Teaching in the fall

3,554 Views | 47 Replies | Last: 3 mo ago by Gator92
aalan94
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Howdy!

My book has been selling fairly well for an academic press. Have had just a couple of in-person events to promote it. This past weekend was a big one and had a line of people at my table to buy the book. I think I mentioned before, if any of you know any local history groups, I'm happy to speak to them and talk about my topic, provided I can sell books there.

In other exciting news, I start teaching as an adjunct instructor of history at Texas A&M San Antonio in the fall. I will be teaching US history from 1865 on. Now, my experience is better suited to earlier US history, but I know it all pretty well. I've got a book to teach from, but it's basically just a general outline of the major points. I'm looking for key things to talk about, maybe tidbits to teach my students to make it relevant and interesting. Things they won't know, or things to get them interested in history. Viginettes, for instance. I've got some good ideas for the World Wars, need to think a bit more on labor history and some of those things. But feel free to just toss out ideas and why they're relevant to young kids (mostly freshmen).

For example, in talking about the 60s, maybe Jim Jones or the Weather Underground or whatever. One thing I don't want to do is get political. Yes, there are subtle interpretations to everything, but I don't think the job of a teacher is to tell the kids what to think. I do want to expose them to things that will challenge what they may have been taught to believe by society, but again, I think it's about exposing to counter viewpoints, not tell them what to think. And I think that should come from both "sides" as it were.

So, here's a chance for you to expound on what you think should be in a curriculum and why. Not saying I'll use it, but figure I'd crowdsource a bit and see what ideas emerge.
spud1910
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Not sure it would be good for you, but I wish I had learned about Patton in the Great Louisiana Maneuvers of 1941. His 2nd Armored Division came through my part of East Texas. I wish I had know about it early enough to ask my grandparents about it. I also think it would be interesting to learn more about the POW camps during WWII. My dad was given his first piece of gum by a German POW in Orange, TX.
Jabin
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Let us know how much those kids already know or don't know. A close friend of mine is retired lawyer and teaches Business Law at a State University in North Carolina. He loves to shock me with how abysmally ill-informed his students are. For example, the vast majority have never heard of John F Kennedy, Richard Nixon, or Watergate.

Your goals are noble, but it may prove difficult to shake up their preconceived ideas when they have no preconceived ideas.
Superfreak
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My favorite series on the history channel is the men who built America. So many interesting stories and tidbits in there I never knew. Maybe relay some of those stories.
Jabin
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Superfreak said:

My favorite series on the history channel is the men who built America. So many interesting stories and tidbits in there I never knew. Maybe relay some of those stories.
Uh, he's teaching from 1865 on.
Superfreak
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Uh, the men who built American is a series focused predominantly post civil war.
JABQ04
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Jabin said:

Superfreak said:

My favorite series on the history channel is the men who built America. So many interesting stories and tidbits in there I never knew. Maybe relay some of those stories.
Uh, he's teaching from 1865 on.


You wanna know how I know you didn't watch the series?
Jabin
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Ooops. My apologies.
JABQ04
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To be perfectly fair to you, with a title like that, you'd think of early frontiersman, Daniel Boone, Westward expansion etc…..
Superfreak
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No worries. If you haven't seen it I recommend it. Maybe one of y'all more studied in history will tell me is half BS I don't know.
Aggie_Journalist
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Imagine teaching history, 1865 - today, focused on the experiences of 20-sometimes.

That might connect with them.

What were all the wars like for folks their age?
The protest movements for folks their age?
The years of plenty and the years of recession or depression for folks their age?

Centering the history of the United States around what it was like for folks their age could be a really cool and different lens on history.
Thanks and gig'em
Smeghead4761
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Framing Reconstruction as America's first (failed) experiment in nation building

The Great Depression: Did FDR's policies help or hurt?

If you want to poke some holes in the dominant narrative of WWII, Myth and the Greatest Generation by Kenneth Rose will make you think.

The Atomic Bomb debate

I don't know if it qualifies as historiography or the history of teaching American history, but I think we've gotten well beyond the point where American history can be neatly divided into two semesters, one covering up to and including the Civil War, and one covering everything after. To me, even just a broad overview of American history has become a three semester project: Up to 1865, 1865-1945, and 1945-present.
one safe place
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The Great Depression for one. My dad ran away from home when he was 11, right into that period of time. Another would be the Dust Bowl. Though I was aware of it, and knew more than a little about it, I have recently done some reading and found out there was a lot more that I didn't know!
gigemhilo
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one safe place said:

The Great Depression for one. My dad ran away from home when he was 11, right into that period of time. Another would be the Dust Bowl. Though I was aware of it, and knew more than a little about it, I have recently done some reading and found out there was a lot more that I didn't know!


