I am resting and doing some work from home for the next two weeks. The weeks leading up to surgery were crazy busy getting a month's worth of sub plans ready for my absence.
When I return to school I look forward to several interesting things.
I have been working with the Maine Department of Education as part of the Social Studies Community Teacher-Leader Group. Our focus is to provide meaningful Professional Development and support in social Studies for teachers in Maine. I have designed a workshop for elementary teachers to give a brief glimpse into the framework for Social Studies (the C3) and a model lesson aligned with those frameworks. My wife, who teaches Elementary School, is helping me with this. We are planning to deliver this workshop at the end of the month.
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| (From a Webinar we participated in preparation for the Workshop we are creating) |
I also partnered with Maine Historical Society to get my students using their online resource, the Maine Memory Network, and create a project learn about Maine and World War One. Students created slide shows about our community during the War and learned about a local pilot who was killed during the War and is buried in France. His name was Benjamin Bradford from Wayne, ME. The Osie-Aisne American Cemetery in France provided support so my students could see his grave and learn about the Cemetery. Eventually this lesson plan will be available on the Maine Historical Society website for teachers to modify and use in their classrooms.
I have also been working on the Understanding Sacrifice project that is ongoing. I was happy to learn that the Fallen Hero I am researching, Harvey J. Madore, has been awarded the Bronze Star. Through my research I was able to put him in touch with someone who had documentation and knew the process. So this man helped his son apply for the Bronze Star and his son just informed me he received a certificate in the mail for the award for his Father. He was so excited about it, and it made me excited that I almost forgot about the pain from surgery for a few minutes! I still have more work to do to tell Harvey Madore's story and develop the lesson plan, but its great to know he is receiving the Bronze Star.
I may be sore now, but its nice to know I should be in great health for my trip this summer to Italy, France, and Belgium to visit those World War Two cemeteries as part of the Understanding Sacrifice project. I am very much looking forward to this trip and bringing back the work to my students next Fall. I was pleased to learn there are enough signups to bring back my Understanding Sacrifice class for next year.
So now its time to rest and soon I'll be grading student work. But things are looking up for my health and I will be anxious to get back to school soon!
