Back to School!

Tomorrow is the first day for Staff and it is our annual Advisor training day for Middle School and High School Advisors. It is a day filled with outside activities that we can apply directly or indirectly to our Advisee Groups. We will spend the day at Camp Androscoggin in Wayne learning about Adventure Activities. We also have planning time with our fellow Advisors. I am back to being a 9th grade Advisor this year which carries with it a whole different set of challenges from what I had last year as a Senior Advisor. We will spend some time planning for the 9th grade orientation day on Wednesday.

Camp Andorscoggin

Tuesday is a workshop day. In the morning we will have a few District wide training on Teaching Standards and Wellness. In the afternoon we have a High School Staff meeting to discuss the changes underway and new initiatives we are undertaking.

Wednesday is the first day for 9th and 12th graders only. We as 9th grade Advisors spend the day in various activities to help our Advisees get to know each other and the school with help from the Seniors.

Thursday is the first day of regulars classes for all students in grades 9-12. I will have my AP US History class and and Honors US History class. I also have my period where I can check on the online class I teach through Virtual High School, US Foreign Policy 1945- present. My AP class has a test over the summer work and then we will be reviewing the cultures in North America that existed before Columbus, early Spanish and English settlements, and the rise of colonies on the Eastern Seaboard. In my Honors class will start exploring the myths of Columbus and do a role replay where Columbus will be out on trial. The book Rethinking Columbus is a big help for this!

 The irony of this image of Columbus is that it was painted over 100 years after he died! No accurate image of Columbus exists!

Friday will be the remaining classes, and I have a study hall that day as well as History vs. Hollywood and Ethics. In History v. Hollywood we will be looking at some early films like the famous A Trip to the Moon by Georges Melies and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari by Robert Weine (I love both of these films!!). We will also explore film making techniques before watching our first two feature films, Glory and then Lincoln. We will be analyzing how each film depicts the Civil War era and related issues. In Ethics we will start by discussing some basic ethical thought exercises that philosophers till argue about. I will ask them if it is morally wrong to eat their cat. Unless they are a vegetarian, they will struggle to explain why they think it is morally wrong. This will begin our discussion of Ethics using the curriculum from the Institute for Global Ethics.

I really love my job and the intellectual stimulation it provides! After a relaxing and fun summer, I also crave the return to routine and order. This is my 33rd first day of school and I always love it! I get excited every year and I like the cyclical nature of it. Each year gives you a chance to sort of start over and reinvent yourself a bit. You also have the same pattern and rhythm repeated from the previous year. The one downside is the transition... The first two weeks I end each day with a splitting headache and am asleep by 7:30. After that, it's all good!