I think it would be interesting to explore just how much of current culture was a result of the desperation of the Great Depression - examples: my grandparents ate weird foods, saved butter containers and used them like tuber-ware, and had a big meat meal on Sunday but very little the rest of the week. How have habits like these trickled down to us 100 years later? How has language and phrases from that period trickled down to our culture today?

Maybe it's a rural thing, but I have often thought about how their suffering changed culture at the time.
Ghost of Andrew Eaton
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I think a greater understanding of the Convict Labor system might be interesting.
If you say you hate the state of politics in this nation and you don't get involved in it, you obviously don't hate the state of politics in this nation.
aalan94
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Quote:

Framing Reconstruction as America's first (failed) experiment in nation building
At first I thought negatively about this comment, not for the comment, but for some of the historical baggage. I think a lot of Southern revisionist history portrayed Reconstruction as worse than it was. It was bad, but the real reason life sucked in the South after the war was their economy was destroyed, their labor system was essentially made illegal without anything structural to replace it (where was the cash to pay the newly-freed slaves?) But reconstruction didn't really add all these new evils to the ones that were there. At least not to the degree that it is often seen.

But on second thought, as far as nation building, you have a point. Think of the South as Afghanistan. Essentially, the US tried to change it, then gave up and pulled out and it reverted (though to a slighly less oppressive system than it was before, unlike Afghanistan). I would caveat that not all US nationbuilding has been a failure. The Philippines is actually a pretty good case. Yes, it's poor and backward in some ways, but not as much as you would expect (I've been there twice). And I think you could easily make the case that they would be far more backward if they were still owned by Spain, had gained independence without the US influence, or even worse, had Japan been able to keep them as a dependency.
Jabin
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Interesting comments and thoughts.

For all of the derision of British colonialism, their former colonies are typically in much better shape today than the colonies of other European powers. British colonialism left a legacy of good education, rule of law, nationalism, and a single national language, among other positives. That was, perhaps, not intentional "nation building", but it accomplished much of what is desired.
jwoodmd
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aalan94 said:

Quote:

Framing Reconstruction as America's first (failed) experiment in nation building
At first I thought negatively about this comment, not for the comment, but for some of the historical baggage. I think a lot of Southern revisionist history portrayed Reconstruction as worse than it was. It was bad, but the real reason life sucked in the South after the war was their economy was destroyed, their labor system was essentially made illegal without anything structural to replace it (where was the cash to pay the newly-freed slaves?) But reconstruction didn't really add all these new evils to the ones that were there. At least not to the degree that it is often seen.

But on second thought, as far as nation building, you have a point. Think of the South as Afghanistan. Essentially, the US tried to change it, then gave up and pulled out and it reverted (though to a slighly less oppressive system than it was before, unlike Afghanistan). I would caveat that not all US nationbuilding has been a failure. The Philippines is actually a pretty good case. Yes, it's poor and backward in some ways, but not as much as you would expect (I've been there twice). And I think you could easily make the case that they would be far more backward if they were still owned by Spain, had gained independence without the US influence, or even worse, had Japan been able to keep them as a dependency.
Japan is a great case of successful nation building. Unlike Germany, the US was the only player in reconstructing and refocusing the Japanese after WW2.
p_bubel
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When talking to my friends who generally don't care about history like I do, clear cause and effect is the best way to get them interested in the story I'm telling. Humor helps greatly too. Individual dates and the minutia of battle tactics just makes their eyes glaze over.

Mine too, at times.

Ghost of Andrew Eaton
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jwoodmd said:

aalan94 said:

Quote:

Framing Reconstruction as America's first (failed) experiment in nation building
At first I thought negatively about this comment, not for the comment, but for some of the historical baggage. I think a lot of Southern revisionist history portrayed Reconstruction as worse than it was. It was bad, but the real reason life sucked in the South after the war was their economy was destroyed, their labor system was essentially made illegal without anything structural to replace it (where was the cash to pay the newly-freed slaves?) But reconstruction didn't really add all these new evils to the ones that were there. At least not to the degree that it is often seen.

