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!