Introduction
Welcome to my blog
My name is Maximillian Wildenhaus (he/him) and though it has taken me a few years, I am on my way to becoming a licensed Social Studies teacher. I finished my undergraduate degree in 2017 in Film Studies and Comparative Cultural Studies and got my MFA in 2019 at UWM's department of Film, Video, Animation and New Genres.
After teaching at UWM for a total of five years and loving it, I decided to pursue a more accessible field of education (until higher education is determined to be a right for our citizens and is completely publicly funded). I have chosen social studies as my field since the (broad) field has given me the tools to understand the world and my place in it.
Topic chosen!
Economics of crime
test!
ReplyDeleteHi Max! You have been on quite the interesting journey! I would love to know what your favorite film is and why. I completely agree that higher education is largely inaccessible and I admire the courage it took for you to change paths. Do you find that you like teaching secondary any more or less than teaching in higher ed?
ReplyDeleteI think that the economics of crime would be such an interesting inquiry topic-- I am a little jealous that I didn't think of it myself! If you are a podcast person, I could send a couple recommendations your way of shows that touch on the subject.
They're different! I prefer the motivation that higher ed students often have, but I do enjoy more of a feeling of togetherness that comes from high school. College campuses and classes can often feel alienating and the rooms don't have any personality.
DeleteFavorite movie? Tough question but here is one of my favorites that I love so much I am getting a tattoo from one of the shots
https://letterboxd.com/film/onward-lossless-follows/
Hey Max (this is Krystine),
ReplyDeleteHow were you able to teach at UWM without a PHD? Or what were you teaching?
I would love to teach at the college level as there seems to be more freedom in the content that can be chosen, but I chose secondary (hopefully high school), because I really want to incorporate humanities or mythology into my class and would love to teach at the college level, but I do not want to get my masters or PHD just yet.
Just a Masters! Oddly, you need no pedagogical education to teach in a university (I'm sure we have all experienced those instructors before). I definitely hope to teach a film course in an evening once I start up full-time in a school. I love it too much to give it up.
DeleteHi Max! Reading about your academic experiences was super interesting and I think it is so cool that you taught at UWM. I think it would be really cool to teach some college classes since you get a lot of freedom with what you're teaching! After all of your film experience, did you ever think about pursuing english education to become a film teacher at the high school lever or did social studies always hold a special place? Personally, I love conspiracy theories and would love to read all the things you find! I think students find conspiracy theories super interesting too so you could use some of the material you find in your student teaching as well!
ReplyDeleteI did consider English, but I think the political implications of SS education are too strong for me to shy away from. Fingers crossed I work at a school that I can teach a film analysis class at.
DeleteHi Max! I really admire your choice to teach, as you put it, in a more accessible field. I think that's so awesome, and you are doing so many young students a favor by giving them the chance to be in your classes! I am always hoping that education will be deemed a right and not a privilege, but I'm not sure how soon that viewpoint will shift. However, I think it's really cool that you have this extensive background in film, and I'm curious how your interest in that might influence your teaching :)
ReplyDeleteThanks! Much of my personal practice and experience would do little in my current teaching, but I do have a particular eye towards visual media so teaching media literacy in any class I teach will be central. Thanks for the comment!
DeleteHi Max! Similar to many others, I really appreciate and admire your choice to teach in high school. I feel very similarly about high school being more accessible, that's in part why I chose to be a high school teacher. In my experience in the North Chicago suburbs, I saw that many of my peers were failed by the school in a multitude of ways. One of which being that I felt the school was breeding ignorance and was not challenging mine or my peers worldviews. In a privileged school that was omitting parts of history as well as denying and ignoring different cultures made it feeling like an echo chamber. It was such an injustice to my peers and I, and it left me wondering about my classmates that didn't go to college. None of their beliefs or values were challenged in high school. Are they going to remain stuck in that echo chamber?
ReplyDeleteI went to the same school as David Dobrik (popular viner and now YouTuber), and I think he is a perfect example of how much the school upheld privileged world views. He never furthered his education and is continually caught up in controversy.
That does sound like the experience of privilege! I haven't heard of him, but it sounds like a disservice to their education that there was little in school to challenge the students' understanding of the world. Thankfully that's what we're all here for!
DeleteHey Max!
ReplyDeleteA former colleague of mine (I think) teaches in the UWM film department... do you know Marquise Mays? I feel like the meandering path to a vocation is the best. There is so much opportunity for integrating film and history, for instance, in the classroom. Your future students will, for sure, benefit from your experience and expertise. I used to teach a course called Cultural Perspectives in Nonfiction, whose title was mostly for the sake of the NCAA, but was a class which focused on other cultures through film. I loved teaching it.
I don't personally know them, but I did see the name on one of our department Zoom meetings! I am totally with you! I taught a film history course that tracked film's development into popularity along with key historical and political events, so something similar could work for SS classes.
DeleteThanks, Max, for sharing your journey to education. Your background in film will lend itself well to education as our media rich information economy is increasingly visual and cinematic in its circulation of information and public opinion. I look forward to seeing how you might bring that angle to your inquiry into economics and crime.
ReplyDelete