But on second thought, as far as nation building, you have a point. Think of the South as Afghanistan. Essentially, the US tried to change it, then gave up and pulled out and it reverted (though to a slighly less oppressive system than it was before, unlike Afghanistan). I would caveat that not all US nationbuilding has been a failure. The Philippines is actually a pretty good case. Yes, it's poor and backward in some ways, but not as much as you would expect (I've been there twice). And I think you could easily make the case that they would be far more backward if they were still owned by Spain, had gained independence without the US influence, or even worse, had Japan been able to keep them as a dependency.
Japan is a great case of successful nation building. Unlike Germany, the US was the only player in reconstructing and refocusing the Japanese after WW2.
Germany is a good example if you look at the disparities that exist today between the areas that were West Germany and East Germany.

Are there significant differences between the different sectors of West Germany?
If you say you hate the state of politics in this nation and you don't get involved in it, you obviously don't hate the state of politics in this nation.
Ghost of Andrew Eaton
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p_bubel said:

When talking to my friends who generally don't care about history like I do, clear cause and effect is the best way to get them interested in the story I'm telling. Humor helps greatly too. Individual dates and the minutia of battle tactics just makes their eyes glaze over.

Mine too, at times.


And Dr. Reese taught me that a well-placed Dad Joke/Pun can keep their attention.

When my students would discuss the Boston Tea Party:
Me: What did some of the participants wear to the BTP?
Students: They dressed like Native Americans.
Me: Nope, they wore T-shirts.

They groan but also like it.
If you say you hate the state of politics in this nation and you don't get involved in it, you obviously don't hate the state of politics in this nation.
jwoodmd
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Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:

jwoodmd said:

aalan94 said:

Quote:

Framing Reconstruction as America's first (failed) experiment in nation building
At first I thought negatively about this comment, not for the comment, but for some of the historical baggage. I think a lot of Southern revisionist history portrayed Reconstruction as worse than it was. It was bad, but the real reason life sucked in the South after the war was their economy was destroyed, their labor system was essentially made illegal without anything structural to replace it (where was the cash to pay the newly-freed slaves?) But reconstruction didn't really add all these new evils to the ones that were there. At least not to the degree that it is often seen.

But on second thought, as far as nation building, you have a point. Think of the South as Afghanistan. Essentially, the US tried to change it, then gave up and pulled out and it reverted (though to a slighly less oppressive system than it was before, unlike Afghanistan). I would caveat that not all US nationbuilding has been a failure. The Philippines is actually a pretty good case. Yes, it's poor and backward in some ways, but not as much as you would expect (I've been there twice). And I think you could easily make the case that they would be far more backward if they were still owned by Spain, had gained independence without the US influence, or even worse, had Japan been able to keep them as a dependency.
Japan is a great case of successful nation building. Unlike Germany, the US was the only player in reconstructing and refocusing the Japanese after WW2.
Germany is a good example if you look at the disparities that exist today between the areas that were West Germany and East Germany.

Are there significant differences between the different sectors of West Germany?
No there weren't - just saying though that Japan was really 100% US. West Germany has the US primarily to thank but GB and France did have involvement.
nortex97
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Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:

jwoodmd said:

aalan94 said:

Quote:

Framing Reconstruction as America's first (failed) experiment in nation building
At first I thought negatively about this comment, not for the comment, but for some of the historical baggage. I think a lot of Southern revisionist history portrayed Reconstruction as worse than it was. It was bad, but the real reason life sucked in the South after the war was their economy was destroyed, their labor system was essentially made illegal without anything structural to replace it (where was the cash to pay the newly-freed slaves?) But reconstruction didn't really add all these new evils to the ones that were there. At least not to the degree that it is often seen.

But on second thought, as far as nation building, you have a point. Think of the South as Afghanistan. Essentially, the US tried to change it, then gave up and pulled out and it reverted (though to a slighly less oppressive system than it was before, unlike Afghanistan). I would caveat that not all US nationbuilding has been a failure. The Philippines is actually a pretty good case. Yes, it's poor and backward in some ways, but not as much as you would expect (I've been there twice). And I think you could easily make the case that they would be far more backward if they were still owned by Spain, had gained independence without the US influence, or even worse, had Japan been able to keep them as a dependency.
Japan is a great case of successful nation building. Unlike Germany, the US was the only player in reconstructing and refocusing the Japanese after WW2.
Germany is a good example if you look at the disparities that exist today between the areas that were West Germany and East Germany.

Are there significant differences between the different sectors of West Germany?
Well sure, that's like asking if there were cultural differences between the American south and the mid-Atlantic or northeast. The Vons/Prussians vs. the folks around Munich, or Berlin Rheinland, Wurtemberg, Schleswig-Holstein were much different then and now, in many respects, both in terms of culture, and extrinsically as to who the folks trusted/feared.


