So I was at a staff meeting and was called out as someone that trains for marathons (which isn't quite true, but come March 2 that box will be checked and I will have run one finally). Anyway the point was we looked at the training schedule for someone preparing for a marathon and the analogy was we don't cram all of our miles into the last weeks or two, and similarly we shouldn't be cramming in all of our content in at the last minute either when preparing for our exams.
I get and understand the premise of this but I'm not sure it's entirely true. Most teachers (I'm assuming here I know) don't try to cram all their material in at the end of their respective courses but they do want to use those last few days to review. Now, should those last few days just be doing practice exams, no of course not. And with the analogy, it's correct, those are things that should be done earlier on and not done all at the end of the year/semester.
But proper training requires those last few days before the race to be your tune-up. You still strength train and run a few miles during that last week to prepare. Just as you still work on and refine the skills and content you've taught all year. Should it be more than just practice exams and kahoot games, sure. But the point of this wasn't about refining how we review, it was avoid cramming and basically lighten up during that last week. I'm not I agree with that mindset, especially when many teachers unfortunately go from day 1 until exams teaching content. In history it is especially difficult because we're always left having to cut content and hoping that what we neglect or only brush upon isn't a main point of emphasis on the test.
I don't know if I had a point to all this, but it bugged me enough to write about it. Certainly what we do as teachers should constantly be interwoven as best we can throughout our year, but a balance should exist at the end, review and "strength training" until the end is necessary. Even if it kind of kills this cool analogy
Any ideas or thoughts about this concept, I'd love to hear them in comments to discuss or you can find me on twitter
Monday, December 31, 2018
Dusting this off
So I remembered that I had a blog, who knew right.
It was funny looking at some of my old posts, sad that I haven't written since January of last year. I feel like every year recently I say I want/need to write/blog more that lasts maybe a week or so. I'm hopeful that I can be better but it is tough, life gets in the way and this always gets pushed back. But I do have a couple thoughts things to write about for now, so I'll get those down to remember.
It is interesting to see my teaching journey through these blogs. Last time I wrote, I was in the midst of switching around my pacing guide for world history and teaching thematically. Now I no longer even teach world history, as I am fully immersed in the IB program at my school. I only technically teach one social studies class anymore, with History of the Americas. I have also taken over Theory of Knowledge, which is a really cool class but challenging because there isn't really any guide or proper way to teach it. It offers great flexibility but there is always that fear of teaching through your own lens of what matters and is important rather than what IB decides is important. Some things have been good with the new classes so far, some not so much. With it being a two year course, it's a bit easier for my seniors because they have their assessments to prepare for and write so I have some structure for them.
That'll be it for now, off to grade some work over break, my students had to live blog from the constitutional convention which was a fun activity and there will be some good ones coming up for History in the Americas. I feel like I have a decent balance between teaching the content and finding different ways to have them show their creativity and analytical skills. Plus now they begin their historical investigation process so that will help any excess time we may have from time to time. The writing will be a challenge with this crew but that's what I've signed up for, so the fun begins. Lots to review for it and TOK II, lots of reading and grading for the next couple of months. Perhaps being in this mindset will push me to write on here more often or join back up with the conversations on twitter. Working to find some better balance with this where I can do more with this but not at the expense of time away from my family. I have figured out how to do this with incorporating running into my daily routines, so this can be the next piece for me.
We'll see, I'll either write again shortly or in a few months, who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It was funny looking at some of my old posts, sad that I haven't written since January of last year. I feel like every year recently I say I want/need to write/blog more that lasts maybe a week or so. I'm hopeful that I can be better but it is tough, life gets in the way and this always gets pushed back. But I do have a couple thoughts things to write about for now, so I'll get those down to remember.
