Prep for the new school year

Two weeks ago we took a little family vacation south. We visited my wife's sister and her family in the Washington, DC area. While there I had the fortunate opportunity to visit the Smithsonian Museum of American History.

(Smithsonian Museum of American History)

(My son at "The American Presidency" exhibit at the Smithsonian)

(War exhibit at the Smithsonian)

 Aside from a few glorious hours at the museum, we spent some time at some of my favorite historic monuments in DC.

(We went to the top of the Washington Monument and got a view of the Lincoln Memorial and the World War Two Memorial)

(White House view from the Washington Monument)

(World War Two Memorial in Washington, DC)

(Inside the Lincoln Memorial)

(The Lincoln Memorial)

(The U.S. Capitol)

(I paid my first visit to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial- it was not completed the last time I visited DC)

(Me with FDR, also my first visit to this Memorial)

(The Jefferson Memorial)

We also visited the Vietnam War Memorial, and the Korean War Memorial. What I love most about the monuments and memorials in Washington, DC is that history lives on there, every day and every year. The important events of the past are never forgotten, and this is how I feel in general. Maybe that's why I like it so much there?

One of the highlights of my trip was a visit to the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, VA. Why Bedford, VA? As it turns out, 40 men from the small town of 3,000 people in Bedford were part of the D-Day landings. 19 out of the 40 died on D-Day. No other town or city in an Allied nation suffered as many deaths per capita as Bedford, VA. Alan Kershaw wrote a remarkable book I read called The Bedford Boys. It tells the tragic story of the Bedford soldiers who died on D-Day. The book was incredibly moving, and so was the memorial. Though it was about 20 miles out of our way and quite rural, it was well worth the the trip. I was blown away by the symbolism and detail of the very large memorial.

(The National D-Day Memorial)

We finished up our trip visiting a former colleague who is now a professor of education and theatre at the University of South Carolina. We had a wonderful few days in the State's Capitol of Columbia and I encountered a vibrant and progressive University contrasted with a stark reminder of recent past that was not progressive at all. Very interesting place! My former colleague and friend is doing great things there and I am very excited about that!

(University of South Carolina welcome center)

(This is the Lonstreet Theatre on campus. My friend's office is in this building)

(The stark reminder of the recent past... in front of the South Carolina State House flies the Confederate Flag, next to a Confederate soldiers memorial)

When travel ended, it was time for school...

This past week I spent a good deal of time working on getting things ready for the new School year. During the Summer, the custodial staff does a great job of cleaning the rugs and tables and desks in everyone's classrooms. Since they are somewhat unfamiliar with the classrooms, when things are put back they aren't exactly the way I want them. I always spend some time putting my room in order, and this year was no different. I also had updated my class syllabi and printed those and made paper copies for the students. I was pleased to see my supply order had arrived so I also put away my supplies. I have been working on a few lessons and adding them to units throughout the Summer.

(I didn't take a picture of my actual supplies, but this is a close approximation)

I am lucky enough to be the Social Studies Department Learning Leader which is like a Department Head. One of my duties for this is to serve on the school's Leadership Team. We had agreed to meet for 2 days this week and plan some of the opening trainings and dissemination of new information to the Staff. We have some really exciting changes taking effect, some driven by outside mandates, but also some driven by our desire to better help students. One of the biggest changes involves the addition of a "Focus Time" period. The way this period works is that teachers select students any given day from their classes to attend. Students are tagged virtually each day so they know where to go during this time. There is an application called "EdYouSched" that we are using to "tag" students for this time. Our Federally mandated "Response to Intervention" program will be implemented using Focus Time as well. We have a new way for restricting iPads that we hope will increase students focus and several other minor initiatives we hope will improve the school. Its all a little scary because there are many unknowns, especially when it comes to EdYouSched, but we are all taking a bit of a leap of faith in an effort to better serve our students.

We are also going to be assessing students every 2 weeks on their Habits of Work. We will call this the "HOW Rubric" and it doesn't impact GPA, but it will be reflected on a student;s transcript and impact whether or not they are eligible for co-curricular activities. This is a link to our HOW Rubric.


I did spend some time this week working on a lesson for a Webinar I will be doing with another teacher in November. This lesson is adapted from the book, Reading, Thinking, and Writing About History by Chauncey Monte-Sano , Susan De La Paz ,  and  Mark Felton. These folks are connected to Stanford History Education Group I have written about in the past. The Investigation I will be piloting is around using primary sources to think about answering a historical question, in this case, "Who fired the First Shot at Lexington Green in The Revolution?" I am co-teaching a new course this year and am very excited about it. Students will be using language skills to examine primary sources and attempt to create a website to house the stories from the World War Two era that we collect. I am lucky that this year since I do not have 9th or 12th grade advisees, I have time on Wednesday next week to prepare lessons. So while I only have the first few classes planned, I feel ok knowing I have that time available next week before the first day of school. I am very excited to get to those first classes and really immerse ourselves in the ideas! This will be my 34th first day of school as a student or a teacher and I still get really excited! 

Next week I will write about the first day of classes and the opening of the new school year!