“One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.” -- Carl Sagan About two years ago, I went on the adventure of a lifetime. Starting in the French Pyrenees mountains, I walked 500 miles to the northwest corner of Spain, to a city named Santiago de Compostela. That is not the important part. As I walked along, I became cognizant of the fact that I was walking among the footsteps of time, a pilgrimage route that has been traveled continuously by hundreds of thousands of people, for over a thousand years. Some parts of the trail were remnants of the roads built by Romans two thousand years ago. But not only was I walking through history, I was leaving some boot prints of my own as well. This experience inspires how I want to approach teaching. As a progressive educator, I believe that creativity is an intrinsic human trait, and that it can be nurtured and cultivated. I want to show students that regardless of the situation our world is in these days, humanity is capable of great things. Being an art history teacher can be daunting and limiting, as often the great works of Western civilization are the focus of many art appreciation courses. I aim to expand that worldview to include the rich and often unknown art of the “rest of the world,” that is the parts of the world that comprise much of today’s students' heritage. Regardless of culture, ethnicity, or first language, we are more alike than we are different, and learning about the history of art is learning the story of ourselves. Though I feel a certain nostalgia for the early days of my own art history education, teachers fumbling with slide projectors and students scribbling notes in a darkened classroom, I know that times have changed, and that may not be the best environment for students to learn. It is also important to initiate a conversation among students, rather than 55 minutes of rote lecture. I want to create an environment that is supportive, inclusive, where no question is irrelevant and no subject off-limits. My role as a teacher is to be approachable, knowledgeable, and a facilitator between students and the things they want to learn. Ultimately, I want to contribute to society by educating young people to appreciate the beauty of the world we live in, and inspire them to leave it in a better condition than it is now.