Back in the Groove!

Well after being out for a month, I returned to school! About 4 weeks ago I had surgery to remove a 10 inch portion of my colon to try and resolve recurring diverticulitis infections. The surgery went well, and my recovery did as well. I have no pain or discomfort although i still need to avoid lifting very much or bending over too far for another month. But all things considered, I'm pleased and basically healed up!

It was fun to return and have my colleagues and students so happy to see me. My sub was terrific, and everything I heard from students and colleagues confirmed this! It was definitely less stressful for me to have a very sub managing things for me while I was out. I did nothing the first week, but I spent several hours the last 3 weeks grading student work and addressing questions and changes in the plans, and my District credited me some time for this. I was also lucky enough to have two snow days while I was out and so I didn't lose those two sick days.

(Beautiful "get well" plant from my co-workers!)

(Part of a car from my co-workers)

(Part of a car from my co-workers)

(Part of a car from my co-workers)

Also while I was out I continued to work on the "Understanding Sacrifice" program. I made progress in my research on Fallen Hero Harvey Madore and in the development of my lesson plan. May will be a big month for us in this program as we need to have things in place to make the best use of our trip in July. We have received our itinerary for July and I included it below. There is still a long time to go before our trip, but I am already looking forward to it!

Our Itinerary July 9-22 Rome to Brussels...

This project will be introduced to my students this week. Not only will they learn about Harvey Madore, but his son Bob will visit to talk about his father. My students will then plan an Assembly to be timed for Memorial Day in which Madore and another local Fallen Hero, Captain Joseph F. Berry, will be remembered. We will use these stories to learn about World War Two.

Before I went out I had spent some time as part of the Social Studies Community Teacher-Leader Group. This group has come together to promote Social Studies in Maine schools. Unfortunately Social Studies has been pushed to the back-burner amid the STEMification of the curriculum in schools around the state and across the country (Many articles of late have been written on this subject). In an effort to reinvigorate Social Studies education we are putting together workshops around teaching Social Studies. Eighteen teachers from around the state will put on these sessions at a State Social Studies Symposium to be held on June 29th at my school. This week I piloted my session before 12 Elementary School teachers from my district. My wife, who teaches 2nd grade, helped me plan it and even tried it out with her students so we had video of her students learning about the difference between Primary and Secondary sources. It was really interesting to work with my wife for the first time, and I also found it interesting to try and think in the Elementary School world for a while. I appreciated the teachers who were basically my "guinea pigs" and I really look forward to doing it again at the Symposium in June. Due to my family commitments and surgery I have missed the last few meetings of the Maine Council for the Social Studies, but I know this group is one of the sponsors of the Symposium as well. I am anxious for our next meeting and to continue my work with this great group dedicated to Social Studies education!

I teach two different AP classes and those exams are in early May. This means that much attention needs to be paid between now and then to help them prepare for the exams. Luckily they get dual enrollment credit from Thomas College for achieving a "C" in the class, but the exam gives them a chance to earn more college credit. It's a stressful few weeks for them, but it's also a sign that the year is nearing the end!

Two of my Social Studies colleagues were very helpful to me while I was out! Typically I run a Model UN simulation to help students prepare for the annual Conference at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. However, due to the surgery I was unable to do this so my colleagues ran it for me! This gave the students a chance to practice the process and I really appreciate my colleagues helping out! The actual conference is May 13th in Boston.

Two weeks until April vacation and I hope I will be caught up from my absence by the time its over!

On the mend!

I had my surgery and all went well! I'm still pretty sore, but I'm optimistic my troubles are fixed for the future.

I am resting and doing some work from home for the next two weeks. The weeks leading up to surgery were crazy busy getting a month's worth of sub plans ready for my absence.

When I return to school I look forward to several interesting things.

I have been working with the Maine Department of Education as part of the Social Studies Community Teacher-Leader Group. Our focus is to provide meaningful Professional Development and support in social Studies for teachers in Maine. I have designed a workshop for elementary teachers to give a brief glimpse into the framework for Social Studies (the C3) and a model lesson aligned with those frameworks. My wife, who teaches Elementary School, is helping me with this. We are planning to deliver this workshop at the end of the month.

