What is Your Focus?

Now that we are working our way toward the end of the calendar year, we can take the opportunity to ask ourselves some important questions about what we have done since August. One of the most important questions we can ask ourselves is "What is my focus?"

Many of us are thinking about what we've done over the past few months and are looking forward to the end of the semester. Some of us are assessing our progress in dealing with challenges - discipline, academic, personal - and asking what we need to do differently after the Winter Break. Others are trying to understand benchmark results. The primary question underlying our thoughts is, "what is our focus?"

Focus is understanding the goal and objective before planning the lesson.

Focus is planning an assessment which reflects the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy level of the objective.

Focus is teaching the standard course of study.

Focus is managing the pacing of your course so that items assessed by the benchmark are the items you have already taught.

Are you focused?

Holiday Shopping or Holiday Shocking!

The holiday shopping season has officially begun and I am doing my best to avoid it. I was on the road visiting my grands this Thanksgiving and got to see all of them at the same time!!! I also got to see snow in Ohio and sleet in West Virginia. Finally, I got to see the ads for "Black Friday" which I thought was supposed to be a special holiday just for me! Imagine my surprize when I found out it was a shopping day when people get up before dawn to stand in line at stores to spend money they don't have for things they don't need. Not my kind of day at all.

I remember last year's Black Friday death of a Wal-Mart security guard who was trampled by a mob of shoppers.There isn't anything I could possibly want to buy that would be worth a man's life to buy.

What did you do the Friday after Thanksgiving?

Origami for the Ears

We all know what origami is. But do you know what OrigAudio is?

Named one of Time magazine's best inventions of 2009, these speakers fold completely flat and can be put into a laptop sleeve without adding much bulk. Made of recycled paper, these 3" cubes need no external power and can be used with any audio device that will take a headphone jack. If you are interested, check out the link below.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1934027_1934003_1933984,00.html

Make it Easy on Yourself

Who works harder in your class - you or the students? If you are working much harder than they are, something isn't going the way it should. What do I mean by working harder? Do you spend hours grading assignments that it takes students a very short time to do? Do you have 15-20 grades per grading period for non-test assignments? Are you collecting lots of papers which you can't find time to deal with except at night, when you would rather be doing something else? Then you are working too hard!

Want some suggestions? Here's one!

When you think about assessments, what about student driven assessments? Instead of your grading students, let the grade each other. That kind of grading is great for vocabulary quizzes, crossword puzzles, fill in the blank, true-false and other simple assessments which are designed to get a feel for where students are on their way to completion of a goal or objective. How do you keep students from cheating or helping others to cheat? Use student numbers instead of names, and a certain color pen for checking. Have students sign the work they check. If they falsify an answer, those points are taken away from their points. Sounds complicated but isn't.

Share your suggestions, please.

On This Day in History

On this day in 2006, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled 4-3 that the state constitution guarantees gay couples the right to marry. Any thoughts?

The 90-10 Principle

Historiography

What is historiography and why is important?

Most of us don't think much of historiography or can even spell it.  After all, history is not what happened. History is what someone says happened.

However, students enjoy our classes much more if they have a grasp of "the study of history" or how to make sense of historical events. For example, students enjoy learning the whys of history much more than they enjoy memorizing facts and dates. They learn to use what they know combined with real situations to examine what they are told with a skeptical eye.

A fantstic example is the change in textbooks over the past 50 years. When I was in school, they only had papyrus rolls! But in the 1950s and 1960s most popular history books described few African Americans and Native Americans except in an occasional box on the side of a page. The curriculum focused on the exploits and accomplishments of white men, and left out in any meaningful way the accomplishments of most women, ethnic groups, and non-white, American born people. If you are looking for ways to make your curriculum more accurate, see James W Loewen's Teaching What Really Happened: How to Avoid the Tyranny of Textbooks and Get Students Excited About Doing History.

The Start of the Financial Crisis

Did you know that on this day in 1999, President Bill Clinton signed a sweeping measure knocking down Depression-era barriers and allowing banks, investment firms and insurance companies to sell each other's products? [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/]


Why is this important?  This is really good debate information and connects the Great Depression with our current financial situation. For more information, see these sites:

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1877351_1877350_1877322,00.html 

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1877351_1877350_1877330,00.html

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1877351_1877350_1877320,00.html


http://www.rd.com/advice-and-know-how/the-financial-crisis-of-2008/article104369.html 

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/regulation-crook 

Collloquium II - Good Food and Great Presenters

The 2nd Colloquia of Year 2 was this past weekend at the High Point museum. We had good food and great speakers. We also had fun, and got some goodies. Each teacher received a flash drive loaded with grade-specific materials. We also provided information on the Essential Standards process, concept based learning, and the CIP project. MIche Franken, one of our presenters, was a participant last year. She demonstrated how to use History Alive! to make teaching more interesting and interactive. Great job, Miche.

We also got to see Edith Brady's new baby girl, who is a 6-month-old joy. Finally, some of us got to go shopping. We ate and listened, toured and took notes. We stood and sat and moved around the room. In general, most of us stayed awake after the great lunches. Finally, we cleaned up and headed home, tired but satisfied.

Next meeting: March 19, 2010 at Guilford College.

Way to Go, Mark!

Mark Griffin, Year 1 participant and Grimsley High social studies teacher, was featured in a story in the October 31 edition of the "News and Record. " 

Mark's students participated in the Kid's Voting project, and were wonderful examples of students getting involved in activities related to being good citizens. Mark is a former policeman who spends much of his time teaching civic responsibility and participation in his Civics & Economics classes.  

We are glad to see Mark receive some long overdue recognition for his work! You go, Mark!