This school year was something else entirely when it came to developing my interest in a certain career field. My interest has changed dramatically over the years. In 7th grade, I wanted to be a famous soccer player. In 8th grade, I wanted to be a writer. In 9th grade, I wanted to be a math teacher. Now, I want to have a duel-teaching license in math and history. The history course this year, taught by Mr. Nunez, inspired me to develop this interest thanks to his creative teaching methods that the course content allows him to utilize. I have developed an interest in teaching history thanks to the Red States Simulation, the Red China Simulation/Red book project, and the globalization unit.

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The first project I would like to talk about in the Red States Simulation. More commonly known as the Soviet Union unit, we learned about communism in the Soviet Union and what happened there. The way that Mr. Nunez presented the content made what we were learning seem real. It was almost as if you were living in the Soviet Union going through all of the struggles of the working class under Stalin. The most well done part was the day where we simulated what it was like to be in GULAG, a labor camp for Stalin’s political opponents and enemies. We simulated what life in the shoes of a prisoner in GULAG was like. We did menial labor (, coloring an index card black,) while being crammed next to our peers on a most uncomfortable tile floor. It was the most real experience of something like that. While this is more a word of mouth thing, my Soviet Russia quiz shows how effective this style of teaching can be and how it made me want to go own to teach history. Things like this that Mr. Nunez did during the Red States Simulation helped developed an interest within me to teach history.

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The second project I would like to talk about is the Red China Simulation. Most commonly known as the Red Book Project, we learned about communism in Red China and what happened there. The way that Mr. Nunez presented the content made us really grasp an understanding of it. It felt like we were living in Red China facing the fears that the common people did during the Cultural Revolution, a time where a Mao cult of children ruled China. The most well done part was a 2-3 week long period known by students as the game. The game was Mr. Nunez’s way of bring the Cultural Revolution to life, and revealing just what living under a Chairman Mao cult is like. During the game, we had to memorize a short biography, a list of enemies, and any given quote that we wrote down that was selected as fair game during a set day. This was so well done, that it made a real situation come to life even better than the GULAG simulation ever could. You could see the effects of the game where ever you went. It was a high stakes game with points for a grade on the line, so people feared for their lives essentially. There were people selected to book check people, known as the Red Guard, which could be seen hunting people down all the time. It was chaos, it was mayhem, but most of all, it was real. An artifact I have salvaged from the chaotic mess is my very own Red Book. It is a great artifact because it gives viewers insight as to what happened during the game and why it would inspire me to want to teach history. It is crazy things like this that Mr. Nunez does that inspires me to want to teach history.

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The third project I would like to talk about is the globalization unit. In specific, the persuasive letter. The persuasive letter was a project where we had to talk to an audience about a concern we had surrounding a topic of globalization. While this may not seem as creative as the other two projects mentioned above, this one inspired me for other reasons. Addressing people about a topic I am passionate about makes me that much more inclined to want to teach history. Due to this, the persuasive letter makes a great artifact. In my persuasive letter, I go on about the conflict between Palestine and Israel. It is a topic of concern that means very much to me, making it the perfect topic of globalization to write about. In it, I talked about how the U.N. should help to resolve what is going on in the region. If they do not, people will continue to go through suffering there and peace will most likely never be reached. If teaching history would give me the chance to talk about stuff like this, then I would certainly want to. The way that Mr. Nunez has us use knowledge he has shared with has inspired me that much more to go into history teaching.

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This school year was quite a roller coaster ride. Over the years, my interest has changed quite a lot. From a writer to teaching, my classes have constantly been supporting my career interests. In this case, maybe even changed it a little for the better. Not only do my classes support my career interests, but also teachers behind them, like Mr. Nunez give me something to strive to be like thanks to their most interesting teaching methods. I have developed an interest in teaching history thanks to the Red States Simulation, the Red China Simulation/Red book project, and the globalization unit.