(From a Webinar we participated in preparation for the Workshop we are creating)

I also partnered with Maine Historical Society to get my students using their online resource, the Maine Memory Network, and create a project learn about Maine and World War One. Students created slide shows about our community during the War and learned about a local pilot who was killed during the War and is buried in France. His name was Benjamin Bradford from Wayne, ME. The Osie-Aisne American Cemetery in France provided support so my students could see his grave and learn about the Cemetery. Eventually this lesson plan will be available on the Maine Historical Society website for teachers to modify and use in their classrooms.

 

I have also been working on the Understanding Sacrifice project that is ongoing. I was happy to learn that the Fallen Hero I am researching, Harvey J. Madore, has been awarded the Bronze Star. Through my research I was able to put him in touch with someone who had documentation and knew the process. So this man helped his son apply for the Bronze Star and his son just informed me he received a certificate in the mail for the award for his Father. He was so excited about it, and it made me excited that I almost forgot about the pain from surgery for a few minutes! I still have more work to do to tell Harvey Madore's story and develop the lesson plan, but its great to know he is receiving the Bronze Star.

I may be sore now, but its nice to know I should be in great health for my trip this summer to Italy, France, and Belgium to visit those World War Two cemeteries as part of the Understanding Sacrifice project. I am very much looking forward to this trip and bringing back the work to my students next Fall. I was pleased to learn there are enough signups to bring back my Understanding Sacrifice class for next year.

So now its time to rest and soon I'll be grading student work. But things are looking up for my health and I will be anxious to get back to school soon!

Health break

It was almost exactly two years ago when I reported a diverticulitis infection in this blog. Since then, I have had many infections and it has gotten to the point where my PCP has recommended I consult with a surgeon. So I met with a specialist in Portland and will be having a portion of my intestines removed on March 7. This should cure my infection problem, but I will be out of school for 3-6 weeks. The school is going to hire a long-term substitute, but I plan to stay connected with the students even during my recovery. So over the next few weeks I have much to do to prepare for being out. In my next post I should be just starting my recovery.

Over the last two weeks we have started our new semester and things are going well in the classroom! I have been super busy in general, and as usual for February, we are asked to do more things then we are given time for. Whether its registering students for classes, preparing credit recovery work, or signing kids up for Winter Carnival there is a lot going on! In some ways I look forward to time after my surgery to rest and be away from some of the hectic nature of things at school right now. I am quickly typing this in a hurry to get it done in an effort to stick to my personal schedule of blogging every two weeks. The truth is, I'm so busy there's not much I can say here. I have to prepare postings and readings for the Understanding Sacrifice program and update the lesson plan rough draft. I also had a couple of National Honors society recommendations to write, student work to grade, and plans to update. I still need to plan for while I'm out with surgery, finish the plans for the Social Studies PD I'm doing on 3/31 and update the World War One project I'm doing with Maine Historical Society. I also have Model UN plans to organize, and related logistics. Things will slow down by June (I hope). At least Spring is coming soon! See you with a few inches less of my intestines in a few weeks!

BUSY

The end of the semester... grading, new classes, my course work around Sacrifice for Freedom, Webinars, family. ugh! I'm just too busy and frustrated by so much going on right now to write too much here of use to me!

The new semester has started and it is nice to have a bit of a change and have two new classes of students. But its so hard to cope with the things that are due that I have no time right now for much of anything! I hope to be in a better place in two weeks- February break is on the horizon!

New Year, Old Stuff

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity as students realize the semester is coming to an end and their margin for error is dwindling!

Students in U.S. History have been learning about the Civil War- one of my favorite topics! This includes preparation for war, the role of the 20th Maine regiment, the impact on culture, and some great fun with Lincoln. We analyzed the Gettysburg Address, analyzed Lincoln, and analyzed tensions between North and South and connected them to modern tensions in our culture. Awesome stuff!

In AP Psychology, students worked on a learning project. They had to demonstrate an understanding of Conditioning by choosing a subject to Condition. They had to document their experiment with a short video and come up with a report to explain what happened and the results.

