Plan of Action

Through our study of the Constitution, it becomes very clear that one area of interest for students is in and around their basic rights as citizens. We spend some time looking at the Bill of Rights and key Supreme Court cases to help them better understand what restrictions on their rights the Courts have found over the years and what the rationale was. This year we had the great fortune of having a guest speaker come in and discuss the 4th Amendment and other constitutional issues. James Lawley is an Attorney at Lipman and Katz locally here in Augusta. Though born in the United Kingdom, Mr. Lawley has studied American law exclusively. He spent many years as a Government appointed Defense Attorney in Alabama working Death Penalty cases as well as other cases. Mr. Lawley gave a brief presentation on the 4th Amendment in general, and also how student rights in public school are more restrictive in general. One of the most fascinating aspect of this talk, to me, was the reminder of how fluid these decisions are and how regional they are. After talking about the need to have evidence that provides a reasonable suspicion of a crime being committed in order to search a vehicle, Mr. Lawley told an anecdote of a woman from Texas who was pulled over on an Interstate Highway in Alabama. She had a snickers bar, a fountain, soda, and an open map in plain view. The police determined this was enough to search the car. They made their decision because of the amount of drugs being smuggled from Texas through Alabama on that same Highway. The courts upheld this ruling much to the shock of Mr. Lawley. His point was that this decision may not have been upheld in Maine or any other part of the country, and that it could also be overturned. His talk was fascinating and educational and it was nice for my students to get ask questions of him as well.

(James Lawley speaking to students. The lighting is bad because I don't know how to control the lights in there)

I was observed on Monday by my Principal for the first time. Since we were studying the Constitution and the early days of the US, I chose a lesson connected to the founding of Political Parties that also incorporates the Common Core. This lesson involves Comparing and Contrasting Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. I got this idea for the lesson from the book The Core Six by Harvey F Silver, R Thomas Dewing, Matthew J Perini. We are using this book in the Cross Discipline Literacy Network sponsored by the Maine Department of Education. I will be demonstrating this lesson as part of a Webinar in Novemeber. I think my observation went pretty well and I look forward to hearing suggestions for ways to improve. My Principal asked me if I use our NWEA test scores. I confessed that I do not because I had only seen a set of them one time and no one had ever instructed me on how I could use them. This kind of data analysis would be very interesting to use and I hope to learn how very soon! One of the things the students are asked to do is to identify the key differences between Hamilton and Jefferson and apply their thinking to a modern Governmental issue. They had to explain how both men would feel about the Affordable Care Act. I was very excited to see in depth learning from most of my students in this activity! I was even more excited to see so many of them being able to show understanding of the Affordable Care Act as well. To enhance our study of these two men, I also shared a couple of videos with my students. Many Americans know Hamilton met his match in a pistol duel in New Jersey at the hands of Vice President Aaron Burr over a personal feud. What most don't know, however, is that ESPN covered the event live!! If you like that, then you'll also enjoy this famous "Got Milk?" commercial that our students are too young to remember at this point!

This week was also characterized by finishing up the film Lincoln in History v. Hollywood and using a Choices simulation in my online class through Virtual High School to re-live the Cuban Missile Crisis. With Columbus Day on Monday, we finished up the week with our annual Workshop Day on Friday which gives students a 4 day weekend. When we put Columbus on trial earlier in the year, we discussed the Holiday and raised questions about whether or not it is deserved. I know many students will be thinking about this on Monday, sort of like this Public Service Announcement from 2009. Our workshop day this year was focused around implementing our 5 year action plan. This Summer our school's Leadership Team attended a retreat for 3 days sponsored by the Great Schools Partnership. At this retreat, we identified school goals and developed an action plan including strategies to improve our school. We used our workshop time on Friday to process one part of this plan and work on implementing a more effective way to communicate with parents and students. The hope is that better communication will help support student learning. It is still very early and we are distracted and fatigued by our NEASC accreditation process (which will be basically over after the visiting team comes in March), but I think this action plan will move our school in the right direction. I know the plan is a bit daunting and Staff put in a lot of work on Friday to get this plan off the ground. I really liked the energy from the Staff on Friday and I appreciate that our Principal organized a wonderful Barbecue for us as well!

Next week half of our students are taking PSAT's, while the 9th and 12th graders will be engaged in Advisee Group activities. I will also be launching the iMovie Trailer project and students in Ethics will be presenting their Moral Courage projects.