Too Busy

These last two weeks have been full of things to do and extended time at work! I'm not excited about it either, but this is what doing Parent/Teacher Conferences this way does to us. I love having the day before Thanksgiving as compensation for doing evening Conferences, but it makes for overworked and overtired teachers that, in my opinion, aren't as effective with their students for both weeks. I think we would be better served to have Thursday evening of Conferences from 4-8, then no school the next day for students and Conferences from 8-12 for teachers. There are no other classes to teach in the mean time and we get the weekend to recover. Its really kind of crazy, I would argue, for us to teach a regular week and have an evening of Conferences in the middle of the week. I also think it would be just as convenient for parents as what we do now. At any rate, that's my annual rant on the matter.

One thing I have been trying to find time for, but I really enjoy, are these mini-courses offered through FutureLearn. These are Massive Online Open Courses that people from all over the world take for free, and they last about 3 weeks. With sponsorship from the BBC, they are offering courses related to World War One to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of the war. I have taken 2 so far and absolutely loved them! Luckily they don't require a ton of time or work as I haven't had much of late. But I have really enjoyed analyzing the issues with people from all over the world. The first course I took was on the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and an analysis of the League of Nations and the United Nations. Not only can I use some things in my classroom , but I learned so much more. The course I am taking now is on how the war changed the way we think of Heroism, and I am absolutely enthralled with it!

In Ethics class we have been discussing Moral Courage and students presented projects on that topic. We have a guest speaker coming next week from the Better Business Bureau. In U.S. history classes we are examining the paradox of Andrew Jackson who expanded democracy and was autocratic at the same time. History v. Hollywood students worked on their iMovie Trailer projects using historical films. Sacrifice for Freedom students finished their group presentations about the war in their countries and have moved on to more specific individual projects. One student is looking into German POW's who were held in Houlton, ME during the war. Another is writing to the Mayor of Beddes in France where a US soldier was killed and buried in order to learn more about how they honor this man each year. Another is looking for anyone who may have been from Maine who served in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade during the Spanish Civil War. This is just the beginning of what we think will be an exciting project!

So I'm busy grading, teaching, conferencing with parents, modifying curriciulum for proficiency based diplomas, considering my teaching process to line it up with the new evaluation model using the Marzano model, being an advisor, and a few other things I'm supposed to be doing but probably not because I'm too busy!

On top of all this I am preparing for the Webinar to be delivered in December and my presentation at the NCSS Conference in Boston on 11/21. So I will be very excited to blog about these exploits very soon! Election day is next week and so we will discuss the ballot here in Maine, in my classes, so students can follow the results of the election.