Students will be able to understand issues behind the German mindset at the end of WWI.
I decided this week to go into full history mode. We’ve already watched a few episodes of “Band of Brothers,” so I’ve been in a mood to teach the World Wars. Conveniently, they are just starting WWII in their world history classes, so rather than blowing off English to teach my favorite subject, history, in fact I am “reinforcing curriculum in other disciplines.” I am having a blast, and have had two very successful lessons in a row. I measure my lesson success by how many students feel it’s okay to get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of class. On the average day, it’s probably 2-3 kids per period. Yesterday, 2 kids left the room all day. This morning, not a single kid has left. My class must be pretty good if they don’t want to miss anything 🙂
Yesterday, I printed out a few pages of my curriculum and laid a class set on each desk. I also printed out black and white maps of Europe and taped them to each desk, highlighting the country that student was going to belong to. It was not a super in-depth lesson: the countries were limited to Russia, Serbia, Austria-Hungary, Germany, France, USA, Belgium, and Great Britain. They had a study guide for notes, and as we went through the packet, I paired a power point with my lecture/discussion. We made sure to note every major mustache in the presentation. I also brought a pound of yarn and painter’s tape. As different countries started forming alliances, I taped the yarn to desks and connected them to the desks of their allied countries. I had two colors, one for the Central Powers and one for the Allies. For example, the Triple Entente connected Russian desks with French and British desks. I purposefully placed Germany and Austria-Hungary between French and Russian desks. Belgium connected to the UK, and the US hung out by itself because, technically, it was “neutral” for most of the war. By the end of class we had yarn crisscrossing around the room, which was tricky for me because I like to pace, and had a tendency to trip and break alliances.
We started the lesson with Otto von Bismarck (apparently this name never came up in their world history class) and ended with America entering the war and Woodrow Wilson’s fourteen points. Some of my usually distracted boys had a blast; they were Germany, and tracked every move made in the war. One boy, who I once kicked out of class for not surrendering his phone, marched into my room today and announced that, “the archduke of Australia-Hungary (close enough) was killed in in 1914 and Germany got screwed when they didn’t even start the war! I remember that all from yesterday, Miss!” I was so proud of them.
Today I checked out the iPads and posted their readings onto my teacher site; in lieu of making dozens of copies, they got to use the iPads to switch back and forth between my PowerPoint and my reading. They all became German citizens today; half were German soldiers, and half of those were fired when the Treaty of Versailles dictated that Germany’s army couldn’t exceed 100,000. Those unemployed joined the Freikorps. I quizzed them on how they felt about the Treaty, and we divided into the many political parties of Germany in 1919 and elected Friedrich Ebert as president of the Weimar Republic. We totally ran out of time; this 5-day lesson plan might turn into a 6-or 7 day plan. Anyway, they’re learning and I’m having a ball.
|Kaiser Wilhelm II’s mustache
|German general Erich von Ludendorff’s mustache
|Otto von Bismarck’s mustache
|Woodrow Wilson’s total lack of mustache
Numerous times over the last two days, students have shouted how I should be a history teacher, or how they’ve learned more from me than from their history teacher. I don’t think the history teachers at our school are bad; quite the contrary, I’ve had many conversations with them about potentially collaborating on projects next year. Still, I think my students complete a lot of packets and watch a lot of movies, possibly because many of our history teachers are also coaches and spend a lot of time on the road with their teams. I am in a bit of a quandary because I would love to teach history; however, I also love my English classes. If the state keeps our testing requirement, sophomore English is going to be more important than ever, as our test is a graduation requirement. Even if there were a history slot open, I don’t want to leave my students to someone who might not care as much or worse – be mean to them. I also love my department; my fellow English teachers are super supportive and creative and I love learning from them and with them. Most are veteran teachers, and they inspire me to continue to work each day. This summer I plan to compare my curriculum with the world history department’s so I can see where I can insert more history. Perhaps I can pull a few primary sources during each unit and use those instead of short stories from the textbook. My students have 7 classes a day; the more reinforcing I can do, the better they’ll learn in both subjects. Hopefully 🙂
P.S. My husband glanced at my blog title and at my pictures and said of the mustachio’d, “Except they lost.” True. But they did have awesome mustaches.
