The last two days have ended with me feeling completely wiped out. I couldn't figure out why. I haven't done anything out of the ordinary as far as the lesson execution goes... They have been good lessons but not exhausting as far I as I could tell. Well today concluded and I couldn't figure it out. Couldn't talk, couldn't think... What was going on?
Then I started to talk to a colleague about comments made by some of my World History students today. I had two girls, in isolated situations, tell me that they have been having nightmares about my class. Let me clarify... It's not that being in my class is traumatizing, but rather that the content that we are studying is getting to them so much that they are even dreaming about it. At first I felt guilty that I was causing them emotional distress, but then I realized... They were thinking about the content so much and caring about it to the degree that they were dreaming it... A TEACHER'S dream! So as I was discussing this with the teacher and telling him about the Holocaust activity and video that we watched today, it dawned on me. I, too, am wiped out from the emotional content that I am teaching. Part of me hopes as I gain more experience teaching this material it will become easier, but another part of me hopes I never become desensitized to it. Only time will tell I suppose, but for tonight a trip to Starbucks has prepared me to get working on more lesson planning for the next few days... Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Yikes!
One thing I promised my kids and myself... After the STAR test (the test given at the end of the year to assess student's comprehension of the state standards- for you non-teachers) I am going to design lessons that lead the students to look for positive solutions for the future, and lead them to find ways to contribute to society in a constructive way!
3 comments:
Hey, since you're on the WW II thing, do you cover the bombing of Dresden? I know it's not as many casualties, somewhere around 30,000 to 40,000 civilians, but terribly tragic. Just curious.
Very interesting info here at Wikipedia.
no. of course not adam. you jerk. don't mention any comparisons. i'm going to have to call a right wing radio station and tattle on you. but not on you kendall.
My bad, didn't mean to draw comparisons to conventional bombing and nuclear bombing. One is obviously better than the other. Whoops.
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