Historical Investigation

My VHS class on American Foreign Policy has really taken off. Students have debated the start of the Cold War and are engaged in a simulation around advising President Truman in connection with the War in Korea. This simulation comes from the Choices program. I struggle with online learning as I feel it is more formulaic and not as passionate as the face to face learning. However, this group of students seems very enthusiastic and interested in the material.

Students in Sacrifice for Freedom, continue to research with primary sources. In some cases they are even translating the sources into English to use for a presentation about their country during World War Two.

(soldiers prepare to parachute into France as part of Operation Jedburgh)

In history v. Hollywood, students finished watching the film Glory. They then started working on historical research to analyze accuracy for film reviews. The next film we will be watching is about the fight for Women's Suffrage called Iron Jawed Angels.

Values and the research of Rushworth Kidder was discussed in Ethics class this week. We looked at a few hypothetical scenarios and talked about the theory that all humans share the same values. These students have a vocabulary quiz coming up soon as well.

The Revolution and propaganda were the topic of the day in both AP and Honors U.S. history. On Friday, I attended a training to help me prepare for a webinar in December. Another teacher and I are using the book Reading, Writing, and Thinking about History, in order to pilot a unit around argumentative writing. The book uses the Historical Investigation model to research andvwrite about 6 controversial questions in U.S. History before the Civil War. We are each piloting one of these units and then will share the student work and any advice we have in a webinar. The State of Maine has once again received a grant to sponsor the Cross Discipline Literacy Network that is providing the webinars in many different content areas K-12. In order to prepare for this, my students have read about the French and Indian War, and how Britain used taxation to pay for the War and the colonial responses. This will help them for the Historical Investigation we will start next week, "Who fired the first shot at Lexington Green?"

Next week I will blog specifically about this investigation and our first advisee day out! I have 10th grade advisees and next Wednesday we will be traveling to 3 different types of colleges so that students can see what college is like. This is paid for with a MELMAC grant.

Habits of Work

With several classes now down, things are settling in a bit. We are still dealing with tagging students for Focus time and figuring out issues that arise around that. In all my classes, we spent a little bit of time reflecting on the anniversary of the attack on 9/11 and how that day still affects us. Our class rosters have firmed up, especially in the elective classes which tend to see a good deal of change. In History vs. Hollywood we have been discussing Film as an art form and how it can be used to teach about history. We have also delved into the basic of the Civil War and finally this week started to watch the film Glory. The students are very quiet in this class! The class is meant to be a lot of discussion around the things we see in the film and our analysis, but this has proven difficult with this class so far. I'm hopeful that after a few more classes they will want to talk more.

In Honors U.S. History this week we had our first Pop Quiz! We started the week introducing the online textbook for the class and we talked about how to read from it and take notes. I warned them we might have a quiz over the reading. I tagged as many as I could before the class when it was due and reviewed the highlights with them. Then we had a quiz! There was much panic, but I told them not to overreact and that it was all part of the learning process. In addition, we talked about the Puritans a bit, and the idea of Democracy and Democratic Ideals.

(tongue in cheek depiction of the first Thanksgiving)

In AP U.S. History class we talked about historical thinking skills and did an activity to illustrate each skill. We also started talking about the outcome of the French and Indian War and the events that led to the Revolution. I asked students if the Revolution was inevitable, or at what point did it become inevitable. We did some investigation, debate, and discussion. It feels like many students had always assumed there was no choice, but now they wonder. They also wonder about the motives of those rebel leaders. It was a great discussion!

(Paul Revere's depiction of the Boston Massacre

In Ethics we just got into some philosophy about how people make ethical decisions. Students were given thought experiments that led them to discover the idea of consequential or Utilitarian thinking, The Categorical Imperative or rules-based thinking, and the Golden Rule or care-based thinking. We talked about how most dilemmas are analyzed from one of these 3 perspectives (or a combination of them). Soon we will be looking at universal values and the ramifications for ethical dilemmas.

In my VHS class, students finally got into the content. I have 23 students from Virginia, Massachusetts, Michigan, Connecticut, Ohio, and Switzerland. They seem very enthusiastic and energized to learn about U.S. Foreign Policy. Online classes pose a different set of challenges and rewards compared to face to face classes. In some ways I really enjoy the class, in others I grow weary of it. Because of the need from VHS to have every section of a class the same, I do not have much freedom to change to content of the course. I t would be great to make edits on the fly, instead I have to wait until Summer and propose changes. By then, my mind is not in it and its more difficult to make those proposals. Also, it goes through a process and so it may not be allowed, so what's my motivation to take time to propose changes if the likelihood of being approved is unknown? At any rate, I am pleased with student progress so far.