It is interesting to see my teaching journey through these blogs. Last time I wrote, I was in the midst of switching around my pacing guide for world history and teaching thematically. Now I no longer even teach world history, as I am fully immersed in the IB program at my school. I only technically teach one social studies class anymore, with History of the Americas. I have also taken over Theory of Knowledge, which is a really cool class but challenging because there isn't really any guide or proper way to teach it. It offers great flexibility but there is always that fear of teaching through your own lens of what matters and is important rather than what IB decides is important. Some things have been good with the new classes so far, some not so much. With it being a two year course, it's a bit easier for my seniors because they have their assessments to prepare for and write so I have some structure for them.
That'll be it for now, off to grade some work over break, my students had to live blog from the constitutional convention which was a fun activity and there will be some good ones coming up for History in the Americas. I feel like I have a decent balance between teaching the content and finding different ways to have them show their creativity and analytical skills. Plus now they begin their historical investigation process so that will help any excess time we may have from time to time. The writing will be a challenge with this crew but that's what I've signed up for, so the fun begins. Lots to review for it and TOK II, lots of reading and grading for the next couple of months. Perhaps being in this mindset will push me to write on here more often or join back up with the conversations on twitter. Working to find some better balance with this where I can do more with this but not at the expense of time away from my family. I have figured out how to do this with incorporating running into my daily routines, so this can be the next piece for me.
We'll see, I'll either write again shortly or in a few months, who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Friday, January 27, 2017
4 Days In...Thematic Teaching
So we've taken the plunge. The course is redone and so far, so good I think. I guess I'll go through and explain the break down first before we get to week 1 here.
So after reaching out to some other teachers and bouncing some ideas off of them on this padlet and talking with one of my colleagues here at CHS, I put together these 6 units.
I decided to take this broad approach with my themes, this way too some information will be brought up in multiple units too, to help students remember some of these things rather than we go over them for a few days early in the semester and we never think about Ancient civilizations until review time right before the test.
The thought process too was in some of these units, I can give the students more of a choice for what they wanted to learn about rather than have it all be mandated for them. The goal with a lot of this do a lot of comparison work too as we'll be covering a lot of topics at once, and we can look for patterns, similarities and differences and analyze like that rather than just seemingly learning about all of these different people, places, and events and viewing them more in isolation. The units aren't equal as far as time devoted to them either, so we can really stress the conflicts & wars before the exam, as well as key figures and movements in the Intellectuals unit which is also during 2nd semester.
It also allows me to bring back a couple of projects that I really enjoyed and hopefully will have success with. My last year teaching middle school, we did tournament projects that I felt went really well, same with my after the AP exam project. I haven't been able to fit it in really to a regular world class but now it'll be the backdrop to our Intellectuals unit. I also get to bring some things I did in AP World and tweak them to now fit these classes like my Comparative Religions Project, and do some change and continuity over time things with my classes. The goal certainly is to not see history as so static and to make things as relative as possible.
I know there will be holes and I'll miss some key things, but this first week has gone really well. I think avoiding some of the early struggles like going back to starting with early civilizations has helped. We've used current events to look at historical skills. In just 4 days, we've looked at point of view, sourcing, corroboration, how things go viral using examples from just two months ago along with media bias. We're already through terrorism, and the posters my students made have been really good. And this was done with in less time than last semester had to complete there's. We start globalization and human rights next week, but if I have 17 more weeks like this first one, it's going to be an outstanding semester.
So after reaching out to some other teachers and bouncing some ideas off of them on this padlet and talking with one of my colleagues here at CHS, I put together these 6 units.
- Historical Thinking Skills & the Modern Era
- State-Building
- Religion
- Trade
- Intellectuals
- Conflict & War
I decided to take this broad approach with my themes, this way too some information will be brought up in multiple units too, to help students remember some of these things rather than we go over them for a few days early in the semester and we never think about Ancient civilizations until review time right before the test.
The thought process too was in some of these units, I can give the students more of a choice for what they wanted to learn about rather than have it all be mandated for them. The goal with a lot of this do a lot of comparison work too as we'll be covering a lot of topics at once, and we can look for patterns, similarities and differences and analyze like that rather than just seemingly learning about all of these different people, places, and events and viewing them more in isolation. The units aren't equal as far as time devoted to them either, so we can really stress the conflicts & wars before the exam, as well as key figures and movements in the Intellectuals unit which is also during 2nd semester.
