Cooler temps and more learning!

I'm sure I wasn't the only one who appreciated seeing the weather turn cooler. I love hot weather, but my classroom is just unbearable when its hot, and uncomfortable when its warm outside. Its unfortunate, but I know that if its a high of 70 and sunny, my classroom will tough 80 before its over. If there is a breeze, opening the window will help. So when we received some rain, and temperatures in the 60's, my students and I were both more comfortable for the first time this year.

Over the last few years my students and I have spent a good amount of time working on telling some of the stories of those who sacrificed during World War Two. Last May we had an assembly and announced a memorial on our campus to Lewis Frelan Goddard who was killed duirng the war and is buried at the Rhone American Cemetery in France. The stone is in the ground near our flag pole, and the plaque has been ordered. If the weather is still warm when it arrives, we will attach it to the stone. Otherwise it will be completed in the Spring. When I became aware of an opportunity to take this work further, I applied for it over the summer. I was very excited and felt incredibly fortunate of ind out I was one of 18 teachers elected to participate in the Understanding Sacrifice Teacher Institute. We received the syllabus for this study, and its really so exciting its hard to put into words exactly how thrilling it is to be a part of it! With a focus on the Mediterranean, we will be studying World War Two over the next year. This study includes research, reading 6 books, participating in online discussions, online webinars, lesson plan development, and travel to the American Battle Monument Commission Headquarters in Washington, DC, tours of monuments and historic sites in DC, travel to visit 5 American Cemeteries in France and Italy, publishing of written pieces by us about the project, and a presentation at the National Council for the Social Studies national conference in Washington, DC in the Fall of 2016. The best thing about all of this, is that it won't cost me a thing! I am thankful and feel very privileged to have been selected for this experience! It starts with a trip to DC in November. Our trip to France and Italy will be in July. I can;t wait to bring this work to my students and help them get interested in telling the stories of other Maine soldiers buried in these cemeteries. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it! There is more information about Understanding Sacrifice on their website.

In our school there is white board in our staff room that has been designated the data wall. Our Department was asked to post some sort of data on the wall. As one of the Departments that does not have any type of standardized test, we decided to give our staff a brief assessment. This was designed to be somewhat similar to what a standardized test for students might be like in Social Studies. We then collected the results and posted them on the data wall. We didn't go through a norming process, but we decided 10/12 correct was considered "passing". With that in mind, the overwhelming majority of our staff "passed"! I'm torn about this issue in many ways. There is much emphasis on data in education right now (maybe too much?) and yet we don't test in Social Studies. That sends a message that the subject is not as important. In my view its the most important subject! Yet, by not having a test there is no scrutiny on our student or our subject from the community or the School District. So its an interesting situation to be in for sure. I think there definitely should be some sort of standardized assessment for Social Studies for our students as long as they exist for other subjects. Having said that, I think we shouldn't be spending so much time concerning ourselves with standardized tests in any subject area. At the very least this exercise has sparked interesting conversations among the Staff about testing and Social Studies. That can't help but be a good thing!

(the data wall from our staff room)

One of the wonderful things about working at my school is our advisor/advisee program. Though probably seen as corny or unnecessary when it was first started with the opening of the school in 1976, this program is now incorporated into schools across the country. Its really great that we get to work with 9-10 students every day for 4 years to help support them in their education through this program. Every Fall we set aside a day for some sort of activity through this program. I have juniors this year and so we were tasked with community service. My group and another group went to the homes of two folks in our community who needed help stacking wood. Both of these people have done and continue to do so much for our students and larger community that I was drawn to this opportunity immediately! I was so impressed with my advisees. They worked hard stacking wood all day long, only breaking a couple of times. They didn't complain about the work, and they worked quickly. It was so nice to see my students willing to help others and I know they felt good about giving back to the community! I took a couple of pictures of our work!

In my U.S. History classes we have been studying the American Revolution. This gives us the chance to try and solve the first of many mysteries in my class... Who Fired the First Shot at Lexington Green? Students are given two primary sources and we analyze them in depth for clues. How reliable are the authors? What biases did they have? Who was their audience? All of these questions help us to understand and make decision about what happened. I love our conversations and how they try and convince each other they know the answer. One source claims he turned his back to the British and then one of them fired first. The students wondered how he would know if his back was turned? the other source tells his he and his British soldiers had been up all night marching when they were fired upon first by the rebels. But, as my students pointed out, who among us is keenly aware of our surroundings after having been up all night? Fun stuff! Now they get to make a claim and write an essay to defend it. This, along with much of my material, comes from the Stanford History Education Group and their work around using inquiry in U.S. history.

(painting depicting the rebels defending the Old North Bridge near Lexington Green)

Hard to believe we are in October already!