Before I get into
the heart of the matter -- which is the substance of the professional
development I got -- let me first entice you with some logistical items.
Although the Taft School is not an easy place to get to, the TEC did a nice
job of providing transportation info for how to get there without having a
car. The dorm room was comfortable and the food provided by TEC made me feel
spoiled. Three meals a day plus two coffee/tea breaks in which even the snacks
provided changed daily, plus a social hour right before dinner in which
complimentary wine and non-alcoholic drinks were provided - let's just say I
had all the more reason to use the splendid athletic facilities at TEC, as
well as run in the multiple bucolic fields of campus!
If this description
of the facilities has perked your interest, let me get into the real joy of
being there: the workshop itself. I was first introduced to just how
beneficial my week in Connecticut was going to be in the shuttle provided by
TEC to get to campus. During that ride I had the most invigorating conversation with another teacher named
Louise who had signed up for the AP Art History workshop. There
is nothing quite like talking to teachers from other schools to gain some perspective on your own school -- regardless of
whether they are in your discipline, or whether they are from public or
private schools.
As the week
progressed I got to meet lots of other interesting teachers because the TEC
purposely (but not forcefully) structures opportunities to interact with other
educators both in and outside of your particular workshop. Through these
interactions I got the chance not only to commiserate with other teachers
about their experiences (particularly with regard to boarding school life),
but also to appreciate certain aspects of my own school. My discussions with
college counselors were also insightful, especially when comparing the
challenges of American and international students. I also, of course, spoke to
other history teachers about how they structure their curriculum and organize
class material. For example, I already plan to stay in touch with one teacher
about how to use music more interactively in my AP class. Furthermore, in
talking to a variety of teachers, I came to realize how my teaching is
different from American teachers because my audience (i.e. international
students, but mostly Jordanian) is different. I can't make references to some
things that American teachers can simply because my students wouldn't get it
due to cultural or language barriers, and yet at the same time I was struck by
just how much I can reference due to globalization!
My particular
workshop was on Latin American Civilization
taught by Prof. Fernando Gonzalaz de Leon, and it was simply a productive and
enjoyable experience. To keep it succinct, here's a list of what made it so positive and
why my 5 days flew by:
- The professor ran the workshop more like a graduate seminar so that we had a lot of reading every night (about 100 pages) from The Penguin History of Latin America and then based our two 4-hour daily sessions (run more often than not as Socratic discussions) on the reading. This book is simply a great resource and I would highly recommend it if you are weak in Latin American history (like I was, which is why I took the course). While it is very dense with facts, it is also readable, effectively analytical, and up-to-date, so it was a great way to provide background information for class discussion, and it will be a great resource for me should I want to provide case studies on Latin American countries.
- In the workshop the professor asked short-essay questions for which we spent time writing answers in class and then shared our ideas. Here are the 8 questions we ended up discussing in full:
- What are the hurdles in teaching about Latin America?
- What were the differences between the Latin American and North American experience of conquest?
- What commonalities did indigenous peoples have before the arrival of the Europeans?
- What were the values of Latin American civilization? (i.e. What's 'Latin' about Latin America?)
- What were the global consequences of settling Latin America?
- How does the Freyle story reflect and modify the casta system as we illustrated on the board?
- Is there a parallel between the North American and Latin American revolutions?
- What were the challenges facing Latin America in the 19th century?
I ended up having
over 7 pages of typed answers after fully digesting our discussions, and they
will provide a good framework for putting Latin America in a world historical
context as well as studying it on its own terms.
- My favorite part of the workshop were the assigned readings from The Oxford Book of Latin American Short Stories. It has been a while since I've taken a literature class, so after reading the first few short stories assigned before the workshop started, I was baffled as to how we were supposed to use them. Yet the professor proved to be very adept at unfolding the stories for us and revealing not only the allegories and metaphors involved in the writing, but also at helping us put the stories in historical context and using them to consider cultural studies. It was a phenomenal experience for me to be confused with a text at the start and then be so aware of the intricacies and nuances of the same text just thirty minutes later. It reminded me of how good analysis and close reading of short texts are critical in any humanities course, and how I must give my students that same intimate experience with texts as often as possible. This means I must work on my goal this summer of gathering meaningful but cropped primary sources for my classes to examine & dissect in-class. I want to give them a spread of sources to look at, like selections from literature (e.g. Epic of Gilgamesh) and artwork (our professor had us compare Baroque Latin American compositions with the more abstract music of late-18th century Latin America), or newspaper clippings (e.g. feminist activities in early 20th century) and political texts (e.g. The Communist Manifesto). Yet it is difficult to find the right selections as well as translations that are appropriate for my students, particularly for my freshmen, for whom English is a second language. (Any suggestions for resources online or otherwise to help in this endeavor would be appreciated!)
- Our group also got the chance to talk to our professor about the challenges that he faces with university students, and it was interesting (if also somewhat disheartening) to realize that many of them are the same ones we face with high school students. Plagiarism, for example, remains a big problem, and we talked about what seems to be a trend in which students are not held accountable for their work as much as educational institutions are the first to be blamed….an interesting discussion that I will ponder more about in a future blog post.
When I left TEC it so happened that coincidentally I got a chance to sit with Louise again and she, like myself, had had quite an enlightening workshop. So if you should have any questions about TEC or my specific workshop or want to discuss other PD opportunities, please feel free to comment!
I am curious if you came to any solutions about plagiarism and what is being done about it.
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