History According to Eleventh Graders

I use to write a blog way back in the day. It was about working in a strange place where no one knew your name and no one spoke your language. They also gave you dumb looks and didn't pay any attention to you when you spoke to them. They made you laugh and feel good inside but they also made you wonder why you ever got into this line of work in the first place. And here I find myself in that almost exact same place two years later.

Ever since I became a history teacher I realized the parallels between this and my previous assignment in the Peace Corps are strikingly similar. So I thought I would try to document my experiences teaching U.S. History to 11th graders in Carrollton, TX. But this time, I would try to tell the story from their experience. One of the reasons I wanted to teach high school was because I had an absolute blast. High school was way better than college. College was all business to me, just get my degree and get out. But high school...high school. Enough said.

So I will present American history the way they perceive and the way they respond to it. I only wish I had thought of this sooner. The comedic gold is simply brilliant and some of the commentary so dead-on, sometimes I wonder why they needed me in the first place.