During my freshman year in college in Ann Arbor, I planned to be an English teacher.  It seemed a natural fit–English had always been my favorite class.  Then I took a few history courses, read the literature assigned to them and decided this was what I was meant to teach.  I switched my concentration and graduated with a BA in History and teaching certification in history and English.  My first job was in an amazing town with amazing colleagues right on Lake Michigan.  I couldn’t have asked for a better introduction to the career.  (Man, I miss those guys!)

I love teaching history to teenagers–and from that very first year, I knew I wanted to teach a course like one I had taken in high school:  History Through Literature.  I think literature is one of the best pathways to understanding history and I get giddy just thinking about the possibilities.

Well…to get to the point of my story, after 17 years of teaching, I just received the “greenlight” to finally teach my own History Through Literature course.   I am ridiculously excited.

I have already begun creating a template for the course.  Due to our budget constraints, I will actually be teaching the same set of kids in two periods–one will count for History credit and the other for English 11, which I can do with my dual certification.  Ideally, this would be a team-taught course, but that isn’t going to be possible.

I’ll take what I can get.

Is anyone out there teaching a course like this?  Are there any resources you have found especially helpful?