Long Week

A regular week is long enough as it is. Throw in a night of parent/teacher conferences on top, and its especially long and tiring! As a result, my post this week will be brief.

In Sacrifice for Freedom students started doing presentations about the country connected to their target language during World War Two. These presentations went very deep in showing how fascism destroyed each country. Now students will be selecting individual topics to tell stories from the war years. This is really exciting stuff!

This was Make a Difference Week at my school. This means we collected as much money and food as we could to donate to local food banks. Students really stepped up to the challenge and collected a bunch of food, surpassing our goal! It is really nice to see students coming together to give back to their communities this way.

Thursday night was what turned me into a zombie for a few days. After a regular day of school, we had 4 hours in the evening of conferences with parents. I understand how important it is for parents to talk to teachers, but man is this rough. I was not myself for a few days afterwards. I say every year I wish we didn't have to do it, but I guess its just one of those necessary evils. Next week is worse when we have conferences again on Tuesday night. I will say it is nice to be settled in to a routine with my classes and to be making progress in all my classes. However, with the new initiatives from the district, and the initiatives from the State, I'm afraid I am feeling more exhausted than ever.

Next week in my classes I will be discussing the candidates and the questions on Maine's ballot for the upcoming election.

Short week

No school on Monday this week for the Columbus Day Holiday. I would argue that no other Holiday is as uncelebrated and as undeserving as this one. Even the most favorable interpretation of Columbus puts him along side William Bradford, Hernando Cortes, and maybe Andrew Jackson. None of whom have their own holidays. The least favorable views of him put him closer to Josef Stalin or Adolf Hitler, and no one would advocate for a holiday for any of those guys. The creation of the holiday goes back to a time when Americans were looking to improve our own morale and image by focusing on the aspect of Columbus as the great explorer and supposed discoverer of America. If not for how this Italian and his holiday was able to lift Italian-Americans and improve their own pride and morale, the holiday would probably already cease to exist. The fact that the holiday has become what St. Patrick's Day is for the Irish, has complicated attempts to get rid of it. Native Americans of course would love to see it disappear. In some case a compromise if renaming the day to "Indigenous Peoples Day" or something like that has gotten momentum in recent years. If Native Americans achieve success in renaming the Washington Redskins, I wouldn't be surprised if the next point of emphasis will be Columbus Day. It's nice to have a little break this time of ear with the day off, but to call it Columbus Day and give him some type of honor is just not right in my opinion.

Tuesday was our first day of school and we had planned to have the education director from the National D-Day Memorial have a conversation with my Sacrifice for Freedom Class through Skype. Felicia Lowrance gave a brief presentation to the class about doing oral history. She also talked about some examples of soldiers who died on D-Day and some primary sources that go along with them. The students asked a lot of questions. She did a really nice job in presenting the idea of how images can convey, taste, touch, smell, and really bring primary sources to life. She also sent us the names of the Maine soldiers who died on D-Day and we will begin the work of trying to learn more about them. It was really great to have her as a guest speaker all the way from Bedford, VA!

On Wednesday, on 10th graders and 11th graders took the PSAT, known as the "Practice SAT". This is a 3.5 hour test of Reading and Math. It's also a 3.5 hour test of a teacher's patience! We tested with 2 advisee groups in a room so that we could take turns as teachers half the time "off" and the other half proctoring the test. The students struggle with the restrictions- no books, no electronics, no leaving. So many of them commented on how long it was and how it was "the worst day ever". The griping gets a bit old for the teachers too, and that's why its nice to take turns. Hopefully they see some benefit that will help them on the actual SAT when they take that.

I attended my first Maine Council for the Social Studies (MCSS) Board meeting of the year this week.  I was too busy to attend the last two meetings and was feeling a bit out of the loop. But I was quickly caught up. Much of our attention is on the NCSS Conference in Boston next month. I will be attending the House of Delegates on behalf of MCSS. Also, the Massachusetts Historical Society will be hosting a reception on behalf of MCSS to welcome Maine teachers during the Conference on the the 21st from 6-8 pm. We also have been working on creating committees to help build membership and to plan the next Conference and professional development opportunities. I get really energized being on this board, but I fear that there are so many more demands on my time at school this year, that I may not be able to continue. I hope to make it work, but time will tell.