I am teaching a new class this year, Sacrifice for Freedom, which I am co-teaching with a Foreign Language teacher who just happens to be able to speak German, French, and Spanish. The idea is that students will focus on the World War Two era, and create a website for educational purposes to document people and their stories who were involved in the war, resistance, collaboration, etc. Students must make use of a target language for resources, either French, German, or Spanish. At this moment, the students have been tasked with creating 40 minute presentations about the basic events of the war within their country. We have some great guest speakers lined up and still working on more! It is a seminar style class, students self assess themselves and my co-teacher and I meet with each individual every two weeks to talk with them about their grade and then issue our official grade based mostly on the self assessment. I have enjoyed the class so far. We have pushed the students in some ways (our presentation requirements are more in depth and demand more of them than they have done in High School) and yet given them lots of freedom and opportunity to do the work of real historians in areas of interest without having to worry about memorizing things for a test. It is just the beginning, but we are all very excited!

Something else I thought a lot about this week is a new initiative we have at school this year. A group of teachers met last school year to discuss the State mandate that incoming 9th graders graduate with a Proficiency based diploma. During these discussions to support those students, they proposed that the school implement a standards based Habits of work rubric to help support the work habits that lead to success. This is the HOW rubric they came up with:

The idea is that each student will be assessed on the three areas of the HOW rubric in each class every 2 weeks. To remain eligible for privileges and co-curricular activities, they must average a 2.25 or higher on the HOW rubric in each class with no "1"'s (average the three habits together for each class). Other than that, it does not affect a student's GPA or the grade in that class. Very likely the HOW score and the grade will correlate, however. I think this HOW rubric will help students see the connection between effort, work ethic, and success. We are struggling currently to find a way to keep track of these scores as our grading program does not work well with standards based stuff. Aside from these technical difficulties that we are working on fixing, I think it will have a positive impact on students and be great vehicle for conversation about work ethic.

Next week I being plans for the first Cross Discipline Literacy Network Webinar and really start getting into the foundations of Government in the U.S., it should be fun!

To the Moon

After a restful three day weekend, we were back at it on Tuesday. Because of my illness on Friday, I met my students for the first time on Tuesday in those classes. In Ethics this week we spent time talking about where ethics come from and why we should be concerned about ethics. We talked about what evidence exists that the world is becoming more or less ethical. We also discussed the famous thought experiment of men working on the tracks and a speeding train on its way to kill them and whether or not it is right to steer the train to another track killing one, or leave it alone and let it kill 5. We had an even deeper discussion about whether or not pushing someone in front of the train with the same outcome is different ethically from steering the train with the same outcome. We of course relied on the Justice series with Michael Sandel to help us out.

In my brand new co-taught class, Sacrifice for Freedom, we participated in a little simulation. this role playing activity put out by the Choices Program, is designed to help us think about the competing interests at the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War One that led to World War Two. We also discussed our goal of creating a website where we will store our research and the information we learn about the people in Europe and America who were affected by the War. Its really great to be able to co-teach a class, and I look forward to the chance to observe my colleague teaching and vice versa. The course is designed to be more of a seminar with a lot of discussion and project work.

For AP U.S. History we started by reviewing the reading and work the students had done over the summer. We also started discussing the new themes and historical thinking skills that are part of the AP U.S. history redesigned curriculum and exam. We read an article about the death of Silas Deane and how new interpretations of evidence could lead us to believe he may have been murdered, when previously many thought he had committed suicide. Students had a chance to apply these skills using the article.

(Silas Deane)

In my History v. Hollywood class this week we spent time looking at early film clips and talking about how film making has changed. We also talked about how films can be used to teach history and tell stories and the limitations of film in trying to do this. Students in this class can receive College credit from Thomas College, and so we discussed the benefits of that as well. Students seem very excited about the course and the College Credit option. Next week we will talk about the Civil War a bit and start watching the first film in the course, Glory. The film tells the story of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment.

(Memorial to the 54th Massachusetts Regiment)

In my Honors U.S. History class, we put Columbus on trial! We have been reading, and discussing what Columbus actually did. We talked about the myths and the facts as we know them and how this impacts what we have come to believe about Columbus and whether or not he still deserves a Holiday. I used the book Rethinking Columbus as a resource to help with our study. Our mock trial ended with a conviction of Columbus and an essay assignment to use sources to support a claim about the way we remember Columbus.

