Snow days

This post will be really short as we only had two days of school this week thanks to the weather! Tuesday and Wednesday were lost due to a Blizzard that hit New England and brought close to two feet of snow to my area. Most schools in the State were closed both days. Then to add insult to injury, we had another storm come in on Friday dropping another 12 inches or so to my area. I'm not one to complain about no school calls, but I think we could have gotten in at least a half day of school as the snow did not really pick up until the afternoon. Either way, we only had two days of school.

In those two days, we saw the same 4 classes because of our schedule and how the snow days fell. So I haven't seen my AP class, or my Sacrifice for Freedom class in over a week and I still haven't met my new Psychology class yet. The snow days have allowed me to get caught up on my grading and put most of the first semester stuff to rest. However, it would be nice to see those classes!

I did have Honors U.S. History and we spent some time this week discussing the success and failure of Reconstruction after the Civil War and the fight to put Native Americans on Reservations. Both deal with issues connected to racism and we had some great discussions. I also met my new Ethics class and we started off talking about Ethics and talking about what students would do in hypothetical scenarios. Its a lively group ready to discuss and debate so it should be a lot of fun!

I hope that next week I actually get to see my other classes and maybe we can avoid anymore snow days for a few weeks at least!

Mid Terms and Semester Finals

So the way my mind works this week really annoys me. I will try to explain. I like every semester to be treated the same way. No one semester is more important than another. After all, students are awarded 1/2 a credit each semester. Some classes are only a semester long classes well. And yet, to save money on a bus run, we stopped requiring first semester "Finals" several years ago. Teachers are allowed to give them and maybe even encouraged to, but we are not allowed time to grade them nor are students allowed time to prepare or study. As a result, in the Spring students have half days which give them time to prepare and study and gives us time to grade them. Not so for semester one, we have regular classes as usual. I have mentally gotten over the idea that semester 1 is treated differently, even though I think we should have the half days in January (as many High Schools do), but I hate the idea that we can still offer Finals without the time and maybe are encouraged to do so. I believe the school should either say no semester one Finals or go back to having the half days and require them. I doubt very much either one will ever happen!

Now that my rant is over I can comment on the week of Finals. This included some tests and some projects.For my classes that are only one semester, students had to do project Finals. They had to make a documentary film in History v. Hollywood comparing 2 historical films. In Ethics they had to analyze a current ethical dilemma in a slide show. My other two classes are year long and those students had tests this week.

I like the end of the semester and winding things up, but its very busy. Without the half days we try and do the same things we always do, plus issue new schedules and handle schedule changes for the next semester, and make plans for the new semester. This makes things very difficult and stressful! I am greatly looking forward to starting new classes next semester. I already have some exciting plans for both Ethics and Psychology. I will miss the students who are leaving me now, but I also look forward to meeting some new students this semester. Plus some of the students are the same just taking a different class. Next week will be very exciting! For now, I am grading the Finals!

End of the Semester craziness

To start the week I and a Middle School teacher form another part of the state hosted our 2nd webinar. This series was sponsored by the Cross Discipline Literacy Network and our most recent webinar may be viewed here:  http://stateofmaine.adobeconnect.com/p34rissatg2/

For this webinar I shared another Historical Investigation from the book Reading, Thinking, and Writing About History: Teaching Argument Writing to Diverse Learners in the Common Core Classroom, Grades 6-12 (Common Core State Standards for Literacy) by Chauncey Monte-Sano , Susan De La Paz , and Mark Felton. This time around my students investigated which method was more effective for freeing slaves, moral persuasion or more aggressive action. We learned a great deal with this investigation and had a great conversation about nonviolence and violence. In tied in nicely to a discussion about recent protests in the news, and the release of the film Selma in theaters.

As usual for this time of year, I am just too busy to blog about much. I was sick this week and that didn't help. Students were working on their final projects or studying for a test so not much exciting happening on that front! Next week will be the semester finals and then new and exciting things will be happening at the start pf the new semester.

So more good stuff to come next semester!

A New Year Begins

Depression, its every where right now. I feel it, and so do the students. Negative temperatures, dark mornings, snow storms threatening and 8 weeks of winter ahead. It's a tough time of year to get going. Monday was very difficult, everyone was tired and cold. Unfortunately the semester is winding down, so after one day of just dragging, everyone has to start finding energy to do what needs to be done. This was not as hard for me because we are studying the Civil War which I just absolutely love!

