In the interview that we read for today, he says that he prefers to teach a class where the students connect with the material instead of just getting all the information in:

"A teacher has to choose: either I’m going to explore some aspects of history, explore some time periods, in real depth, and in a way that can excite students—or I’m going to make sure that my students get through that entire 1,000 page textbook. I’m going to teach a fact-rich, idea-poor curriculum, but, by golly, students will get it all."

How do you think you will honestly teach your class? ideally you will want your students to connect, but will the pressures of the EOC override your enthusiasm for the material?

I honestly think about this all the time, because in middle grades this is all we ever talk about. I don't think that at this stage in our careers anyone can honestly say "well this is how i'm going to teach my class and i'm not going to change anything about it." I think that you just have to have a general idea of what content your students need to learn for the test and how you are going to try to teach them these things. As the years progress you will be more and more comfortable with taking risks in activities and projects and you will develop (hopefully) a teaching style that is good for you and the students. I think some of the main things I know I want to do when I teach are: yes, teach the content but also make it fun and exciting for the kids. No one wants to sit around and read out of a book all day and say "ok guys now tell me the main characters and the plot and climax" I want to think of ways to get kids thinking about these ideas but not necessarily drill it into their brains. Like have the kids write their own plays or stories and decide the plot, main characters, and climax...They are still learning it is just more centered around what they want to do and making decisions. So i think teaching is all about choices, content, and exploration whether it be hands on activities or projects where they decide what they want to learn and how.

I think that this is a really hard question to answer having not been in the classroom yet. But I think the ultimate goal is to have students learn in a way that is engaging and in the end, it is more likely that they will retain this information for the EOC anyway. I personally feel that our obligation should be to the student and their future rather than to the state and their tests. I know that it can feel overwhelming but I truly think that if your goal is to figure out what kids need to know in the future and the best ways that they can learn and retain, that you will end up being a great teacher without having to worry about the test. In the classes that I had where the teachers only worked towards the test, I did worse on the tests in the end anyways, because the material wasn't important to me and I was learning how to take the test rather than learning what I needed to know.