In History v. Hollywood we watched the film JFK and students worked on their Final project. Students must pick a topic in history and analyze how two different films portrayed the topic. While in Ethics students chose a current controversial Ethical dilemma faced by society and explained how it could be resolved using the dilemma protocols we learned in class. Next week is the final week of the semester and students will be taking tests and presenting projects. Next semester I will have a new section of Ethics and will be teaching a section of Psychology. I am ready for a little change!

As part of my evaluation, I have to give a class of students some sort of pre-assessment, chart the results, then re-assess them after teaching and hopefully see improvement. These "Student Learning Objectives" (abbreviated as SLO), must be reflected by the standards. This is all part of our evaluation system as developed by that guru Dr. Marzano. After getting my paperwork approved, I gave my pre-assessment in December. Just this week they completed the post-assessment and I am happy to report that my students met their goals! It seems like a lot of unnecessary hoops to jump through and paperwork to complete, but I did it and will get the points for that on my evaluation. I strive for positivity, so I won't complain about the new evaluation process here. Having said that, I find it an unnecessary distraction that reflects little about my effectiveness as a teacher. However, I am happy to have done what I am asked to do successfully.

I am still actively involved in the Understanding Sacrifice program with the ABMC. We have recently been reading the book Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. This classic book gives some insight to the war from the perspective of the soldier. In addiiton to reading this and participating in a webinar, I met with Bob Madore and conducted an oral history interview with him (video from my interview with Bob). He told as much as he knew about his father so that I may tell his story as part of my Fallen Hero project. Much work remains on this project, but I am starting to think about our trip to Italy and France this summer!

Model United Nations has begun! We are just starting, but the applications are out for students. This is an exciting learning opportunity for students that we have been doing for more than 10 years now. We take students to Northeastern University in Boston, MA for two days to simulate a session of the United Nations. Its always great fun and we enjoy the experience. I'm sure this year will be no different.

I'm a Junior advisor and we have started thinking about and planning for the Prom. The Prom will be held in Augusta a the Governor Hill Mansion on April 30. I'm happy to report that our theme is Star Wars!!! More to come on this topic!

I was unable to attend the Maine Council for the Social Studies Board meeting this month, but I'm anxious to hear about the work we are doing and plan to continue my involvement next month. We are co-sponsoring a workshop to be held in Portland in March related to the Constitution. More on this work to come!

January can be a tough month with the weather, but keeping busy certainly helps me!

Holiday Break

As usual, the last week and a half leading up to the Holiday Break was busy and everyone was counting down the days. One of the activities I looked forward to was "Kids Who Care". This is an annual event where we do something with our advisee group to give back to the community. This activity is always wonderful. The amount of time and stress it takes to plan and put together is borderline crazy, but it is always a great event. I worry with all of the mandates and expectations being levied on teachers, that things like this will fade or disappear as we lack the time and energy to pull them off. Time will tell!

My group worked with 2nd grade students in our Elementary School in town. My wife teaches 2nd grade there so it was a nice fit. My students helped the 2nd graders to make some Holiday crafts they could take home afterward. They also read books, played games, and went out to recess with them. By all accounts, the 2nd graders were very happy!

My students were engaged in academic work these last few days also! Students have started working on Final projects in my semester classes. In U.S. History, students were working on a primary source investigation and essay related to abolition. In AP Psychology, students were working on a project where they attempt to classically condition a subject and report on their findings. Luckily the weather held and we had no snow days before the break this year. In fact we had 55 degree weather on Christmas day this year! Typically the lake near my house is almost or completely frozen over by now and we usually have had at least some snow. Not the case this year!

(Christmas day near my house)

The holiday break always seems to come at just the right time when we all need it. Now its time to get some much needed rest for the the last 3 weeks of the semester when we go back after break. Things will be very busy with a webinar, work related to Understanding Sacrifice, and the wrapping up of semester grades. Throw in some bad weather and it will definitely be an interesting month of January!

Work?