It also allows me to bring back a couple of projects that I really enjoyed and hopefully will have success with. My last year teaching middle school, we did tournament projects that I felt went really well, same with my after the AP exam project. I haven't been able to fit it in really to a regular world class but now it'll be the backdrop to our Intellectuals unit. I also get to bring some things I did in AP World and tweak them to now fit these classes like my Comparative Religions Project, and do some change and continuity over time things with my classes. The goal certainly is to not see history as so static and to make things as relative as possible.
I know there will be holes and I'll miss some key things, but this first week has gone really well. I think avoiding some of the early struggles like going back to starting with early civilizations has helped. We've used current events to look at historical skills. In just 4 days, we've looked at point of view, sourcing, corroboration, how things go viral using examples from just two months ago along with media bias. We're already through terrorism, and the posters my students made have been really good. And this was done with in less time than last semester had to complete there's. We start globalization and human rights next week, but if I have 17 more weeks like this first one, it's going to be an outstanding semester.
Tuesday, December 20, 2016
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.
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.
Monday, December 5, 2016
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.
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.
- 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)
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
Friday, June 10, 2016
Reflecting on an......interesting year
I'm not exactly sure where to start this or where it'll end up as I think upon this year. It probably doesn't help that they're using my room right now for graduation practice and so I have a couple dozen antzy seniors in here. This year has been interesting to say the least. I'm going to do my best not to rant and complain (I've done that enough I feel) here. So I'll do my best to stay on point with lessons learned here.
I'll start with my AP class, just in case I'm fortunate to teach AP World again. I was able to implement so new stuff this year, the questions of the day were more frequent and good bell ringers. I did more with analyzing art and I thought that went well. I wish I could have been there to get into more contemporary pieces, especially Guernica by Picasso. We got to the writing a lot earlier than I had the prior year, and I think/hope that helped. I know there was certainly a good sized gap during the winter, but I think hitting the writing early helped as I saw some improvements in just the 3-4 months I was there to oversee things. I also think the blog style homework did well. I think I need to be a bit more specific for its purpose in the writing process, but it was a good way to get the students introduced to some good outside readings, cover some of the crash course material, etc. That said, I know I still missed covering some things that I really had hoped to, like the Easter Island statues and some of the Polynesian migration. I think I was still getting a feel for pacing and making sure that I cover a lot while trying not spend too much time to one place that in all honesty might have been covered in 1-2 questions tops. I'm looking at you Greece and Rome. I'm interested to see how the course changes go and shape AP World too.
As for the second semester, being able to look back now, it was definitely a learning experience. I was definitely unhappy/frustrated during good chunks of the year. Disappointed that the school I came too wasn't close to what my expectations of it were. Disappointed at the negativity and seeming apathy I came across in fellow teachers and administrators. I know that this isn't anything new, but it made me appreciate the work that my previous school did to not only have competent teachers, but I think they made it a point for the group to be one that worked together, wasn't afraid to challenge one another, but also for the most part genuinely liked one another. We could all (or mostly) could hang out after work, eat lunch together, and it made coming in a lot easier day in day out. I know that is something that as I look at potential other schools that it is a question I need to be upfront about. I want to work with those that I not only like, but that will push be to be better. I don't think I have that here, and it's unfortunate since there is certainly potential.
