I was a Coast Guard brat, we moved around a lot when I was a kid. My dad is a huge fan of history as well. As kids we were traveling a lot, visiting new places or moving to a new town. My Dad always made sure he knew every significant historical fact about where we were or where we were going. He would fill us in about all of it on the long car rides and when we got to where we were going we went to every museum, historical trail or battlefield. When my brother, sister and I were old enough to have opinions, they decided they just weren't as into it as my Dad and I were. So, it kind of became my dad and I's "thing". We would take trips just me and him to go to battlefields or museums. Our favorite place to visit was Gettysburg, PA. We would lay on the ground and have a picnic where Union and Confederate soldiers once marched or died. We got to look at awesome artifacts and even hold some.
The place we frequented the most was Washington DC. It was only about a hour and a half drive from Midlothian, Va, where my dad retired. The history in that town, let me tell you! The Smithsonian is filled with so many artifacts, papers and figures from the history of the United States. We even got to see the original U.S. Constitution during one of our trips! So growing up in school I would have to say that Social Studies and History were my favorite classes in school. I could keep my nose in any book that filled with history for weeks and weeks.
I had a lot of great history teachers through out my years in grade school. The top would have to be Mr. Williams. Walking into your freshman year of high school can be very stressful and nerve racking, at least I know for me it was. My first period class was History with Mr. Williams. He looked very intimidating at first, didn't smile much and had a very stern voice. For the first few days I was pretty scared of him, then when we really got started with learning and him teaching I could see his love for what he was talking about and teaching. After our first project on The Civil War and Reconstruction he could see my passion for history too and began to have a great student/teacher relationship. I joined the history club that he sponsored and began to do a lot of research projects together. Unfortunately, he didn't teach the Sophomore class, but he asked me to be his student aide that year. At the end of that year he sent out letters to some of his favorite students and asked to meet him after school one day in his room. Most of us were pretty close and were scared that he was going to tell us he was leaving the school, so we were all pretty worried going into the meeting. It ended up being a really awesome meeting because he told us he was starting a new History elective in the district called Military History and Diplomacy, which was amazing because there had never been a history elective available for students. Of course we all signed up and I was also lucky enough to have him for my required history class as a a teacher. He is absolutely the reason why I am choosing History-Secondary Education as my major. I have my father to thank for my love of history and I have Mr. Williams to thank for my love of wanting to teach what i LOVE!
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