Another break on the horizon

April typically means Teen Issues at Maranacook. the school has a long tradition of offering a day or two of alternative programming that teens are interested in. We set aside classes for the day and invest time in these programs instead. We rely heavily on outside presenters to come in and discuss social and emotional issues as well as career related opportunities. This includes presentations from the ACLU, a Game Warden, Family Planning, Substance abuse, fitness experts, and more. This year I was sick and missed it, but from what I understand it was fabulous as usual.

In U.S. history we have been learning about the Depression and the Dust Bowl. Students made use of resources from the DBQ project to analyze primary sources and craft an essay arguing the cause of the Dust Bowl. We also watched the excellent Ken Burns film about the Dust Bowl. This is a great way to connect environmental concerns to history and personalize the experience for students who made connections to the current drought in California.

Students in Sacrifice for Freedom continue work on planning for our website to tell the stories of people who lived through World War Two. They also started planning the school-wide assembly in May to recognize Lewis Ferlan Goddard. I am very excited for my students and the work they have done using both a foreign language and history skills in this work. Their websites will be fantastic, and the assembly should be amazing!

Also this week students in Psychology shared projects about famous experiments in Psychology and their impact on our current understanding of Psychology. These were multimedia presentations in which we learned about the Bobo Doll experiment, the Chameleon effect, the Marshmallow test, and more. I really enjoy discussing  and analyzing this work and its a great way for students to understand the process for conducting experiments in Psychology.

I was able to connect with educator Jenny Buccos using Twitter and #sschat on Monday nights. She has agreed to waive her fee and be our keynote speaker at the Maine Council for the Social Studies annual Conference in October. She is fantastic, and we are lucky to have her!

That's it? Yes, that's it! It was a busy week and I was also sick for two days. I have decided that next school year I will only blog once or twice a month. I think that will produce deeper and more analytical blogs for me to reflect on my work. Also, some weeks it feels like I don't have much to say! I will say this... one week until vacation!