SOUP’S ON! WITH AMY NEWARK FROM CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL®
WHEN A TEACHER’S ATTITUDE CAN TURN STUDENTS INTO STARS Amy Newark
eople say that seeing the world through rose-colored glasses is a bad thing, but I don’t agree. Sometimes putting on rosecolored glasses doesn’t only make things look rosy — it changes them for real! And what better place for this to be true than our schools, where children are just beginning to discover their true potential? One of our regular writers, Jennie Ivey, wrote an inspiring story about this called “The Honors Class.” We published it in a book all about perspective and attitude called Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Power of Positive. Jennie, who has a bachelor’s degree and a master’s from Emory University, used to be a teacher. Now she is a writer and public speaker based in Tennessee. Jennie’s story is about her first year teaching. She was fresh out of college, with a
degree in history, a teaching certificate, and not a bit of experience. She was excited that she had been chosen to teach an honors-level U.S. history class, because new teachers didn’t usually get the honors classes. But Jennie got lucky as she was assigned an honors class during first period. In preparation for the eager learners she expected, she decorated the classroom with Presidential portraits, colorful maps and framed copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. When the kids shuffled in unenthusiastically the first day, she figured that was just how high school kids were. “I’m so excited to have been selected to teach this class,” she told them. “We’re going to do things a little differently in this class because I know that all of you want a challenge.” When the kids stared at her, dumbfounded by her perky enthusiasm, she soldiered on, asking them
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to rearrange their desks in a circle so they could have class discussions. Then she asked them to choose a seat, introduce themselves, and then tell her what they didn’t like about history class. That got the kids smiling. “Amanda hated how history seemed to be all about war,” Jennie said. “José didn’t like memorizing names and dates. Gerald was convinced that nothing that had happened in the past was relevant to his life. ‘Why should I care about a bunch of dead white guys?’ was how he put it. Caitlyn hated tricky true-false questions. Miranda despised fill-in-the-blank tests.” Armed with that feedback, Jennie made a plan. She wouldn’t teach from the textbook. She wouldn’t make her honors students read a chapter and then take a quiz. She wouldn’t limit their topics to generals and battles. Instead, she would explore
social and economic history and tie in current events to make the past feel relevant to their lives today. Jennie bubbled over with ideas to appeal to these kids, with their higher-level skills. “We’d read novels to bring home the humanity of history. Across Five Aprils when studying the Civil War. The Grapes of Wrath to learn about the Great Depression. The Things They Carried when talking about Vietnam.” Jennie decided to spare these students the normal fill-in-the-blank tests or lists of true-false questions. She would create tests that covered the facts, but required higher-level thinking skills. After all, these kids were bright and motivated. Jennie says, “My honors class deserved to be taught in a way that would speak to them.” Jennie was surprised by how many of her students used poor grammar and WWW.SEENMAGAZINE.US
