Winter Carnival Week

Substitute teachers... we need them! We couldn't function without them. Just like anything else there are strong ones and weaker ones. Either way, I appreciate them all. I think the students do as well. I was working this week and could hear the machinations from a class nearby with who had a sub. This is a much beloved sub who has been a sub for a very long time. What roused my attention was a young girl, "Will you take a selfie with me Mr. ______?" Apparently this sub is quite a super star. How many of us have been asked to be in a selfie by an adoring fan? The sub complied. The girl then asked "How do you spell your name?" Probably to accompany a facebook post or something. The sub responded, "I never used to get asked how my name was spelled when Little House on the Prairie was on the air." The girl asked, "What is Little House on the Prairie?" The sub responded, "A program that used to be on television back when television was a place you could turn to in order to learn a little history, or gain some insight into the human condition." Another kid said, "What's the human condition?" The sub said, "That may be the scariest question I've ever been asked." Another student chimed in, "Mr. ________ you're my favorite sub. I learn so much from you." What an enlightening 5 minutes of distraction that was!

(Homestead known as "The Little House on the Prairie"

Speaking of distraction (it was Winter Carnival week after all), Monday and Tuesday were fine. Regular classes and regular attention spans. Wednesdays are crazy anyway, so by the time we got to Thursday Winter Carnival was the only thing on their minds really. Distraction was the name of the game at the end of the week. That's ok, all in all it was just the right amount of fun and energy for them. Now we are ready to get back to business next week.

Winter Carnival hallway decorations

Within the madness was a meeting Tuesday night for 8th grade parents whose children will be incoming 9th graders next year. As the Social Studies Learning Leader I attended this meeting in order to answer questions and provide information about Global Explorations which is the Social Studies course 9th graders take. This was really interesting for me. For the first time I saw the paperwork the parents receive. It tells them their child's NWEA score and then what level they are recommended for based on that. It also tells them what level the teachers recommend them for based on what they do in the classroom. We had examples of typical Honors level assignments versus College Prep level so that parents and students could see the difference in the expectations. The night was very well attended and I think it was very helpful to those parents.

Wednesday we had another joint meeting with the English Department in order to share and discuss various literacy strategies. I shared 3 strategies that I have used with success and that I happen to like. Two of the strategies are form The Core Six book, and the other is from the Thinkquiry Toolkit. I have linked to all of them in this Blog before. Compare and Contrast, Discussion Web, and Inductive Learning are the strategies. There were other strategies shared by others that I found interesting and would like to try as well. This is all in preparation for a 6-12 workshop on 3/21 where we will vote on the top 4-6 strategies and agree that we will use them in our classes 6-12. I think this will be great for students going forward!

Next week in Psychology we will be doing some dream analysis, starting Moral Courage projects in Ethics, and getting into the Roaring 20's in U.S. history. My online class will be doing another group presentation, this time around the lessons learned form the Vietnam War. We also have the first round of parent/teacher conferences next week!