One Summer, when I was middle school age, my Dad needed to attend a business convention in Veil, Colorado. So, he decided to make a trip out of it. We had a big truck with a big camping trailer, so the plan was to load up my Mom, Dad, the four kids, and the dog and travel to the land of rocky mountains.
My Dad did something that I will alway admire. He detected that I had an interest in geography and social sciences, so he gave me a big atlas book (this was before the days of google maps) and he instructed me to plan the road trip. The trip was to be 10 days long and I was to map out our route, find place to stop for the night, and find points of interest along the way. It was a challenge, I had to learn how to better read a map and learn of historical locations. Nevertheless, I was in heaven. I was surprised my dad trusted me with such a responsibility and I tried my best to rise to the challenge.
The trip was a wonderful success and is still one of my fondest childhood memories. We saw many neat locations as I guided my Dad with my big atlas. The lasting affect of that experience is a greater love and interest for social sciences. My father saw I had an interest and helped me to foster it. Due in part to this experience, social science became more than just another subject in school I had to complete, it became a genuine interest and passion.
As I reflect on what kind of teacher I will be, I often think of this experience. Students do not learn through rote memorization and will definitely not be interested learning in that manner. It is my responsibility to design an environment and opportunities in which learning and interest will foster as did mine. Additionally, it is my responsibility to recognize student interest, skill level and background and do my best to draw from those to aid the students in the educational process.
My father was not a professional teacher, but did something that affected me astronomically. I hope to play a similar role as I attempt to draw off students' background and experience to increase ability and interest.
I love this story. First of all, it reminded me that "text" in social studies goes beyond the textbook and even beyond written primary source documents--it also includes maps (in this case), photographs, oral histories, and other non-print texts.
ReplyDeleteAlong with teaching you how to use an atlas, I bet this experience also taught you a lot about the different landmarks of different places as well because you had to decide where your family had to stop to maximize your trip.
If you taught geography, I could imagine a fun assignment being to ask your students to plan a trip through France (or some place), noting and describing the historical or geographical significance of the landmarks they would visit. They would learn a lot about that region of the world, just as you did.
Thanks for a great posting.