Meredith Stewart (that’s me 
) is 7th and 8th grade history teacher at an independent school in North Carolina. I also teach a blended learning (classroom and online) US History course for high school juniors and seniors.
The opinions/ramblings/rants contained herein are my own and do not represent the views of my employer.
A drawing by one of my former students
The inspiration for the name of this blog comes from a passage in The Adventues of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Huck is attempting to decide between turning in Jim, a runaway slave, or helping him escape:
I’d got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself:
“All right, then, I’ll go to hell”- and tore [the letter to Miss Watson] up.
It was awful thoughts, and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming…because as long as I was in, and in for good, I might as well go the whole hog.
The decision to teach and to blog about it might not be so grave a decision as breaking the law, but it did take me awhile to get to the point where I felt I had the courage to do it. Read more in this post. I’m in for good.
8 comments
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May 24, 2009 at 9:12 pm
Kim Collazo
I am so glad I found out about your blog through a tweet from Kelly Hines. I have read several of your posts and look forward to keeping up with what goes on in your classroom. I, too, find it scary yet exciting to blog my teaching/learning experiences.
One question. Are you involved in a 1:1 initiative? Sorry if I missed a post that addressed this.
Keep up the great work!
May 24, 2009 at 9:31 pm
MsStewart
Hi Kim,
Thanks for reading the blog. Yes, I teach at a 1:1 school. Each student has an HP tablet computer. I don’t think I’ve written a post specifically about that, but more examples of student work are at http://la6stewart.wordpress.com
Meredith
December 4, 2009 at 7:13 am
Cathy Davidson
Ms Stewart–I just read about you in Howard’s column on CenterNet and would love to correspond. I teach This Is Your Brain on the Internet at Duke and would love to introduce my university students to what you do in your class and with communications technologies. Can you direct message me on twitter (I am following you now) or write me at cathyndavidson[at]gmail.com? Also, our HASTAC Scholars are finishing a very engaged forum on Grading 2.0: How to Crowdsource Grading. Anyway, I hope we might be in touch sometime. And very pleased to hear about all you do.
December 21, 2009 at 8:22 pm
auniqueperspective
I am really enjoying your blog and its getting me thinking more about daily teaching methods and classroom management. After getting into Teach for America this past Nov. teaching has been quite abstract and reading blogs like yours have been very enlightening. Keep up the great work
-Wes
pshouse.wordpress.com
August 14, 2010 at 11:16 pm
Raeanne
Hi there. Great blog. Wow classroom/online US History? That’s really awesome. Do those students have a shorter school day? I am following you on twitter. I run HistoryTunes. We have a new online tool for teaching/learning US History you may be interested in. We tell 400 years of American history through 50 pop/rock songs. These songs used in conjunction with our extensive on-line data base of resources provide a complete US History curriculum. We are trying to help teachers turn the technological corner by allowing students to use their iPods and the internet as lerning tools. Your blended program may be really condisive for this. I post free samples of songs on twitter everyday, feel free to follow me there and check out http://www.historytunes.com for all resources and samples.
January 4, 2011 at 11:39 am
compostingalife
happy to find this…i teach alternative certification in a local college…oh, the things I wish I could tell the world
January 17, 2012 at 5:07 pm
Ellie
I’ve just read your entire blog and have so many new ideas about teaching and reflecting on my teaching. Thank you for sharing all of this, Meredith! I found this blog by accident (looking for some notes on Kelly Gallagher’s In The Middle presentation from NCTE in 2011) and came across your blog, which I’ve so much enjoyed. Thank you for writing this!
January 17, 2012 at 7:36 pm
MsStewart
Hi Ellie,
Glad that you stumbled across my blog and found it useful! Kelly’s presentation at NCTE 2011 was fantastic. He, Jim Burke, and Penny Kittle were all on a panel together- total rock stars!
Best,
Meredith