Zombie week

Parent/Teacher Conferences... maybe its because I'm an introvert and I desperately need time to recharge? I'm not sure, but staying at school for almost 13 hours and then turning around and going back for regular days for 3 more days is maybe the most exhausting thing for me right now. It takes another whole week for me to recover. It impacts my grading and my teaching as well as my family. I truly get the need for parents to talk to teachers about their students, I just wish there was another way to do it. I'm probably in the minority, but I would rather get out later in the school a couple of days and find a way to make this work better. I think it really does have an impact in a negative way.

So while in zombie mode this week, I did do a simulation during Focus Time with the students who are attending the Model UN Conference in May. We have taken students for 12 years now to the Model UN conference at Northeastern University sponsored by the United Nations Association of Greater Boston. Its always great fun, and the students work so hard on the topical issues of the day. I really enjoy working with them, despite the extra time it takes. I can't wait to blog about our experience in May! Topics this year include ISIS, Ukraine crisis, access to water, genocide, and more.

In U.S. History classes we experienced the Stock Market Crash of 1929 through a stock market simulation. We also started talking about the Depression and watched some of Ken Burns' excellent documentary on the Dust Bowl. More to come next week.

Students in Psychology are working on famous experiments in psychology and will be doing presentations. I just finished reading "The Tell-Tale Brain" by V.S. Ramachandran. It is an amazing book that looks at the idea of what makes the human brain unique. One of the areas of the most interest I found was his study of mirror neurons and his idea that maybe autism is connected to missing mirror neurons. This book is very helpful for teaching this class.

We are growing closer to the AP U.S. history exam. Those students wrote a DBQ in class this week which will help them prepare for the Exam. This essay uses primary sources to answer an historical question. My students wrote about the Treaty of Versailles after World War One for this essay.

(President Woodrow Wilson played a pivotal role in the Treaty of Versailles)

Next week we are headed to our annual Field Trip at the Margaret Chase Smith Library and Museum in Skowhegan, Maine. Its always fun for the students to learn about the first woman in both the House and the Senate who happens to be from Maine. The Museum has a wonderful and vast collection of Cold War era documents. Great fun!

(Margaret Chase Smith)

Testing

This week began the Smart Balanced Assessment for the juniors. This is the first time we have ever offered this assessment. The whole thing is done online using their iPads. There has been some concern about how well the technology will work and whether the format of the test will be frustrating for the students. Time will tell for both of these, but we held our first tests on Thursday and so far I'm not aware of any major issues. They will finish up on Monday. I wonder if their plan for how to administer these tests really makes sense? I think rather than scheduling two different days with the possibility of the whole day available is wise? Maybe only have 2 hours a day and then the rest of the day regular classes. I say this because on Thursday a bunch of kids finished at 12:30. TWO HOURS EARLY. All they could do was hang around in the gym. I think this is a bad plan. Eventually many got dismissed and got rides home. Seems strange to do it this way to me. Maybe it will be done differently next year?

This week was actually a short week for my classes. Thursday was a special day in that Juniors were testing, Sophomores were out of the building on a job shadow, and Freshmen were on a field trip. the seniors had some special presentations in the morning and were dismissed at noon. Friday was a workshop day for teachers, so we only had classes on Monday to Wednesday this week. It was, however, quite a busy week!

In U.S. History classes students were analyzing the foreign policy issues at the end of World War One and looked at potential causes of the Second World War. This is one of my favorite topics. There is something about the horror and tragedy of World War One that has always captured my interest.

In my Honors Sacrifice for Freedom seminar class, the students are making great progress. We have several personal stories to post to the website we are creating. In addition, students are planning to erect a memorial here on campus for Lewis Goddard. This man died during World War Two. I'll have more to say about this as the weather warms and we plan our memorial and dedication.

Psychology students have spent a good deal of time on the different approaches to psychology and the research process. Meanwhile, in Ethics, students presented projects around Moral Courage this week.

Even though we had no regular classes on Thursday, it was a very long day because we did have parent/teacher conferences Thursday night. I understand the importance of parent communication and I attend the conferences for my child. However, I am glad Friday was a workshop day because that late night wipes me out. I still wonder if there might be a better way to deal with communication, but I won't go on a rant about that now.

