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!
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