessarily related to teaching, I have come to realize that well-read students tend to be the most well-rounded scholastically. I feel like if I can incorporate literature into my history classes one day that it can only help create better history students. People like Bernard Cornwell write very historically accurate works of fiction. If I can utilize this tool (I know, not a Web 2.0 tool), then maybe students will appreciate and learn from and about history in a more holistic manner.

Flipping The Classroom

This week in my EDUC 407 class we learned about "flipping the classroom." which is the process of students doing the initial learning at home through online resources and then doing the "homework" for said learning in the classroom the next day.

This concept really called to me in a unique way because of how it gives students a way of having more one-on-one time with the teacher and how it offers more active learning in class. I feel when students are engaged they have a better chance of retaining the material. And by making the classroom active and as rigid it can help encourage engagement. 

The fact that flipping the classroom is a possibility is in itself just downright cool. Thanks to screen sharing (screencasting) videos, or even going through slideshows the added voice over, teachers have a way of giving students the chance of going back and re-watching a presentation on a subject with the addition of teacher instruction. Which can only help in terms of studying for mid-terms, finals, or even just quizzes and tests. 

Last time I wrote about how we can't expect students to pay attention for long stretches, especially because of technology. Well this is the back door. Making homework simply watching and briefly interacting with a video no longer than the many a student will most likely already do so at home on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat simply makes sense. Spending about 10-15 minutes of time for homework, and super easy homework at that, gives even the most attention deficit students a chance at learning and maintaining the material they are taught. 

This model also helps set students up for college in a unique way. While professors may lecture for a little longer than a brief five to 10 minute video, they will also want to engage the class in discussion (for most subjects). Having to engage in discussions online about the teaching in a forum, and then talking about what is learned and re-connecting to the key points in class the next day is almost exactly what happens in a twice-a-week, hour-an-a-half-long class in college. Many professors even want students to have gone over presentations before class, which again only furthers the good habits that flipping the classroom can embed. 

My only caveat with this is for students who don't have access to the internet at home. Which I'm sure then there are accommodations that could be created. 

I'm interested to see how many teachers begin flipping the classroom as the practice becomes more common. 

Ever Changing Future Changes How We Teach

As a substitute teacher I get to see students at their worst, usually. Some are model students always, but even 4.0 pupils have a penchant to slack off a little when a sub is in the room instead of their regular teacher. This aspect of slacking off grows even more exponentially when you throw technology into the mix.

I have seen how technology can be a negative force in education. Hell, my laptop screen hardly ever on task items on the screen when I was in classes in college. So how can we expect the children of a quickly changing and ever-present technological age to be paying attention in class for more than a brief stretch of time?

Personally after watching the videos detailed in the first week of my EDUC 407 class I have come to believe that we can't. I think we have to grow as teachers to include technology into the way information is disseminated to students. If not, why would a student not long to get back to the newest thing on their phone, tablet, or even school-provided Chromebook.

Videos, interactive websites, and other technology-based facets of learning are becoming more and more present in a classroom. The difference between when I become a full-fledged teacher (I'll be 27 going on 28) and when I graduated high school will be 10 years. And in that 10 years the difference between the amount of technology and a the expectation of a student to use tech-based outlets for their projects and even daily homework is jaw-dropping.

As I go into teaching history, hopefully the valuable information of our past dives into the minds of students even if it is presented in a modern way. Even the way we view history is changing thanks to new technology in the fields of forensics and archaeology (Hitler didn't die in the bunker). So I think teachers, especially new ones, have to realize that how we teach students is going to be ever changing.