Christian Weisse is a social studies teacher from Burlington, Massachusetts. They got their bachelor’s degree and master’s in education at Salem State University, as well as a graduate certificate in Holocaust and genocide studies. In their free time, they love spending time with their dog and watching sports.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Can you tell me more about your experience when you were in high school?
I did music, musicals, plays, marching band and all that. I was not a phenomenal student, so I struggled a lot in my freshman year. My history teacher was more of an economics teacher, and I didn’t do really well in history in my freshman year. And geometry, I almost failed. I did not do well, but sophomore year was really a wake-up call for me because I knew I wanted to be a teacher growing up, and I didn’t know what I wanted to teach or what age I wanted to teach. In high school, I did a lot of soul-searching in terms of what I wanted to do for my career. I still have contact with my best friend from high school. We get together all the time. My experience was probably a little bit different than Brookline because it’s a little smaller of a community. I had 250 students in my graduating class, so that’s like half of a Brookline class. But it was great. I loved growing up in Burlington.
What has stood out about being a teacher here at BHS?
This is probably one of the most welcoming communities I’ve been part of and also one of the most diverse communities. Last year, I taught at Manchester Essex Regional, up in Manchester-by-the-Sea, which was a great school, but it was really small. I think it was only 400 students in the whole school and a lot less diversity in Manchester. Coming here was very overwhelming for me in terms of size, but all of my colleagues have been really welcoming, all of the students are awesome and it’s definitely a very bright place to begin.
Can you tell me about the process for planning lessons?
There’s a couple of different ways, but mostly what I do is think of my students first. I always want to be respectful of [those] who are taking six or seven classes, and that’s a lot. I know that history is not going to be the one class that people are going to spend a lot of time on. I make the most of what I can do in class. We start with a warm-up and a question of the day. We’ll listen to music when people come in, just so it’s an easier vibe. Then, for the lessons, it depends on whether we’re doing group work, partner work or individual work. This is my first time teaching ancient, medieval and early modern history, so I’ve relied on a lot of my colleagues, but every class looks different depending on what we’re doing that day.
What do you expect from your students?
The biggest thing is just expecting them to try their best. I understand everybody has off days; they’re really tired that day, especially when we get to the last block. But as long as you are trying and giving your 100 percent in that moment, that’s what I care about and also being respectful of your classmates and uplifting one another.
What do you want to accomplish this year?
The biggest thing I want to accomplish is getting settled and learning more about the community and how I can support students in similar ways that I have done in the past, but also in new, innovative ways.
What made you want to teach history?
I love the study of history because it’s about somebody’s story. I take that very seriously and I hold that as an expectation for my students, that when we’re learning somebody’s story, we have the responsibility in the present to understand how the past operates but also to determine what we do in the future as an individual, as a community and as a world. So that’s really the point of view that I take in history. I’m more of a social historian, so that’s how I fell in love with history.