Friday was a workshop day for teachers. This is a great opportunity for us to have time to dig deeply into professional development. On this day we spent time analyzing habits of work and how best to implement our school wide rubric for this. We also had time to continue to modify our curriculum to align with common core and the proficiency based diploma required for Maine graduates in the class of 2020 (it was 2018, but we just found out that it has been delayed to 2020). The day was jam packed with plenty to do and we still have much to do, but it was nice to make progress. I even had the chance to work on some of the stuff I got out of the DBQ project workshop I attended!

Spring starts next week, so I hope we get a little warmer weather soon!

DBQ's and more

One of my favorite activities is a little simulation designed to get students thinking about World War One.  I call it simply the War Simulation. I first learned about it as a junior in College at the University of Maine at Farmington in a class activity from my Professor on Social Studies methods, Dr. Rod Farmer. According to his handout, he adapted it from the journal Social Education from 1966. However, a quick Google search will find it all over the internet and it apparently was in the book Social Studies for the Twenty-first Century: Methods and Materials for Teaching in Middle and Secondary Schools, 3rd Edition published in 1999. This simulation puts students in pairs and assigns them a fictional country on a fictional world. They are thrown into a state of war and must decide to stay neutral or go to war. They end up negotiating with other countries and forming alliances. The idea is to show students how quickly World War One could have gone from a small to a large conflict. It also demonstrates how the cause of the War are somewhat in dispute and why and how U.S. President Woodrow Wilson may have come up with his "Peace Without Victory" plan. The simulation never fails to make these points well. In addition, student never fail to get consumed by the strategy part of this simulation. It makes our study of the conflict, and the outcome of the war, much easier as I keep referring back to the simulation. Always good fun!

Since the only class all juniors take is U.S. History, The Guidance Department used some of our class meeting time this week to help students prepare for some testing. All juniors will be taking the SAT on April 15 and the State of Maine is paying for it. So They registered for the test online. In addition, students will be doing the Smarter Balanced Assessment for the first time. This involves downloading an app so they can practice how the test will work on their iPads. The Smarter Balanced Assessment has gotten a lot of media attention recently. Our school is one of the first in the State to take it, so it will be interesting to see how it goes. Unfortunately students missed a day of class for this prep and will miss two other days for testing.

In Psychology class we have been studying the Brain and its functions. This includes mapping the basic areas as well. Students seem to find this interesting as we also discuss examples of people who have had brain damage to the different areas and how their lives changed as a result. The most famous being the case of Phineas Gage who was impaled by a tamping iron and lived. The study of his changed behaviors helped pave the way for modern psychology to emerge.

(Phineas Gage)

In Ethics classes this week students started their Moral Courage projects. They get to pick someone who has exhibited Moral Courage and defend why. We debated and discussed the case of Edward Snowden and raised the question. Is he exhibiting Moral Courage or is he just a traitor?

One of the highlights of my week was a professional development day spent learning about the DBQ project. On Tuesday, myself and two other teachers from my school traveled to Portland to meet with a bunch of other teachers and learn about this innovative project. There are some definite similarities to the Stanford History Education Group, but lots of time and money has been spent by this teacher and a few others developing Curriculua using historical questions and primary source documents. Luckily, The Maine Department of Education received a grant so that each person who attended received a free binder full of these units which normally go for $350 a piece. Then we spent the day learning about the units and how they are taught. We will choose one to practice with our students and then when we meet again May we will bring student work with us to share. I will be doing a unit on the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. I can't wait to share and hear from others in May!

March Fourth!

March is a tough month. Everyone is tired of winter, but its still cold and snowy. There aren't any real breaks the whole month and it's testing season. So the best attitude to have is to just keep going!

Since this week features the only date of the whole calendar year that is also a sentence (March Fourth!), its a great week to adopt the attitude. This month I have a Maine Council for the Social Studies meeting, Smarter Balanced Assessment for juniors, a workshop day, a training on using DBQ's (next week), and a field trip to the Margaret Chase Smith Library and Museum. All things that will make the month tiring but exciting.

This week we were focused on digging in. In U.S. history we examined war and specifically the details of World War One. In Ethics we looked at Moral Courage and the students started some research on real life examples. In Psychology we looked at the famous experiment on obedience to authority conducted by Stanley Milgram. All of these things added up to a busy week!

My blog this week is very short because we just spent a lot of time working as usual. I have been thinking baout making a chenge with this blog for a while and its a week like this that leads me to conclude that starting next school year I will reduce my blog posts to two times a month. Then, each post will have much more to it.

Next week I will blog about the DBQ project training and the MCSS meeting. Until then, March forth!

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!