Election season is in full swing! I hate seeing the political signs ruining the beautiful road ways, and the commercials on TV are horrible. But in my classes we will discuss more about the issues on the ballot as we get closer and the candidates for Senate, the House, and the Governor. In Ethics, as we practice our protocol for helping to resolve ethical dilemmas, we applied this to the issue Question 1 on the ballot. this question asks Mainers, "Do you want to ban the use of bait, dogs or traps in bear hunting except to protect property, public safety, or for research?". So I asked my students to examine the ethics of using bait, dogs, or traps to hunt bears. I provided them with articles on both sides of the question, and with the current law. Then we watched this video from a Televised debate over Question 1. It was a very interesting discussion and debate. Students learned a lot about hunting, and about being respectful of someone else's views. I really enjoyed our discussion and I think they saw what makes this such an ethical dilemma, and got some insight into which side they fall heading into the election.

Next week is Make a Difference Week in my school as we collect donations to help stock our local food banks!

Ebola, Hamilton, and Curriculum

Ebola virus has been on everyone's mind of late as the tragedy spreads to the U.S. with the first victim dying in Texas this week. We have been analyzing dilemmas in ethics, and what better way to do so than to apply it to real thing happening now. We examined what happened in the case of Thomas Eric Duncan and analyzed his dilemma and the choice made. It was a fascinating discussion as students discussed what they might do in the scenario and which ethical philosophy best explains their thinking. It was clear to me that students are very concerned about the spread of Ebola. I could tell that they understood that in ethics you can resolve dilemmas by using the "Ends Base Approach" (utilitarianism), the "Rule Based Approach" (categorical imperative), and the "Care Based Approach" (golden rule). Sometime you can find a compromise or third way out as well. So they clearly had learned these lessons.

In my AP U.S. History class, student did research on either Alexander Hamilton or Thomas Jefferson. They had to find out how the person they were assigned felt about the assumption of state debts, the Whiskey Tax, the protective tariff, the National Bank, and the French Revolution. Then they were randomly assigned to debate another student who had the other person on one of those topics. I always enjoy watching students get into character and they often get competitive in their debate. As as result of doing this, they were able to explain the formation of the two party system in American politics. In connection to this, we also discussed the Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr duel and I shared two great videos that explore that famous duel in somewhat humorous ways!




All of my students have iPads provided by the State of Maine. Each iPad has the app iMovie on it. this is a great app for students to use to make movies. In my History v. Hollywood class, students were assigned a project to make an original trailer for a real historical film. The app gives students different templates as options for the trailer. Then they get to create video and still images to plug in and create the trailer. I really like this project as it feeds into the students' creative energy and the projects they create are very good! I told them I wouldn't ask them to do anything I wouldn't do myself, so below is the trailer I created using iMovie, co-starring my son!



Friday was the start of a four day weekend for students, three day for Staff with Columbus Day on Monday of next week. Friday for the Staff was a workshop day. Most of our day was spend working in content areas on curriculum guides and curriculum maps. I spent a good amount of time working with the other U.S. history teacher in my school thinking ahead to two years form now when our classes will need to be standards based. We looked at key concepts and at the curriculum created by the Stanford History Education Group. This curriculum is very well done and is aligned with common core. As we work toward this reality two years from now, I think we will be using this resource to create common assessments. It was nice to have time to work with colleagues and get much important work done. It was also nice to have a lunch with my fellow teachers and not be rushed along as we usually are.

After our three day weekend, we will have a guest speaker via Skype next week from the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, VA and other exciting things happening!

Routines are fun!

When the leaves start to turn and October shows up on the Calendar, its always a great time of year to be productive. All the introductory aspects of the new school year have now become routine and with cooler temperatures, students are more able to focus for the whole day. This is just one reason October is one of my favorite months!

In my U.S. History classes we are talking about the Constitution and the structure of the Government. We are preparing for a guest speaker later this month. Attorney James Lawley will be returning to speak to the Juniors about 4th Amendment rights and answer questions about his time as a lawyer and the Constitution.

We spent some time this week talking about cost/benefit analysis in Ethics. It works well in economics, but our point is that without a consideration for ethics, a cost/benefit analysis can sometime go horribly wrong. The case of the Ford Pinto and how Ford Motor Company chose not to fix the gas tank flaw knowing people would die because it was cheaper to not fix it, even after accounting for being sued by the families of those who die. Students also learned about Moral courage and began a project in which they will present a real case of Moral Courage to the class.

In History vs. Hollywood we explored the Women's Suffrage movement by watching the film Iron Jawed Angels. We had great discussion about voting and why it was so important. We also delved into gender issues now and in history.

(Alice Paul)

(Rhone American Cemetery where Lewis Ferlan Goddard is buried)

Next week we begin long term projects in several classes and next Friday is a Teacher Workshop day with interesting professional development opportunities I'm sure!