Winter Carnival and Teddy Roosevelt

The Murder of Theodore Roosevelt! Of course he wasn't actually murdered, but he was shot. Shot and lived! He even went on to give a speech before seeking medical attention. In real life John Schrank was convicted of the crime but there were always whispers that maybe someone put him up to it. Someone with a political agenda perhaps? Because Roosevelt lived, the official investigation never looked into a conspiracy. So we are pretending he was killed and are looking for the person who paid Schrank to do it. Whether or not that happened in real life, this simulation is set up to point the finger at one person. It's the job of the students to figure out who by examining the evidence and Roosevelt's career and looking for the connections. Of course the whole thing is a bit of a ruse to get students talking about the progressive era and hook their interest by doing it as a game. Its one of my favorite things as I love this time period and Teddy! We spent a good deal of time this week working on this.

In Psychology we have been listing to the podcast Serial and applying some elements of psychology to what we are hearing. We are discussing what makes someone believable, how do we know when someone is lying, how does memory work, and the role of bias in our perception of the world. This podcast is really good, and the students have enjoyed listening to it. Many report they are resisting the urge to listen on their own time so as not to get ahead. Also in Psychology we tackled a current issue sweeping social media this week. Someone posted a photo of a dress seen below on social media. It was soon discovered that some people are seeing black and blue in the dress, while others are seeing white and gold. There is some interesting Brain science behind this phenomena. So we discussed the photo and what is happening in the brain in Psychology.

(What color is this dress?)

I took part in another great Twitter chat Monday night. Every Monday from 7-8 pm other interested parties start chatting on a specific topic related to social studies education. Then, if you want to read the tweets, you search for #sschat. You can also tweet yourself by tying your message and including #sschat. I have found this a great way to make connections and learn soem really interesting things. I  look forward to participating every Monday when I can.

Each year for the past 5 years myself and a colleague in my department have been fortunate to attend a summer workshop in different parts of the US. sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities. These Landmarks of American History workshops provide a free week of site-based professional development related a specific historical topic and site somewhere in the U.S. In the past we have attended NEH workshops in Lowell, MA related to the Industrial Revolution and the Textile Mills there that included a trip to Old Sturbridge Village, the War of 1812 in Toledo, OH including a trip to Michigan and Lake Erie, The Underground Railroad in New Bedford, MA including a trip to Boston, and the Gold Rush in Sacramento, CA including a trip to where gold was discovered and a former gold mine. This year we have submitted another application and have crossed our fingers we get accepted. Not only do we learn so much to bring back to our classes, but they are also a lot of fun! We will find out at the end of March if we were accepted.

(From last year's NEH trip to Sacramento, CA)

In my Sacrifice for Freedom class, students are making great progress in their research. We will be putting together a website this spring to tell some unknown stories about people who lived during World War Two.

(The hand carved cross that was on Lewis Goddard's grave in France for many years)

It wouldn't be the week after vacation without Winter Carnival! Students' emotions were on high all week, but especially Thursday and Friday as the events culminated with a school wide assembly and hallway decorating. I used to be clsoely involved and so I always cringe at the things that go on during the week. Thankfully its not as stressful for me as it once was. The Seniors won, of course. All in all I think it was a good week, but I'm glad it's over! Now if we could just get some snow to melt!
Below are the different hallways for each class decorated for Winter Carnival.

Uneventful week

It was nice to have a regular 5 day week with no snow days or other unusual occurrences. During this week before vacation I spent my time helping my advisees register for classes for next year among a bunch of other things.

In U.S. history classes we discussed Imperialist thinking in The U.S. in the early 20th century. We also talked about working conditions an the plight of immigrants. We read an excerpt from The Jungle and looked at the Spanish-American War. We also started the Murder mystery simulation around Teddy Roosevelt and his influence.

(USS Maine- the sinking was one of the triggers of the war)

(Newspaper publishers Pulitzer and Hearst fight over readers using Yellow Journalism to stir up support for the war)

In Ethics we discussed how the pace of change and the level of change increases over time. We talked about how this increased timeline frame makes it difficult for society to contemplate the ethics of these changes. We used a few videos about the use of drones and robots to help support this discussion.

