Reaffirming thematic changes

Alright so today just reaffirmed what I've been thinking the past few weeks with rearranging the order of what and how I teach my world history class.  My 3rd block class is a bit chaotic this semester.  It's when we have lunch, and this is my class that has my socialites and attention seekers.  And it isn't just one or two, a third to half of them on any given day fit in these categories in a class of 30.  But today, we had some of the best discussions I've had as a teacher with this class.  And it wasn't because we did something super engaging and exciting, no simulations or projects.  Some quick notes, review and some videos to watch and reflect upon.

So why the difference, the topic.  We started really getting into the Cold War, and the students cared, they had questions, they realize that what we're now talking about ties into their lives today.  And I'm stoked about how the class went and then at the same time, a bit frustrated because there's only 15 days or so left in the entire semester and now I've finally got them seemingly hooked in.  And while certainly there are things I could have and perhaps should have done earlier to improve this, I do believe that waiting until the very end to discuss these topics doesn't do me any favors.  At least by starting out with this stuff early, it'll hopefully make the connections that much stronger too when we look to tie in things that happened long ago to more current events.

Teaching thematically.....part 2

Alright, so my latest scores and current classrooms have me looking to blow some things up!  I like using Canvas and have been much more hands on than I was last spring with actually teaching the content I feel, but am still not sure about how much is sticking.  I've tried some new techniques which I'll talk about in another blog coming up, but I really think some wholesale changes might be needed.  I really feel looking back that some of the best years I had teaching, and at least one of the years I felt the most confident in was when I switched things up and taught thematically.

Now this was middle school and those standards made teaching thematically relatively easy.  High school standards are a bit trickier as they're more chronologically driven.  But I don't think chronology is working, or at least I don't feel that moving away from it is going to be a detriment to my students.  Here are some of my concerns or at least my rationale as to why I want to move toward thematic.

1. For world history, the stigma is why should I care, how does this relate to me today?  Difficult to tie in certain eras and civilizations, and while I may care, students don't always.  By the time I get to the last 100 years, which the students at least have a clue about or care about as we get into current day issues, they're burned out and we're now just 3-4 weeks left in the class.  Switching to thematic allows me to start right away with current day issues & themes and hopefully get them engaged from the start.  (also on our final exams, current day is one of the units/periods they emphasize)
2. On that note of getting bogged down by the curriculum guides and going through everything chronologically.  So much gets cut or brushed upon.  There are some times where students can dig deep, but there appears to be much more breadth than much depth.  But again emphasis of standards talks about Renaissance and Middle Ages, but at best there will be a couple of questions on any of that at the end of year.
3. Personally I feel it is tougher to do much PBL or some critical thinking stuff.  I think that kind of stuff is what I should be teaching my students.  Especially in today's world with the needs for media literacy and learning key historical thinking skills, they seem to be pushed aside.  I know good teachers incorporate these, but many focus on content above all else.  I'd rather flip that.  Teach skills, use content to teach, practice, and reinforce them.
4. Lastly, I feel that there can be more choice, which hopefully will help foster more intrinsic learning from my students rather than "checking the box"  I'd like for none of my students to be in the Marshawn Lynch mode of "I'm just here so we don't get fined" and I think more choice, more relevance, and more opportunities to take what they learn and see it as usual can get me there.
5. I also feel that not enough human geography skills are in the course, again topics and issues that impact our students.  More on globalization, human interaction, migration, cultural identity, etc.

Now the big question is how to construct it.  Certainly some units are easier to tie together than others; trade, civilizations & state/empire building, and starting the year off with historical thinking skills/media literacy and current day world.  

So any and all insight or thoughts are welcome, leave them in comments or find me on twitter to discuss, would love to hear it all.  Thanks

Getting back in the groove of things here

Alright, so it's been awhile, life gets busy.  So big points are I'm going to try to blog more, like a lot more.  Decided to go for my National Board Certification too, so figure that some of the reflecting and what not I need to do for it, I can start putting in better practice with this blog.  Some of it will be just general stuff about what's going on in my classroom, others bigger picture stuff, hell some may be completely random.  Realized not everything I write needs to be pressworthy or even necessarily all that coherent.  So this is my first for the night, have another post coming, but if anyone reading has done their NBCT, would love to hear any advice or tips you have either in comments or tweet at me @amcrowe5