*This post was originally a response to a post from The Civic Educator*

Brian at The Civic Educator posted in this Facebook group I moderate, asking about our thoughts on testing in civics education (and to me, the social sciences & history by extension). This is something I feel very strongly about so I decided to share my response on that post here.

Hi folks,
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I apologize for the long hiatus. By the time I had this site up and running, the school year ended and I went out of the country for a month to attend two weddings in East Asia. I took the opportunity to do quite a bit of travel around South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. I will probably write about those down the line. You can check them out in the "Travel + Life" section (if I ever get to it). I thought I would've had plenty of time to blog while traveling, but that wasn't the case.

​This post/letter is dedicated to the Class of 2017.
 
Dear Class of 2017,
 
As you (my seniors) know, I am a first-year teacher. Your class occupies a lot of “firsts” in my career and life. You are my first group of students (at least as a paid teacher) and the first class of seniors I am graduating. As such, you hold a very special place in my teaching career and my heart. 

Before I start sharing my teacher stories and reflections, I should preface all of them with how I became a teacher in the first place. As long as I can remember, I never wanted to work in an office environment/cubicle farm. My plans after high school was to eventually become a high school history teacher. College came and my dreams ran wild. I wanted to become all kinds of things: Foreign Service, academic, hermit, etc. Becoming a public school teacher became too small of a dream to pursue and I brushed it aside. 

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