In Psychology we talked about early Psychologists such as Wilhelm Wundt and their theories on how to help people. We talked about focusing on empathy and how he judged empathy. We continued to listen to the Serial podcast and analyzed the psychology involved in it. All great stuff!

(Wilhelm Wundt)

The students in my Sacrifice for Freedom class made great strides in their research and have been in direct contact with German and American POW's from World War Two, as well as the son of a veteran of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade that fought in the Spanish Revolution. I am looking forward to the Spring when we post our findings to a web site we are creating.

Next week is vacation so two weeks until my next blog post. Next will involve a little bit of grading, and some other school planning. But it will also involve a couple of days getting away to rest up. Another big storm is coming, but at least we won't lose any more school days because of it. When we get back it will be Winter Carnival week which means I will will really only have their attention for one day during the week for each class. After that will be March and I hope some warmer weather.

Shortest month of the year

One more snow day on Monday, and we finally had a semi-normal week. I met with my Psychology class for the first time this week and we started our exploration of the brain and human behavior. We delved into inattentional blindness and its ramifications through the use of this video, The Invisible Gorilla. We also started listening to the Serial podcast as a way to connect issues around memory, lying, and bias to a real life problem. The famous podcast recounts the real life story of a man in prison for murder who claims his innocence. The students have become engaged by the way the story is presented and seem to enjoy discussing the issues.

We had an early release day on Tuesday, which means professional development for teachers in the afternoon. Our staff used this time to explore the Smarter Balanced assessment. Our 11th grade students will be taking this assessment for the first time in March. This is a test students do online that is aligned with the Common Core Standards for English and Math. Its a difficult test for 11th grade students, and we will have many who struggle. It served as a reminder for me that we are being asked to deal with a lot of changes and still have very little  time to deal with them. Most of the changes are mandates form the State or the Federal Government. We also are piloting a new teacher evaluation system this year. We were told by the State we had to have at least 10% of our evaluation based on student progress and that we could use commons assessment data to measure the growth. Yet it was announced by the State that the Federal government will pull Federal funding unless we modify our model to require at least 20% based on student growth and that must be measured by a standardized test.  I try not to let all of this stuff stress me out and just focus on what I'm doing in my classroom with my students, but sometimes its hard. I appreciate all the time and work folks in my district have put in to trying and prepare us for what outside forces are requiring us to do, I know its been hard for everyone. Unfortunately, it just feels like one more thing we have to do without the proper support to and training to do it.

I did an online webinar about World War Two this week. It was offered by America in Class and was titled "Popular Perceptions of World War Two". We read a few articles in advance and had some great discussions around topics like how the war effected women in America and Women in Europe and how the U.S. Army treated both groups of women differently in how they responded to soldiers actions and related their responses to the public. I found it very interesting and nice to relate to the Sacrifice for Freedom class I teach. The students are working hard and in addition to creating a web site, we are also planning a memorial service for Lewis Ferlan Goddard who died in the war and has been the focus of some of our research. The students are planning to build a permanent memorial for him on our campus and invite his brother to come for the dedication. It's all very exciting! Below are two screen shots form the online Webinar.

In U.S. history we did a simulation designed to help understand labor unions. I have done this for the last few years, and its a lot of fun. Students are assigned to be workers and a few are managers in fictitious factories producing works of art. They get paid for every piece of art they create and based on quality. The simulation forces them to compete, and creates tensions between the managers and workers. The idea is to show them how and why some workers feel the need to organize labor unions. It amuses me to see how naturally the idea of going on strike comes to them, and also how competitive they get over this task of creating the best works of art that, in reality, has no meaning! This is a great introduction into our discussion of the rise of big business and organized labor.

Next week is the last week before vacation and will be the start of the Teddy Roosevelt murder mystery simulation. This is one of my favorite activities and I really look forward to it. Hopefully we can keep the snow days away. With vacation, only 28 days, and Winter Carnival the last week of the month, February really is the shortest month of the year!