(Columbus! Another myth? This is the first painting of Columbus, but was painted 13 years after he died, so did he really look like this? How can we know?)

My VHS class started this week as well. I teach the online class U.S. Foreign Policy 1945-present. The first week is really just getting to know each other.

The real focus of my week was a new initiative we have implemented this year called Focus Time. We have added a 50 minute block of time to our schedule on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. This is a time when all teachers and students have set aside to work on extension of class activities, extra support on assignments, or extra curricular type activities. How it works is that each day a teacher selects at least 10-12 students to "tag" for Focus Time the next day. Some days Social Studies has a priority over other subjects, other days its other subjects. Then in the morning students check a website called EdYouSched and it tells them who tagged them and where they are supposed to go. If they do not get tagged, they go to a silent study hall. Students who are really struggling in classes but do not qualify for Special Education could be targeted for a new Federally mandated program called Response to Intervention. Whatever services they might receive would happen during Focus Time as well. We EdYouSched, which is a web-based app that we use to "tag" the students and find out where students are once they have or haven't been tagged. Students use it to see who tagged them.

This is my honest take on it as of this moment. It's a bit clunky, a bit stressful (trying to think of who to tag and then doing it), and I'm not sure the students I have (at least so far) really use the whole time effectively. However, I LOVE the fact that we are trying to do something to change the culture in our building around learning. I think it sends a great message to students and parents that we are committed to supporting students to meet standards. Especially for students who struggle or need time with the teacher for help, I think it will have a big impact. I think we will end up making some tweaks, or maybe even some bigger changes. It seems in my classes students need help from me in fits and starts, when we are working on certain projects or certain types of projects. So I see there being times when I am tagging students without much of a reason and that feels odd to me but I think we have to do it to make it work for everyone. Once everyone is used to it, there will be fewer of us feeling odd at times. I really have to applaud my colleagues for taking a risk with this in an effort to help students. It would be much easier to do what we have always done and wonder if we could do anything different, it takes a lot of courage to try something different and risk it not working. One of  my advisees on Friday had an assignment and needed a good deal of help from the teacher, but the assignment was due last period. He plays football and so a "0" would make him ineligible for football.  I told him to ask the teacher to tag him before school. He ran to the teacher who tagged him and when he came back he said "Thank God for Focus Time". This is the same student who had mumbled that it was "stupid" on the first day of school. So when I was feeling a little stressed by Focus Time this week, I reminded myself of a quote from President Kennedy when discussing the U.S. plans to put a man on the moon. "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too." So let's put these students "on the moon" and see what happens!

Another School Year Begins!!

Our school year began officially on Monday morning 8/25, but most teachers started prep the week before. I had most of my planning for the first two weeks done (with a few exceptions) so I was looking forward to Monday morning and getting back into things! All Middle School and High School teachers were asked to report to Camp Androscoggin in Wayne, ME (in our school district) for 7:30. We arrived to a wonderful breakfast spread. After some brief opening activities, we had the chance to select different options for training. We could choose from things like using a low ropes course for group bonding, and learning more about substance abuse in youth. I spent some time learning about some of the new thinking in how to address youth with substance issues. We then had a great lunch spread with ice cream sandwiches. After lunch, we had time to meet in our grade level groups (I am a 10th grade Advisor this year) and plan some things for the year. This year we were going to hold Open House before the first day of school, and so we also wanted to discuss some things with parents and used our time to plan this. It was a fun and energetic first day!

Tuesday was another workshop day. We once again started off with a breakfast, followed by a meeting of all Staff in the district in the High School Gym. Our Superintendent gave a brief welcome and preview of some things we will be working on during the year. She also had all new Staff introduced and welcomed. After this, people went in many different directions. The High School Staff met in the Performing Arts Center to have training on Suicide Prevention. A new Maine law passed last year requires at least 60 minutes of the training, and I think it makes a lot of sense. Most of the information I knew, but it was a nice reminder. I also think it was powerful to look at the survey data and other data see how suicide is a growing problem here in Maine. I can see why the Legislature was moved to action. We had a Staff meeting after the training that included lunch from Subway. This meeting had a lot of content, and I think we went through it a bit too quickly. We discussed some of the new changes this year. But rather than Blog about them all now, I will spread them out over the coming weeks as they are put into action (I think we probably should have done the same thing with the Staff). There are two big things that I think had an immediate impact. The first was a slightly new schedule which included Focus Time, and the second is a container in every room for students to store their cell phones so they won't be a distraction.