And that's to say nothing of shifting demographic/ethnic makeups within each, especially 'adjustments' in the East post WW2.
one safe place
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gigemhilo said:

one safe place said:

The Great Depression for one. My dad ran away from home when he was 11, right into that period of time. Another would be the Dust Bowl. Though I was aware of it, and knew more than a little about it, I have recently done some reading and found out there was a lot more that I didn't know!


I think it would be interesting to explore just how much of current culture was a result of the desperation of the Great Depression - examples: my grandparents ate weird foods, saved butter containers and used them like tuber-ware, and had a big meat meal on Sunday but very little the rest of the week. How have habits like these trickled down to us 100 years later? How has language and phrases from that period trickled down to our culture today?

Maybe it's a rural thing, but I have often thought about how their suffering changed culture at the time.
Really good points and I think the same as you on this. My dad didn't, but I knew people of his generation (I worked where he did for a few years prior to going to A&M) who saved the aluminum foil they wrapped their sandwich in, to use over and over again.

My dad lived in a tent for about three years. Going into the Marines (other than having the Japanese trying to kill him) was probably the best living conditions he had experienced, particularly with regard to food, clothing, and shelter.

We seldom bought meat, we would butcher a steer, a couple of hogs, we fished, shrimped, crabbed, and oystered. We had a decent sized garden we ate from. All done to save money and I think due to him having gone through the Depression.

I grew up lower middle class, but we never went hungry. My dad had experienced real hunger. And though we ate leftovers, we still threw a lot of food away. When he made gumbo, he made five gallons of it, for a family of five. When we would go to the deer lease, he filled his tags as quickly as he could, or shot one or two deer to get something in the coolers, so he could start preparing food for those in camp.

As to sayings, I am not sure where or when he picked it up, but dad used to say "we were so poor we didn't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out." He would also say "poor people have poor ways" (when talking about his family growing up, or ours, he was not condemning poor people). When he said either, my mom would get so pissed off, lol.

gigemhilo
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one safe place said:

gigemhilo said:

one safe place said:

The Great Depression for one. My dad ran away from home when he was 11, right into that period of time. Another would be the Dust Bowl. Though I was aware of it, and knew more than a little about it, I have recently done some reading and found out there was a lot more that I didn't know!


I think it would be interesting to explore just how much of current culture was a result of the desperation of the Great Depression - examples: my grandparents ate weird foods, saved butter containers and used them like tuber-ware, and had a big meat meal on Sunday but very little the rest of the week. How have habits like these trickled down to us 100 years later? How has language and phrases from that period trickled down to our culture today?

Maybe it's a rural thing, but I have often thought about how their suffering changed culture at the time.
Really good points and I think the same as you on this. My dad didn't, but I knew people of his generation (I worked where he did for a few years prior to going to A&M) who saved the aluminum foil they wrapped their sandwich in, to use over and over again.

My dad lived in a tent for about three years. Going into the Marines (other than having the Japanese trying to kill him) was probably the best living conditions he had experienced, particularly with regard to food, clothing, and shelter.

We seldom bought meat, we would butcher a steer, a couple of hogs, we fished, shrimped, crabbed, and oystered. We had a decent sized garden we ate from. All done to save money and I think due to him having gone through the Depression.

I grew up lower middle class, but we never went hungry. My dad had experienced real hunger. And though we ate leftovers, we still threw a lot of food away. When he made gumbo, he made five gallons of it, for a family of five. When we would go to the deer lease, he filled his tags as quickly as he could, or shot one or two deer to get something in the coolers, so he could start preparing food for those in camp.

As to sayings, I am not sure where or when he picked it up, but dad used to say "we were so poor we didn't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out." He would also say "poor people have poor ways" (when talking about his family growing up, or ours, he was not condemning poor people). When he said either, my mom would get so pissed off, lol.


yes - similar thoughts to mine. I often think about how my kids - who never knew want but also never knew my grandparents - would have reacted to them. It is amazing how struggle will change your outlook on life and the daily habits you have. I tried to teach those lessons to my kids where I could, but without real experience they have no context to draw from.
Who?mikejones!
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Ludlow massacre for labor?


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre

I see the sign on my yearly road trips to colorado
Who?mikejones!
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San Antonio has a deep history in american aviation. Might be an interesting topic that could include some site visits to Stinson
Who?mikejones!
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gigemhilo said:

one safe place said:

The Great Depression for one. My dad ran away from home when he was 11, right into that period of time. Another would be the Dust Bowl. Though I was aware of it, and knew more than a little about it, I have recently done some reading and found out there was a lot more that I didn't know!