As for in the classroom, I underestimated the changes to some extent and took the easy way too often. Moving to standard level classes, I had the mindset that I wouldn't "dumb" down the course or material because it wasn't honors. I'm proud that I stuck with that, and most followed through and did well. In all honesty, I think my class worked a lot harder and did more than the honors class did. Hopefully they got more out of it too, their final exam scores are at a spot where I am pleased. We will see what almighty EVAAS says about their growth, I hope it was similar to what I accomplished last year. But it was challenging, I had some work that some students could do in 15 minutes while others struggled to get it done in 50. I moved the class to mostly online since all the students had Macbooks, and that was good but I definitely could do better. More forms, kahoots, or socrative formative assessments or reviews. I'm not sure I stopped very often along the way to check what all they were learning, or more importantly seeing if they put it into the larger historical puzzle. I also just gave up a couple things because I didn't push them or got lazy. I was going to do current event stuff, more tie-ins to make it relevant, but after the first week, it felt forced, the students didn't really care, and rather than fixing it, I just trashed it. I think if I continue on block, it's something I need to do more with. Even if it is smaller topic (ie. a Last Week Tonight kind of thing) I think I should do this going forward. Make students more aware, etc.
That's all I got for now, I'm sure throughout the summer I'll put some of my ideas down to paper, especially once I figure out what (and maybe where) I'm teaching.
I'll start with my AP class, just in case I'm fortunate to teach AP World again. I was able to implement so new stuff this year, the questions of the day were more frequent and good bell ringers. I did more with analyzing art and I thought that went well. I wish I could have been there to get into more contemporary pieces, especially Guernica by Picasso. We got to the writing a lot earlier than I had the prior year, and I think/hope that helped. I know there was certainly a good sized gap during the winter, but I think hitting the writing early helped as I saw some improvements in just the 3-4 months I was there to oversee things. I also think the blog style homework did well. I think I need to be a bit more specific for its purpose in the writing process, but it was a good way to get the students introduced to some good outside readings, cover some of the crash course material, etc. That said, I know I still missed covering some things that I really had hoped to, like the Easter Island statues and some of the Polynesian migration. I think I was still getting a feel for pacing and making sure that I cover a lot while trying not spend too much time to one place that in all honesty might have been covered in 1-2 questions tops. I'm looking at you Greece and Rome. I'm interested to see how the course changes go and shape AP World too.
As for the second semester, being able to look back now, it was definitely a learning experience. I was definitely unhappy/frustrated during good chunks of the year. Disappointed that the school I came too wasn't close to what my expectations of it were. Disappointed at the negativity and seeming apathy I came across in fellow teachers and administrators. I know that this isn't anything new, but it made me appreciate the work that my previous school did to not only have competent teachers, but I think they made it a point for the group to be one that worked together, wasn't afraid to challenge one another, but also for the most part genuinely liked one another. We could all (or mostly) could hang out after work, eat lunch together, and it made coming in a lot easier day in day out. I know that is something that as I look at potential other schools that it is a question I need to be upfront about. I want to work with those that I not only like, but that will push be to be better. I don't think I have that here, and it's unfortunate since there is certainly potential.
As for in the classroom, I underestimated the changes to some extent and took the easy way too often. Moving to standard level classes, I had the mindset that I wouldn't "dumb" down the course or material because it wasn't honors. I'm proud that I stuck with that, and most followed through and did well. In all honesty, I think my class worked a lot harder and did more than the honors class did. Hopefully they got more out of it too, their final exam scores are at a spot where I am pleased. We will see what almighty EVAAS says about their growth, I hope it was similar to what I accomplished last year. But it was challenging, I had some work that some students could do in 15 minutes while others struggled to get it done in 50. I moved the class to mostly online since all the students had Macbooks, and that was good but I definitely could do better. More forms, kahoots, or socrative formative assessments or reviews. I'm not sure I stopped very often along the way to check what all they were learning, or more importantly seeing if they put it into the larger historical puzzle. I also just gave up a couple things because I didn't push them or got lazy. I was going to do current event stuff, more tie-ins to make it relevant, but after the first week, it felt forced, the students didn't really care, and rather than fixing it, I just trashed it. I think if I continue on block, it's something I need to do more with. Even if it is smaller topic (ie. a Last Week Tonight kind of thing) I think I should do this going forward. Make students more aware, etc.
That's all I got for now, I'm sure throughout the summer I'll put some of my ideas down to paper, especially once I figure out what (and maybe where) I'm teaching.
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