We spent some time this week analyzing the Gettysburg Address. This is aligned with common core of course! We also talked about the genius of Abraham Lincoln and I showed two brief clips from the film Lincoln to help students understand his personality a bit more.

In our study of the Civil War, we analyzed the advantages of North and South as well as their characters during the War. We watched the first episode of Ken Burns' The Civil War which is a great introduction to help students understand the total impact of the war on American culture.

In History v. Hollywood we watched the film JFK and discussed the assassination. Students also spent a good deal of time working on their iMovie project. for the project they have to pick 2 historical films on a related topic and compare and contrast them in a 4 minute documentary they make.

In Ethics we have been discussing the origins of political philosophy as it pertains to ethics and justice. This includes looking at the online discussions from Michael Sandel's Justice from Harvard. Students are also working on their Final project. For their Final project, they have selected a current controversial ethical dilemma affecting society and analyzing the dilemma using our analysis protocol including possible resolutions or compromises.

What makes this time of year difficult is that we are trying to wrap up the semester while at the same time planning for scheduling for next school year, and making sure schedules and plans are ready for the second semester to start. Next week I will be delivering my last webinar of the year on a Historical Investigation we did connect to abolition. Also we have a professional development on Friday afternoon leading into the long weekend for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. The new film Selma is coming out about Dr. King and I can't wait to see it. I hope someday to use it in my casses. I am looking forward to starting a new semester with a new section of ethics and a new section of psychology!

Holiday Vacation at last!

It doesn't matter when vacation starts, those school days leading up to the vacation tend to be the longest and most stressful! It doesn't help that there isn't much sun this time of year in our part of the world for weather reasons as well as the shorter day lights hours leading up to December 21st. I do my best to turn on my charm and stay positive!

The highlight of this week was our Abolitionist Simulation. What was the simulation? Well I will now explain! Students are assigned a famous abolitionist (like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe or Wendell Phillips) and must research how that person felt about 4 proposals for the Abolitionists to consider. One advocates the inclusion of women in the movement, one advocates the use of violence, and one advocates secession form the Union. Students then use parliamentary procedure to debate these proposals and adopt them or not. It is designed to help them understand how complicated slavery and abolition really was and perhaps suggest why the Civil War happened. I always have a lot of fun with this playing the role of William Lloyd Garrison and running the meeting.

The Maine Council for the Social Studies Board had its annual meeting at Joyce's in Hallowell this week. We debriefed the National Conference and came up with some ideas for our annual Conference next Fall. We had dinner and a little celebration for our outgoing President who is taking some time away and may come back in a support role n some way down the line. It's a great group of people and I really enjoy the work! Exciting times to come I'm sure!

(MCSS Board with 4 members missing)

We also had the chance this week to start talking about the Civil War and I shared my pictures and videos form my Teaching American History Grant trip in 2009. I can show students Harper's Ferry where John Brown was captured and also the Battlefields at Antietam and Gettysburg. By showing them these images and videos, I can also explain the role the 20th Maine regiment played in the Battle of Gettysburg and their leader, Joshua Chamberlain. Students are always fascinated to hear the story of how the 20th Maine defended Little Round Top and won the Battle for the Union (and maybe the war?).

(20 Maine regiment at a reunion of the Battle of Gettysburg sitting on Little Round Top)

We ended up the week watching a fascinating film about the French Resistance during World War Two in Sacrifice for Freedom. The film is called "Army of Shadows" and was in French with English subtitles. The students have been hard at work with their research and we wanted to do something a little different just before break. We even provided popcorn and soda for the students.

(French Resistance fighters)

I'm too tired to blog about any of the other things that happened this week!! Time to rest.We now have 2 weeks off so I won't blog again until the end of the first full week in January. When I get back I will be preparing to deliver Webinar number 2 and we will be looking to wrap the semester up in all my classes.

Another Historical Investigation

Another busy week was had by all! Student in my U.S. history classes spent some time studying Abolitionism and slavery. They participated in a 2nd Historical Investigation with an essay coming next week. The question they grappled with was this: What was most effective way to free slaves, moral persuasion (non-violence) or a more aggressive approach? Students analyzed a famous speech from Henry Highland Garnet and one from William Whipper each on opposite sides of the question. This is another investigation from the book "Reading, Writing and Thinking About History" with another Webinar to follow in January. It was very interesting, and I can't wait to see the essays!

