Here comes Vacation finally!

For the first time since early October the temperatures touched the 70 degree mark here in central Maine. It didn't last long, in fact we had some snow and ice and a 2 hour delay in the same week! But with the Red Sox in full swing, and the birds singing, the signs of spring are finally here. All of this just in time for a week vacation (and a trip to Orlando, FL for my family and I).

Before vacation could start, we had some work to do. In U.S. history classes we have been studying World War Two from many different angles. In an attempt to wrap up this unit we finished by looking at the use of the Atomic Bomb and its effects. A big theme for this unit is total war and destruction, the likes of which the world has never seen before. Students are given an assignment to contemplate one aspect of the war they find to be particularly emotional because of the destructive impact (Pearl Harbor bombing, D-day invasion, Holocaust, Japanese-American Internment, occupation of France, bombing of Dresden, Atomic Bomb at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, etc. ). Then they have to create a Haiku and an accompanying illustration designed to convey the emotion of whatever they chose. Students are exposed to sample Haiku written by the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and we watch the film Barefoot Gen. I did not invent this activity, but modified it from an activity on the Zinn Education Project site. Barefoot Gen is a cartoon that is free on YouTube and at first glance looks like a kids cartoon from the 80's. It is not for young children however, as it gets quite graphic and deeply emotional. The kids get absorbed by this film and really are fascinated by it. It helps stir the emotions in them for this assignment. Here is some student samples:

In Psychology, my students are working on doing presentations to the class about a famous psychological experiment and its significance. To help with this we watched the film "Awakenings" this week. This film is based on the book by Dr. Oliver Sachs and details his attempt to treat victims of an Encephalitis epidemic that struck in the 1920's and the cause of it is still largely uncertain. In the film, the Dr. has a different name and some changes were made, but it does a great job showing the process Dr. Sachs went through and how his new ways of thinking helped to change the study of Psychology. Its heartbreaking to see how he "saved" these patients with the L-Dopa drug, only to see it became a temporary cure and watch them slip back into their catatonic states. I highly recommend it!

(Dr. Oliver Sachs)

In Ethics we have been talking about the Ethics of the Death Penalty. For this we looked at statistics globally and nationally around the Death Penalty. Students were fascinated about how many are executed in Texas each year, and how the rest of the country combined has so few. We also analyzed the various arguments for and against and viewed an excellent documentary that got at some of the issues with the Death Penalty. Students then debated the ethics of it (they could not choose their side!). It was a nice way to wrap up the week.

On Monday the Book Study around the Core Six Book for Literacy strategies wrapped up, and as usual when I meet with my colleagues I gained a bunch of new insights. This time around, for example, I thought about how vocabulary for content specific things (terms like "The Declaration of Independence") is different from just vocabulary (like "Independence") and got me thinking about if and how we should treat the mastery of these words differently. There are other insights I gained as well!

Wednesday night was another meeting of the Board of the Maine Council for the Social Studies. We debriefed the "Food for Thought" program that was held in March at the Margaret Chase Smith Library and discussed last minute preparation for a similar even tot beheld the next night in Portland at the Maine historical Society. We also talked about possible ways to continue to support social studies education in Maine and the upcoming National Council for the Social Studies Conference in November to be held in Boston. I really enjoy spending time talking about Social Studies Education with colleagues and these monthly meetings I find very energizing in this way.

And so the week finally ended and everyone was off for vacation. It will be almost 2 weeks before I see my students again as after vacation I will be in Princeton, NJ for a few days consulting with Educational Testing Services on the HiSET exam. I will blog about this experience as well as the Civil Rights project we will be starting right after vacation with support from the Newseum. Then my focus will be prep for the Model UN Conference in Boston May 16 and 17! I'll be back in two weeks! Florida here we come!