Giving Compass' Take:

• Chalkbeat profiles a second-year history teacher in New York, who prioritizes meeting students on their terms and engaging them in the toughest issues of the day.

• This teacher is one of many inspirational stories that could spur us to improve our education programs, especially in the field of personalized learning. In what ways can we listen to students' needs more?

• Here's why losing a teacher midyear hurts students so much.

Nick Viscomi remembers walking into world history class as a ninth-grade student and being tossed a burlap sack. His teacher told him to sit on the floor for a lesson about feudal Europe in which he would play the role of unfortunate peasant.

The lesson made an impression on Viscomi and helped set him on the path to his eventual career. Today, Viscomi is a second-year teacher who makes lessons come alive for his own students taking advanced placement U. S. History at Urban Assembly Academy of Government and Law in Lower Manhattan.

“Teaching has always been the profession that was for me,” he said. “This is my life.”

A self-proclaimed history nerd, his classroom is stuffed with cutouts of past presidents and Americana decor. Viscomi puts in brutally long hours — meeting with students during lunch and after school — because letting students know  “you’re invested in them shows them they have to be invested in the work that they do.”

He relishes the opportunity to help his students become active and engaged citizens. That’s why he jumped on the chance to join young people from across the country as they gathered in Washington D.C. earlier this month to develop a national plan to combat gun violence.

Read the full article about getting in the trenches with students by Christina Veiga at Chalkbeat.