I think it would be interesting to explore just how much of current culture was a result of the desperation of the Great Depression - examples: my grandparents ate weird foods, saved butter containers and used them like tuber-ware, and had a big meat meal on Sunday but very little the rest of the week. How have habits like these trickled down to us 100 years later? How has language and phrases from that period trickled down to our culture today?

Maybe it's a rural thing, but I have often thought about how their suffering changed culture at the time.



Russell Lee took fantastic photographs of San Antonio during the great depression. Really eye popping stuff
Jabin
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Some other ideas:

Race riots in Beaumont during World War 2?

Wasn't there also labor unrest during WW 2, especially towards the end?

The labor unrest in America early in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries was significant, also. Ft. Sheridan in Chicago was created to protect the white-collar workers in the northern suburbs from the disgruntled workers in downtown and south Chicago, or at least that's my vague understanding.

The view held by many that the Nuremberg trials of the Nazis were a kangaroo court.
PanzerAggie06
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AG
A study of the impact of the massive grow of television in the 1950s and how it revolutionized how we not only were entertained but how we were informed via mass media. This could tie into a comparison to the growth of social media in the early 21st century to make it more impactful to todays kids.

The 1960 debate between Kennedy and Nixon was an absolute game changer in Presidential politics. I've always wondered if the story that those who saw it on TV thought Kennedy won while those who listened to it on the radio thought Nixon had won was based on reality or was mere urban legend.
LMCane
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Is it possible to become a adjunct professor at a community college with a Bachelors in History, a Juris Doctorate, long legal career and publishing a book of history on the Civil War?

or you need a formal masters degree in history or teaching?
OldArmy71
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AG
As someone who has taught at universities, community colleges, and high schools--and also as an adjunct--I hope you enjoy your teaching this semester, OP!
Ghost of Andrew Eaton
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I wasn't clear. Was there a difference in the economic development between the three Western sectors similar, albeit less significant, to the differences between the East and West?
If you say you hate the state of politics in this nation and you don't get involved in it, you obviously don't hate the state of politics in this nation.
nortex97
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I believe so but I don't have documentation to that. I don't think the sectors were economically treated disparately under the Marshall plan, and the Germans (who received less than allies) interestingly didn't know until 1953 how much they'd have to pay us back, for instance, so they were (typically) cautious in their spend.

Within West Germany, I think there were pre-existing differences in industry/skill between for instance Frankfurt, and Munich. This continued after the rebuild. 'De-provincializing' post-war, and the massive population movements (related to horrible Nazi policies and new borders alike), created quite a lot of change is what I understand, though.

Quote:

Yet another approach to a broader contextualization of postwar history would be to focus on a crucial issue, such as the massive population movements in the wake of Nazi defeat. Though they were causally related to the ethnic cleansing and mass murder of Hitler's quest for living space, most of the literature treats them as separate processes. Monographs on displaced persons largely focus on the fate of Jewish survivors and the question of repatriation of Slavic slave laborers or their emigration to the United States, Canada, or Australia. These studies also look at the laudable efforts of UNRRA to help the surviving victims of Nazi aggression, but tend to slight the fate of the collaborators from the East. In contrast, the German scholarship on flight and expulsion deals with the partly voluntary and largely compulsory eviction of 12 million German speakers from eastern Europe, focusing on actions of the German authorities without paying enough attention to the causes of their displacement. At the same time, Polish studies on the westward shift of millions from their eastern territories into formerly German lands also tend to remain within a national framework, even if both processes are related in the emptying out and repopulation of the same territories. Instead of searching for culprits, it would be more constructive to treat all these processes and various groups as historically related to one another
Ultimately, the reindustrialization/era is something I find fascinating but have never studied to be frank. It's something I'd like to learn more about, some day.
OldArmy71
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Just off the top of my head, if you're talking about teaching an academic subject such as history in a community college in Texas, you must have a master's degree (not necessarily in the academic subject) including at least 18 graduate hours in the academic subject you want to teach.

As an example, one of my colleagues in high school had her MA in Psychology but was able to teach Dual Credit English through one of the local community colleges because she had 18 graduate hours in English that she had accumulated along the way in her teaching career.

(Generally speaking, a Dual Credit class is one taught on the high school campus by a high school teacher qualified to teach a college class. There are exceptions when the class is taught on the college campus.)

Everyone I taught with in my years of college teaching had an MA or PhD in English, even when teaching as an adjunct.

Other states may have different requirements.

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