Patricia Limerick is coming to the rescue of all of us who want to be better history teachers. She is working with the American Historical Association to create a new website called "Teaching Tipping Points." I will let her explain:
To relieve the loneliness at the front of the classroom and to
experiment with a way to see if the AHA could become a "beloved
community" (do not scoff—this could happen), the AHA Teaching
division will soon embark on an endeavor to harvest the individual and
collective knowledge, experience, and wisdom of the membership of the
American Historical Association. This harvesting will take the shape of
an entirely revamped web site (the functional meeting place for beloved
communities in the 21st century) designed to foster, among AHA members, a
sense of community, camaraderie, and good company. The communications
on the web site will help early-career teachers get their bearings (and
manage their terror!), revitalize mid-career teachers who fear burnout,
and provide all with resources for coping with a rapidly changing
educational landscape...
... We intend, in other words, to capitalize on the distinctive virtues
and strengths of our profession. Historians often declare that our theme
is "change over time," and thus we want the Teaching Tipping Points to
echo that theme, showing our careers in the classroom as a dynamic
process. Moreover, narrative, story, tale, and illustrative example are
the characteristic methods of expression for the most compelling forms
of historical communication. Thus, we invite our contributors to present
their Teaching Tipping Points as narratives, stories, tales, and
illustrative examples, rather than as instructions, exhortations, or
prescriptions. We will not prohibit other forms of communication, but we
will do whatever we can to encourage a livelier exercise of prose that
matches up with the strengths of our discipline. We will encourage tales
of teaching that are closer in style to the literature of action and
adventure than to the more plodding genres of manuals, lesson plans, and
how-to guides.
We seek stories of experiments that worked, but we also want thought-provoking stories of experiments that should have
worked but did not (and yet still delivered, in their failure, an
instructive message). Given the rewards of risk-taking, we may even
offer special recognition to and appreciation of the authors of stories
of failure on a very grand scale.
To learn more about this initiative click here.
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