I was asked recently if the Understanding Sacrifice project is a lot of work. It is a lot of work, but I have to admit that it doesn't really feel like work. I don't think I have ever had "work" that has felt as important and was as interesting and fun for me as this project. Compared to the various and sundry hoops we must jump through for our new evaluation procedures, which take much less time, the Understanding Sacrifice Project hardly qualifies as work. I was fortunate to have the opportunity over the last few weeks to meet the families of two soldiers killed during the war, to begin to document their stories.

Captain Joseph F. Berry is actually the Great-Uncle of a few former students of mine, and grew up in Wayne, ME. Berry was killed defending an anti-tank gun necessary for the landings at Gela in Sicily in the summer of 1943. Berry was awarded the Distinguished Cross and the Silver Star. His sister, Priscilla is 98 years old. I was fortunate to be able to meet with her and her son. They have a treasure trove of letters, pictures, and various documents related to his service. My students will be learning more about Captain Berry this spring. Berry is buried at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Italy and I will be visiting his grave and paying tribute to him when I am there in July.

Harvey J. Madore was married and living in Augusta, ME when he was sent to France in the fall of 1944. In March of 1945, his unit had just moved across the German border when he went missing. He was listed as "Killed in Action" 2 weeks later. The circumstances around his death are unknown, but he is buried at the Epinal American Cemetery in France. His son, Bob, met with me and shared his scrapbook of letters and images. bob and his son were fortunate enough to visit Harvey's grave in 2013. My students will be learning about Harvey this spring. We will be visiting his grave in July.

While excited about making progress, it does consume my time. I participated in a webinar with the Understanding Sacrifice program this past Wednesday night around some of the things we had read related to the war in general, and the war in Italy. Professor Christopher Hamner from George Mason University led our webinar discussion which was very interesting!

(Screenshots from the Webinar)

Students in my classes were involved in presentations over the past couple of weeks. After doing research, they had to select someone important to be put on a dollar bill. They had to defend their choice in a class presentation. Students had to dress like the person they chose or somehow defend their dress as inspired by the person they chose. This is always a lot of fun and involves much energy. Below are some samples of my students in costumes inspired by the person they chose for the dollar bill.

In Ethics and History v. Hollywood classes students have started to think about their Final projects. Since these classes are only a semester long, they will end in mid-January. Some years, the weather plays havoc with these last few days leading up to the Holiday break. This year we have had surprisingly mild weather. Not only have we only had an inch or so of snow so far, but its all now melted. The forecast is calling for temperatures to stay mostly in the 40's and so this may be one of the few years where we lose no time in December due to weather. This means the last 7 days of school before the break should be a bit less stressful than usual.

Over the last couple of weeks we did have a scheduled early release day for professional development. Apparently there have been a few issues in my district with understanding of what a "504 plan" for students truly is. All the staff in the district spent 2.5 hours listening to a lawyer discuss the finer points of the law. I was surprised to find him somewhat entertaining in the stories he told, though I would argue that they were distractions from the issue at hand as many of the questions posed to him were not really answered. Upon reflection I think the true purpose was so that the district could say in the future, if anything ever came up. that we have had "training" on this issue rather than something that would be more helpful. Considering all of the the things we need to do for teacher evaluations and proficiency-based education it didn't seem to me to be a very good use of the little time we have for professional development. However, its not my decision and so I focused on learning what I could from it and moving on.

The State Department of Education has received grant money to sponsor some training and programming around developing sample curricula in different subject areas for school districts to have as samples as they move toward proficiency based education. I applied for and was accepted into the Social Studies Community Teacher-Leader Group. We had our first training and worked to identify the needs of teachers across the state in developing social studies curricula. We will be developing workshops to run locally in the Spring and then run them again this Summer at a state-wide workshop. It was nice to meet the teachers and begin to develop a network of teachers interested in working on Social Studies stuff. More to come on this!

The Maine Council for the Social Studies Board had its annual Holiday Business meeting. We met over dinner at Joyce's in Hallowell and processed the feedback from our Conference evaluations in October. We also discussed some ideas for next year's conference and some of the information we learned at the National Conference in New Orleans. Its always great to have a bit more of a social time with folks during this time of year. More to come form the Maine Council in 2016!

Here we come down the homestretch to the Holiday break, with 7 school days left!