Paideia's Vision:
We envision a new generation of engaged, productive global citizens.
Paideia's Mission:
The Mission of Paideia Academy is to challenge and inspire learners by providing a rigorous, content-rich, classical education incorporating languages, music, and the arts while nurturing positive character development.
Welcome back, everyone!
I hope you had a restful and rejuvenating summer break! I felt like my break went by very quickly, with a number of weddings, trips, and classes all crammed into six weeks. I went to Philadelphia, Duluth, and Milwaukee for weddings; Aruba with my former college roommate; Montana with my family. Some highlights for me were the National Constitution Center in Philly, the beach in Aruba, and Yellowstone National Park in Montana. (I so wish I could take all my students to the National Constitution Center!) As much as I thoroughly relish each break, though, I always look forward to seeing my 8th graders and picking right up where we left off, and getting to know my new 7th graders!
Since many of you are just getting to know me, I'll start this post with some general information about my classes and myself as a teacher:
I grew up on a farm in Northeast Iowa; my dad is a hog/corn/soybean farmer (and an engineer), my mom a 9th and 10th grade U.S. History teacher at my high school in Independence, Iowa; I have one "little" sister (who is now 22) at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (she's studying to be a Physical Therapist). I moved up to the Twin Cities in August of 2001, just after graduating high school, to start my undergraduate career at Macalester College in St. Paul; there I double majored in Geography and History, minored in Educational Studies, sang in a women's a cappella ensemble, and generally had a ball. I graduated from Mac in 2005, and immediately began working on my teaching license and Masters of Arts in Teaching at Hamline University; in 2008 I was hired at Paideia into my first real job as a teacher, and I've been here ever since! Paideia has been a truly ideal place for me to learn about contemporary public education, as well as to work my way up the steep, steep learning curve that is teaching.
I have a sincere passion for what I teach. At a "micro" level, what I think is important about teaching is to help young people develop a sense of self (and self-worth), a sense of the world around them, and their important and often challenging roles within that wonderful, confusing, diverse world. I want to help my students to become informed, thoughtful, active citizens; I want my students to be able to think for themselves, to analyze and evaluate information, and to synthesize their own set of beliefs based on thorough analysis and respectful discussion and debate. In short, I want my students to be critical thinkers! I genuinely enjoy working with middle school students because they are just on that threshold of starting to realize what's going on in the broader context of the world around them; they are so eager to formulate opinions and to express themselves in their own ways! I enjoy how middle school students understand, appreciate, and respond to humor, and how information and issues that most adults take for granted is/are new to my students.
At a "macro" level I think teaching is important because I believe the education of each individual betters our society as a whole. Education can create and reveal opportunities for each individual; education can challenge and reshape the status quo, moving us forward as a whole; education can preserve and strengthen our shared values, and promote our shared goals. If I let myself I can get pretty emotional just thinking about how lucky I am to live in a society that allows me to get up in front of others every day and share ideas and information freely; not everyone has that right or that privilege, even in 2011 and beyond.
I use as much literature in my history classes as I can. Although I teach Social Studies, we will do a lot of reading and writing in my classes. I believe literature can bring to life the people, places, and events of history so much better than most other teaching/learning tools, and those characters and plots tend to stick in peoples' minds forever. In many ways I think history is mostly a bunch of stories, and who doesn't like a good story?! It's common for people to think about history as people, places, events, or lessons from the past. That is certainly not untrue, but to prompt my students to think a bit outside the box, I tell them that "History is a collection of recorded perspectives." For each unit we will examine at least four different primary or secondary sources, analyzing each for perspective and bias. We will ask the following quesitons of each source: Whose voice is heard in this source? Whose voice is not heard in this source? Who or what is made out to be the hero in this source? Who or what is made out to be the villain in this source? Then we will discuss what information seemed to be shared between all the sources, and what information seemed to be unique to a particular source or perspective. The final step in this exercise is for each student to evaluate the information and ideas that we consider and to decide for herself/himself what they agree with, what they disagree with, or perhaps what they just aren't quite sure about yet!
I see some truth both in President Bill Clinton's quote, "There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America," and in Barry Switzer's quote, "Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple." I want my students to be aware of how human institutions are set up, how they function, how they (sometimes invisibly) impact peoples' lives, and how they can be changed or adapted to meet new challenges and to solve or alleviate long-standing, age-old problems. The subject matter I teach is, I would argue, inherently controversial, and although one of my main goals as a teacher is to present my students with as many different perspectives as time will allow, I could never possibly cover it all! (Walt Whitman said, "Do I contradict myself? Very well then. I am large. I contain multitudes." I think social sciences are like that.) But I want my students to learn to question, to think, to communicate respectfully, and to develop opinions and beliefs that are based on holistic research and consideration. I want them to be prepared to be part of the solution, not part of the problem; I want them to, as Gandhi said, "Be the change [they] want to see in the world."
I look forward to the year ahead, and I welcome your ideas, respectful feedback, and conversation. Please never hesitate to contact me with questions or concerns.
Take care,
Leah Hood