Henry Highland Garnet

William Whipper

On Tuesday we were honored to once again have Attorney James Lawley visit my Ethics class. Mr. Lawley spoke about his work with Death Penalty clients during his time in Alabama. The students were very inquisitive asking great questions about the Scott Panetti case and other issues around the use of the Death Penalty. It was all very interesting as usual. I am so fortunate to have Mr. Lawley willing to come in and speak to my students!

In History v. Hollywood we are preparing to watch the film "JFK", so we must analyze the JFK Assassination first. This topic is one of my favorites in history, as it is still a mystery in some ways. Did Oswald act alone? If he did, why do so many people question it? Either way you go, the exploration is fascinating. We used a couple of different websites and the film series "The Men Who Killed Kennedy". The website The Kennedy Assassination is one we used and JFK Lancer is the other. The students are always amazed and intrigued by this topic, so I really enjoy discussing it with them.

On Friday was our annual Kids Who Care day. On this day we work with our advisees to do something to give back to the community. This year we visited a 2nd grade classroom at a nearby elementary school. My 10th grade advisees ran 4 different craft activities for 2nd graders who got to take them home. We also had a bingo game for them with some prizes. It was very tiring, but it was a lot of fun! Luckily my wife is an elementary teacher at the school and so she did a great deal of the planning and organization which I really appreciate!

Five days of school left before a 2 week vacation for the Holidays. This is the week when the students start to get a little stir crazy. Vacation is starting a little earlier this year and so I hope that may keep them a little calmer than usual for the last days of school of 2014. Next week is also the annual Maine Council for the Social Studies dinner and business review for the year.

Ethical Applications

Coming back after the break my U.S. history students were prepared to present their projects. Students had to nominate a person important to U.S. history to be put on a new $35 Dollar Bill. They then had to give a creative presentation to persuade the Federal Reserve the person they chose deserves the honor. They also had to dress like the person they chose, and submit a design for the bill. This is always fun to see and a bit stressful for the students who get nervous about presenting in front of the class. We had some really interesting presentations, using music and video, and some really great nominees! It was great see a case made for people like Martin Luther King Jr, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Chase Smith, Samantha Smith, Edward Abbey, Frank Sinatra, and Geronimo to name a few from a diverse group of nominees.

(1886 Silver Certificate featuring Martha Washington)

In my Ethics class we wrapped up our discussion of End of Life and Euthanasia Ethics with a guest speaker. My friend, who is a nurse at a local hospital, came into the class to share her experiences and stories around End of Life care. The students were extremely interested in her anecdotes and examples connected to the issues nurses and other medical professionals face around ethics. I know there are students in the class considering a career in a medical field and they expressed to me their appreciation for her coming in and giving them a sense for what it is like with a such a difficult topic. Many thanks to my friend Sara Casey who came in!

Also in Ethics, we switched gears to begin looking at the ethics of Capitol Punishment. In the news this week is the story of Scott Panetti who was scheduled to be executed this week, but had his execution delayed by a judge due to concerns that he is mentally ill. The students were fascinated by this case in particular, so its fortunate we can follow it while we are discussing the issue itself. We also looked at the number of executions in the US and compared it to other countries in the world. We also discussed the Innocence Project and their work at exonerating wrongly convicted inmates who were on death row scheduled to be executed. There is also the Death Penalty Information Center that has interesting information about the Death Penalty.

We practiced our webinar presentation we will be doing next Monday around historical investigations. Myself and a Middle School Teacher from another District have been working with a grant the state received to promote literacy across the disciplines. As a result, we are using the book "Reading, Thinking, and Writing About History" to help us create and implement lessons that are around Historical Investigations and using an inquiry based approach. It also requires students to do close reading of primary and secondary sources in history. The example I will be presenting will be around the Revolutionary War.

We had a professional development early release day this week. The focus of our PD was around incorporating Common Core standards into our learning targets. We also had to identify priority standards for Social Studies from the Common Core to implement into our units. This work is all in conjunction with our need to have the current 9th graders graduate with a diploma that is proficiency based for at least English and Math, and within 3 years, all students will need to graduate with a proficiency based diploma for all subjects.

Next week will be the Webinar live on the web for teachers around the State and at the end of the week is our annual Kids Who Care event with our advisee groups. Two weeks left until vacation!