Wanafunzi wataweza kuelewa masuala nyuma ya mawazo ya Ujerumani mwishoni mwa Vita Kuu ya Kwanza ya Ulimwengu. Niliamua wiki hii kwenda katika hali kamili ya historia. Tayari tumeangalia vipindi vichache vya "Band of Brothers", kwa hiyo nimekuwa na hisia ya kufundisha Vita vya Ulimwengu. Kwa urahisi, wao ni tu kuanza WWII katika madarasa yao ya historia ya dunia, hivyo badala ya blowing mbali Kiingereza kufundisha somo langu favorite, historia, kwa kweli mimi nina <unk>kuimarisha mtaala katika taaluma nyingine.<unk> Mimi nina mlipuko, na kuwa na masomo mawili ya mafanikio sana mfululizo. Mimi kupima mafanikio ya somo langu na jinsi wanafunzi wengi kuhisi ni sawa kuamka na kwenda choo katikati ya darasa. Kwa wastani, ni watoto 2-3 kwa kipindi. """Siku ya jana, watoto wawili waliondoka chumbani." Asubuhi hii, hakuna hata mtoto mmoja aliyetoka. Darasa langu lazima liwe nzuri sana ikiwa hawataki kukosa chochote 🙂 Jana, nilichapisha kurasa chache za mtaala wangu na kuweka seti ya darasa kwenye kila dawati. Pia, nilichapisha ramani nyeusi na nyeupe za Ulaya na kuziweka kwenye kila dawati, nikionyesha nchi ambayo mwanafunzi huyo angekuwa. "Hata hivyo, ""mwisho wa masomo"" haukuwa wa kina sana: nchi zilikuwa Urusi, Serbia, Austria-Hungary, Ujerumani, Ufaransa, Marekani, Ubelgiji na Uingereza." Nilikuwa na kitabu cha mafunzo cha kuongoza kwa ajili ya maelezo, na tulipokuwa tukichunguza kitabu hicho, niliunganisha PowerPoint na hotuba yangu au mazungumzo yangu. Tulijitahidi kuangazia kila ndevu kubwa katika maonyesho hayo. Pia nilileta pauni moja ya uzi na mkanda wa mchoraji. Wakati nchi mbalimbali zilipoanza kuunda muungano, niliunganisha uzi huo kwenye meza na kuziunganisha na meza za nchi zao za muungano. Nilikuwa na rangi mbili, moja kwa ajili ya Nguvu za Kati na nyingine kwa ajili ya Washirika. Kwa mfano, Muungano wa Tatu uliunganisha dawati la Urusi na dawati la Ufaransa na Uingereza. Kwa makusudi niliweka Ujerumani na Austria-Hungary kati ya dawati la Ufaransa na Urusi. Ubelgiji ilijiunga na Uingereza, na Marekani ilikaa peke yake kwa sababu, kiufundi, ilikuwa "isiyo na upendeleo" kwa sehemu kubwa ya vita. Kufikia mwisho wa darasa tulikuwa na uzi unaozunguka chumba, ambayo ilikuwa ngumu kwangu kwa sababu napenda mwendo, na nilikuwa na mwelekeo wa kutembea na kuvunja muungano. "Mwanzoni mwa masomo ya Otto von Bismarck, ""Mwanzoni mwa miaka ya 1940,"" alitoa maelezo ya mambo ambayo yalifanya Marekani iingie katika vita vya pili vya dunia na ya pili ya ulimwengu, na ya mwisho ya miaka ya 1940 alipotoa taarifa ya mambo kumi na nne ya Woodrow Wilson." Baadhi ya wavulana wangu ambao kwa kawaida walikuwa wamevurugika walifurahia sana; walikuwa Wajerumani, na walifuatilia kila hatua iliyofanywa katika vita. Mvulana mmoja, ambaye wakati mmoja nilimfukuza darasani kwa kutoa simu yake, aliingia chumbani mwangu leo na kutangaza kwamba, <unk>mfalme wa Australia-Hungary (karibu