Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it....

Living in a foreign country is a different experience.  Each country is different and has different provisions for those working for the G.  Some countries provide "American" schools for the dependents of those serving and working overseas, others have completely acceptable alternatives on the local that meet the US education standards.  What is generally missing from the latter is American History.  Here in Australia, most children attend Australian schools in town, however they do not get exposure to American History as that's not covered.  The Embassy put together a class, no credit is awarded, but to keep the kids in the loop so to speak so when they rotate back to the US they are not so far behind.  This is where I come in!

I saw the ad in our community newsletter looking for a teacher for the Junior American History course.  Since I have studied history, I felt qualified to cover some of the highlights at least.  I have zero teaching experience but I didn't let a little thing like that stop me.  We got started a little late, the Senior class had already had at least one or two sessions by the time I signed up.  I used the syllabus from that class and adapted it to meet our needs.  My class was the 2nd graders through the 6th graders.  Quite a large gap, but I thought I could make it work.

We had varying skill levels in the class.  From the kids who had not ever lived in the States to those who just arrived from the US, the knowledge base was wide. I started with the 13 colonies and we went from there.  Each week we built on the last, and I was hoping that they actually learned something.  Along the way, these kids impressed me with their willingness to learn and participate.  I also got a kick out of them!  The answers they came up with sometimes were absolutely hilarious.  For example as we discussed things so I could get a feel for what they knew, one of the kids told me that John F. Kennedy ended the cold war.  Later as we were going back over the regulations surrounding the office of President, one of my students recalled that the President could "get peached".  I really had good time as the answers they gave were completely unpredictable.

As we worked our way through the history of our country, I found that the local schools dont really assign homework (much to the chagrin of the parents who dont think they are learning enough).  I had been holding back and not giving work to take home because I didnt want to interfere with their other school work.  After I found that out I hit them with a project.  Each student was to choose one of the Presidents and do a report.  Because I didnt want to hear 15 presentations on George Washington, I made them all chose different ones.  Their choices were very interesting.  Some made safe choices, others really stepped outside the box.  Once of my younger students was disappointed that the President she wanted had already been chosen.  She said, "But I dont know anything about any of these!"  After I stopped laughing, I told her that was actually the point of doing a report-to learn something you didnt know before.  Week before last, their projects were due.  Some wrote me a one-page paper (not pictured) while others did posters.  Everyone had to get up and tell about their project and what they learned.  One of the options I gave them was to dress as their President or First Lady and do their presentation.  Only one took me up on that but she completely SMASHED her project out of the park.  She completed her project on Richard Nixon and she discussed the food stamp program as well as medicaid and the Watergate scandal.  She even did the "I AM NOT A CROOK" speech,  It was exactly what I was hoping they would do!  Below are some of the poster projects that were submitted, I didnt take photos of the papers because, well, it was just a paper.

This is the outside of the project

This was the inside.

This past Friday we had our last class of the term.  It seemed to FLY!  As a reward for their hard work I organized a little party and we played Jeopardy! with all of the stuff we learned over the term. The kids got points for their project that started their Jeopardy! score, from 100 to 500 points.  At the end of the day I think that helped a little but it was not the deal breaker I thought it would be.

Once the game was over, they found out their final scores and got to pick a prize.  I picked up pencils, markers and some little games, nothing extravagant.  I had told them the previous week that there would be prizes and one student asked "Is it a cruise?"  After I picked myself up off the floor, I explained that there was no budget for that sort of stuff, that she needed to lower her bar a little.  They all seemed pleased and I think they may have learned something!  What was even nicer was the surprise waiting for me!

One of my students made me this bracelet!

The class got together (well, Im pretty sure that a couple of the moms were solely responsible) and gave me some "thank you" gifts!  This Outback Santa and door wreath were absolutely unexpected.  I made notes on them so I will always remember the time I taught that class in Australia.