Alright, so back to some teaching stuff. So I took my first stab at podcasting. I think the final product turned out alright, but learned quickly that I need a script. I tried to just wing it, I'd said in my head several times the things I'd wanted to discuss on this topic while out for a run or on the treadmill. But once I clicked start and began rambling, I quickly realized I was all over the place. Once the script was written, I got my points laid out, it was a pretty simple process. Really like podomatic and its simplicity. Definitely want to make some more now. Just need to hope for long naps from the twins to get them done. My first one was breaking down point of view, bias, and motive for my students. It's so integral for my AP World students, crucial to understand for the DBQ essay as well just understanding any document or picture that we analyze. Too often students equate point of view is simply restating what someone said in a document, "they spoke out against the church so they're anti-religion" That unfortunately leaves out the ever-important "so what" Why did they speak out against the church, what's their bias, their motives that shape this view. What leads them to saying this, what is the context going on in the world around the speaker? So hopefully this will help a bit. I figure I'll do one on all of the historical skills that the course stresses as well as one on the 5 themes and the key concepts too.
Also had our school improvement summer retreat today. Nice to get out of the house and be a part of this group. But got some good pointers that I think I'm going to add in for next year. I definitely need to add in formative assessments. The course goes along so fast and I need to make sure that I'm doing my due diligence and making sure that I'm checking constantly to make sure that my students are understanding the skills and content. I also need to start using more anticipation guides, again to help my students take what they know and allow them to expand upon it and find out where I need to focus the most moving forward. I want to be more direct and intentional with what I'm doing and hopefully these will help. So time to start tweaking my syllabus and calendars around, but it was just the shot in the arm I needed to break up a stale run to summer. It's late, gonna run, thanks for reading as always.
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