Focus time is designed to give teachers a chance to meet with students as needed. We are using the Web App EdYouSched to notify students where they need to go each day for Focus Time. Our first Focus Time will be Thursday of next week, so we will see how it goes. So there is a technology piece the Staff need to learn, and they will need ot think about who they are tagging for Focus Time and why. This time can help us with students who are identified as needing a learning intervention. Federal law requires us to have a "Response to Intervention" or RtI program. We will be able to use Focus Time to help students who end up with RtI. There are many more things we are doing differently, so its all a little stressful, exciting, overwhelming, positive, etc. at the same time. The one thing I believe for sure, is that it will all help improve teaching and learning in the long run. In the short term, there will be issues and that makes us all a little nervous.

Wednesday was the first day for 9th and 12th grade students. The Seniors' job is to help with initiatives designed to welcome 9th graders to their new advisee groups and to the School. The Freshmen spend time during the day getting to know the folks in their group. they also spend time learning about High School and how things work. This year I am a 10th grade Advisor. This means that I do not have a responsibility and can use the time to prepare for classes. I had done a lot of work the week before, so I spent most of my time planning for the weeks to come and meeting with other teachers to talk about things for the upcoming year. Everyone has 2 years when they have this time and 2 years when they don't, so it all works out in the end. Wednesday night was Open House. We had about the same number of parents as usual. I heard from many parents who liked the idea of having it before school starts. I do think the conversation stayed on the class and the curriculum much better by doing it before school started. Also, we have no papers yet to grade. It made for a very long day, but no matter when we do it it will always be a very long day. I didn't have any students on Wednesday so I know it was harder for those who did. I still maintain, its better to have that really hard day now with a long weekend ahead, and no papers to grade than 3 weeks from now with no long weekend, a full day of class before and after and lots of stuff to grade. I heard from at least one 9th grade Advisor who agreed with me. One suggestion I heard that might make more sense, was to do it Tuesday night instead of Wednesday night. I do still have to wonder about the format though? We ask parents to come in be there for 2.5 hours. That's a lot of time for parents to give up. I wonder if we did a more "open" format parents could stay as long or as little as they want? Things to consider before another year, but for now its over!

Thursday was the first day for all students in grades 9-12. This means the first day of classes. I was very excited for this day! After a brief assembly and a few minutes with my advisees, we were off to class. I had 2 classes on the first day, History v. Hollywood and honors U.S. History. Students seemed to be in a good mood and did as I ask without issue. No one complained to me about the cell phone thing, no one used their cell phone in class, and students responded when I asked questions. I made a few jokes and students laughed. So overall it was a good day! I was just as excited for day 2 and my other classes when I left on Thursday. Unfortunately I had some minor achy pains in the afternoon and by evening they had increased in intensity. By bed time I was feeling the stomach cramps. Unable to rest or sleep from the pain, I finally gave in and headed for the ER at 2:30 in the morning. Based on what happened last Spring I was guessing it was Diverticulitis, and after some tests my guess was confirmed. By 8am I was on my way home with pain killers and antibiotics, feeling some better. I hate to be out, especially when its unexpected, but even more so when I haven't even met the students yet! So it was disappointing and stressful to call for a sub for Friday. My plans were vague and not very productive for students. Luckily I had super-sub Bob Ingalls who is the master of working with a class without plans or very little to do. Unfortunately I missed Friday, but even with that episode it was still a good first week back to school. Next week we will begin to get in to our routines and hopefully I am feeling better!

Prep for the new school year

Two weeks ago we took a little family vacation south. We visited my wife's sister and her family in the Washington, DC area. While there I had the fortunate opportunity to visit the Smithsonian Museum of American History.

(Smithsonian Museum of American History)

(My son at "The American Presidency" exhibit at the Smithsonian)

(War exhibit at the Smithsonian)

 Aside from a few glorious hours at the museum, we spent some time at some of my favorite historic monuments in DC.

