Week 11

"Learning Through Activism"

I think it is extremely important to teach students how to be good citizens. We need to integrate more lessons that help students succeed in society as an adult. The author of this chapter said that through the lessons, the students and parents learned "about citizenship, democracy, and voting rights that will not easily fade or be forgotten, lessons that have changed their lives forever." I want to instill these types of lessons in my classroom, and I want my students to learn through activism; but if I was never taught through activism, and still don't truly understand it, how can I teach it to my students?

I had an idea of an activity the class could do to become active in their community. The class could set up a canned food drive for the school and see where the food goes after it is collected. Or perhaps, after discussion with administration and parents, the class could volunteer together at the local food bank. These would let the students actively participate in good works for their local community.

Overall, when teaching, I want to teach students the backstory to important parts of history. Like what we read about earlier in the semester, in the reading where the teacher taught about the native american tribes before learning about Christopher Columbus and the colonization of America. I want my students to understand that every person and event in history has a backstory and can be investigated. We need to be inquisitive about passed events and apply our findings to our current views of society.