sana) aliuawa mwaka wa 1914 na Ujerumani ilichukuliwa wakati hawakuanza hata vita! Nakumbuka kwamba wote kutoka jana, Miss! <unk> Nilikuwa hivyo fahari yao. "Siku hizi, mimi na wanafunzi wangu tunatumia iPads zetu, na kwa sababu ya kuunganisha na kuunganisha, mimi na wanafunzi wangu tunatumia iPads zetu ""kuzunguka"" kati ya PowerPoint na kusoma." "Wakati huo, askari wa Ujerumani walikuwa wakijaribu kuondoa ""kiasi cha askari"" katika vita vya Versailles, ambapo vita vya Ujerumani vilipigwa marufuku kwa idadi ya askari 100,000." Wale waliopoteza kazi ya kuajiriwa walijiunga na Freikorps. "Mwaka 1919 wakati wa vita vya pili vya dunia, Ujerumani iligawanyika katika vyama vingi vya kisiasa na kumchagua Friedrich Ebert kuwa rais wa Jamhuri ya Weimar.""" Kwa hivyo, kwa sababu ya kuwa na muda wa kutosha, mpango huu wa masomo ya siku tano unaweza kuwa mpango wa siku sita au saba. Kwa vyovyote vile, wao wanajifunza na mimi nina mpira. "Kaiser Wilhelm II, mzee wa kijeshi wa Ujerumani, na mkuu wa jeshi la Ujerumani, Erich von Lüdendorff, na Otto von Bismarck, na Woodrow Wilson, wote walikuwa na ndevu, na wanafunzi wengi walipiga kelele ""Ninaweza kuwa mwalimu wa historia"" au ""Nimejifunza mengi kutoka kwangu kuliko kutoka kwa mwalimu wao wa historia.""" Sidhani kama walimu wa historia katika shule yetu ni wabaya; kinyume chake, nimekuwa na mazungumzo mengi nao kuhusu uwezekano wa kushirikiana katika miradi mwaka ujao. Hata hivyo, wanafunzi wangu kukamilisha pakiti nyingi na kuangalia filamu nyingi, labda kwa sababu wengi wa walimu wetu wa historia pia ni makocha na kutumia muda mwingi barabarani na timu zao. Mimi ni katika kidogo ya utata kwa sababu ningependa kufundisha historia; hata hivyo, mimi pia upendo madarasa yangu ya Kiingereza. "Ikiwa serikali itaendelea na mahitaji yetu ya mtihani, Kiingereza cha mwaka wa pili kitakuwa muhimu zaidi kuliko hapo awali, kwani mtihani wetu ni mahitaji ya kuhitimu. """ Hata kama kulikuwa na nafasi ya historia wazi, sitaki kuacha wanafunzi wangu kwa mtu ambaye anaweza kuwa na wasiwasi kama sana au mbaya zaidi kuwa mbaya kwao. Mimi pia upendo idara yangu; wenzangu Kiingereza walimu ni super msaada na ubunifu na mimi upendo kujifunza kutoka kwao na pamoja nao. Wengi wao ni walimu wenye uzoefu, nao hunichochea kuendelea kufanya kazi kila siku. Majira haya ya kiangazi ninapanga kulinganisha mtaala wangu na idara ya historia ya ulimwengu ili niweze kuona ni wapi ninaweza kuingiza historia zaidi. Labda naweza kuvuta vyanzo vichache vya msingi wakati wa kila kitengo na kutumia hizo badala ya hadithi fupi kutoka kwa kitabu cha masomo. Wanafunzi wangu wana madarasa saba kwa siku; kadiri ninavyoweza kuwaimarisha, ndivyo watakavyojifunza vizuri katika masomo yote mawili. Natumaini P.S. Mume wangu alitazama kichwa cha blogi yangu na picha zangu na akasema juu ya ndevu, <unk>Isipokuwa walipoteza.<unk> Ni kweli. Lakini walikuwa na ndevu zenye kupendeza.