(We went to the top of the Washington Monument and got a view of the Lincoln Memorial and the World War Two Memorial)

(White House view from the Washington Monument)

(World War Two Memorial in Washington, DC)

(Inside the Lincoln Memorial)

(The Lincoln Memorial)

(The U.S. Capitol)

(I paid my first visit to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial- it was not completed the last time I visited DC)

(Me with FDR, also my first visit to this Memorial)

(The Jefferson Memorial)

We also visited the Vietnam War Memorial, and the Korean War Memorial. What I love most about the monuments and memorials in Washington, DC is that history lives on there, every day and every year. The important events of the past are never forgotten, and this is how I feel in general. Maybe that's why I like it so much there?

One of the highlights of my trip was a visit to the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, VA. Why Bedford, VA? As it turns out, 40 men from the small town of 3,000 people in Bedford were part of the D-Day landings. 19 out of the 40 died on D-Day. No other town or city in an Allied nation suffered as many deaths per capita as Bedford, VA. Alan Kershaw wrote a remarkable book I read called The Bedford Boys. It tells the tragic story of the Bedford soldiers who died on D-Day. The book was incredibly moving, and so was the memorial. Though it was about 20 miles out of our way and quite rural, it was well worth the the trip. I was blown away by the symbolism and detail of the very large memorial.

(The National D-Day Memorial)

We finished up our trip visiting a former colleague who is now a professor of education and theatre at the University of South Carolina. We had a wonderful few days in the State's Capitol of Columbia and I encountered a vibrant and progressive University contrasted with a stark reminder of recent past that was not progressive at all. Very interesting place! My former colleague and friend is doing great things there and I am very excited about that!

(University of South Carolina welcome center)

(This is the Lonstreet Theatre on campus. My friend's office is in this building)

(The stark reminder of the recent past... in front of the South Carolina State House flies the Confederate Flag, next to a Confederate soldiers memorial)

When travel ended, it was time for school...

This past week I spent a good deal of time working on getting things ready for the new School year. During the Summer, the custodial staff does a great job of cleaning the rugs and tables and desks in everyone's classrooms. Since they are somewhat unfamiliar with the classrooms, when things are put back they aren't exactly the way I want them. I always spend some time putting my room in order, and this year was no different. I also had updated my class syllabi and printed those and made paper copies for the students. I was pleased to see my supply order had arrived so I also put away my supplies. I have been working on a few lessons and adding them to units throughout the Summer.

(I didn't take a picture of my actual supplies, but this is a close approximation)

I am lucky enough to be the Social Studies Department Learning Leader which is like a Department Head. One of my duties for this is to serve on the school's Leadership Team. We had agreed to meet for 2 days this week and plan some of the opening trainings and dissemination of new information to the Staff. We have some really exciting changes taking effect, some driven by outside mandates, but also some driven by our desire to better help students. One of the biggest changes involves the addition of a "Focus Time" period. The way this period works is that teachers select students any given day from their classes to attend. Students are tagged virtually each day so they know where to go during this time. There is an application called "EdYouSched" that we are using to "tag" students for this time. Our Federally mandated "Response to Intervention" program will be implemented using Focus Time as well. We have a new way for restricting iPads that we hope will increase students focus and several other minor initiatives we hope will improve the school. Its all a little scary because there are many unknowns, especially when it comes to EdYouSched, but we are all taking a bit of a leap of faith in an effort to better serve our students.

We are also going to be assessing students every 2 weeks on their Habits of Work. We will call this the "HOW Rubric" and it doesn't impact GPA, but it will be reflected on a student;s transcript and impact whether or not they are eligible for co-curricular activities. This is a link to our HOW Rubric.


I did spend some time this week working on a lesson for a Webinar I will be doing with another teacher in November. This lesson is adapted from the book, Reading, Thinking, and Writing About History by Chauncey Monte-Sano , Susan De La Paz ,  and  Mark Felton. These folks are connected to Stanford History Education Group I have written about in the past. The Investigation I will be piloting is around using primary sources to think about answering a historical question, in this case, "Who fired the First Shot at Lexington Green in The Revolution?" I am co-teaching a new course this year and am very excited about it. Students will be using language skills to examine primary sources and attempt to create a website to house the stories from the World War Two era that we collect. I am lucky that this year since I do not have 9th or 12th grade advisees, I have time on Wednesday next week to prepare lessons. So while I only have the first few classes planned, I feel ok knowing I have that time available next week before the first day of school. I am very excited to get to those first classes and really immerse ourselves in the ideas! This will be my 34th first day of school as a student or a teacher and I still get really excited! 

Next week I will write about the first day of classes and the opening of the new school year!