What an Experience

Sharon Hollowell

I will admit that I am not the movie buff in our house. I probably rank a distant third. There are certain movies that I almost always stop on when they make their appearances on TNT, WGN or one of those other stations that tend run older movies. One of my must see movies is ìRemember the Titans. I love the story and the great music doesn’t hurt.

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit North Decatur and listen to an interview with Coach Bill Yoast from “Remember the Titans.” So, what is the connection? North Decatur teacher, John Pratt, received a thank a teacher grant for a project called “personally connecting through history.” One day, he and I were talking about the project. He asked me some questions and told he would invite me out to listen to an interview. Coach Yoast was that interview.

The first part of “personally connecting through history” was mailing out interviews to people from all walks of life. The interview asked a variety of question including on page 2 a list of favorites and the very important question of would you do a phone interview. The students included pictures and other things to entice answers and interviews. The mailing was what the DCCF thank a teacher grant funded.

The mailing was just phase 1. Next the respondents that said they could do a phone interview were contacted and an interview was scheduled. The interview I participated in had about 15 students. Each student had to have a question. One student was the lead interviewer. She coordinated all the questions, kept the interview on track and recorded the answers. The students I watched did a great job and asked a wonderful mix of questions. In addition to Coach Yoast some of the other interviews include author Anne Rice, Ray Craft from “Hoosiers,” Michael Chertoff(Former Director of Homeland Security) and Erin Brokovich, just to name a few.

The project continues. The students in the sociology class choose one of the interviewees and become that person. The student will do more research on the person and they will do a report in front of the class as that character. This relates to a topic they are learning about in class. The World History students will work on reports from the interview and the time history. It gives them a real prospective from someone who lived through what they are study.

“Personally living through history” is a great example of experience based learning. Listening to Coach Yoast was a wonderful experience. He gave the kids a great sense of history and maybe more importantly some important life lessons.

One of the first questions was about how he handled the social integration. He told them that the real issue for him wasnít the integration. It was the fact that you had people from different schools and allegiances who had to learn to work together. He gave the kids great advice about the need to give and take to work with different people.

Another student asked what advice he would give them. He told the kids that they were lucky to be in a small school. He said they should get to know the people in their school and make a difference, because they were important. He also told them that if they knew they were going down the wrong path now was the time to make the change, because they are creating their future.

Maybe the most important piece of advice came out of a question you wouldnít have thought. A student asked if he had any pregame ritual. Coach Yoast said that the closest he had to a ritual was that before every game he told the athletes to go out and do their best. He told the students at North Decatur if you went out and did your best that you should be proud.

The students finished their interview. They walked out of the room talking how about they enjoyed it. They were enthused by what they experienced and I canít think of anything better than seeing a student enthused with learning, which is what we want from every thank a teacher grant. So, thanks Mr. Pratt for giving the students a great learning experience.

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