Wow! So interesting. Also, when I type "Phisto," my phone changes it to History, which is perfect 😆 You and coldsummer1816 teach History, Holly teaches English -- when I was in 9th grade, Social Studies class was where we discussed current events! Those kids are lucky to have you as their teachers.
I really appreciate and look forward to your posts. I teach sixth, seventh, and eighth grade social studies. I started last year after spending several years teaching elementary and I much prefer the middle grades - they are developmentally at a stage where they are instinctively oppositional, which suits my own personality.
It’s amazing how much you can accomplish and how much you can wake kids up by being enthusiastic about the subject matter. Like your ninth graders, my sixth graders arrive to me as complete novices - because of the standardized test obsession, most of them come to me having never had social studies instruction (!), and so 80% or more are unable even to locate our state on a map when they get to me. I try to strike a balance between “knowing the facts” and deeper thinking, especially since my students come to me without any historical, economic, or geographic knowledge or historical thinking skills. I am required to teach American history but pepper in lessons on other major historical or current events with similar themes or that are necessary to explaining causes of events in the U.S. (ex: we study the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars with the Louisiana Purchase and study the Enlightenment before learning about the Declaration of Independence). We study differences between modern American regions and their landscapes and economies, and I give quizzes which require students to memorize the names and locations of the fifty states, as well as the continents and oceans, etc. It’s out of vogue to require memorization but I find it to be valuable in helping kids understand how to remember information and we talk through explicit strategies for creating schemas to make the information more easily retrievable. Knowing also helps them to feel powerful, especially when they can apply the basic geographic facts to understanding a historical event we are studying.
My favorite activity I have started doing to wrap up a lesson is called “ten second takes.” I pose a question based on the day’s lesson and a random student begins, and gets ten seconds to articulate their opinion about the topic. Anyone in the class can raise their hand to rebut or elaborate on their point, also in ten seconds (I use a loud timer to add urgency and drama). For example, this past week my eighth graders studied the Mexican-American War, and I asked if they believed James K. Polk had a good idea in starting the war. I like the activity because it forces them to think on their feet; one kid said that “getting California and New Mexico was a good idea and good for the US but the country should not have gone to war to steal it from Mexico” and a couple of kids immediately pointed out that he offered to pay for it, and that he was positing an option that did not exist in reality: the US could either fight and win the land, or not fight and go on without it. It was a proud teacher moment for me. Like you, I am now at a point where kids ask me about what we are going to learn that day when I see them in the hallway. They come to me with questions about current events. I think they like me because I really try hard to avoid dumbing down or moralizing situations.
Really great to hear from someone else in a similar position who is making it work and enjoying their job despite the amount of nonsense going on in the education system at large. Hope your year continues to be great - your students are lucky to have you. And please keep posting about teaching - there are so few voices of happy and intelligent teachers out there.
Thank you so much! You are truly one of a kind!!! I don’t know how you do it 5 days a week. As a Sub in different classes different schools it is hard for me to make real connections but I do try if I see a real opportunity. My style is sort of in your face like yours but also a mix of Grandma just wants to see her babies smile and give her some conversation. It is hard to help with assignments that are on their computers without breathing over their shoulders. But I move from one to another to finally get an idea of the task at hand. Tell me if you think this was a little much mix of 11th and 12th graders whose eyes just glazed over when they ( the ones that did) actually pulled up the task. Compare and contrast two poems and write a 300 word essay on the Poetic devices and structures used to express art, culture and society. The poems were “ Ode on a Grecian Urn” and “ Facing It”. My friend these are students who don’t know how to make paragraphs or remember to capitalize the first word of a sentence. I showed them the chart on the wall and said without even reading these two poems just knowing a few basic facts about them such as the author and the year it was written and the object of art it is about I can give you a good into with a great hook!! Let’s have some fun! I did I had a great time. And surprisingly a few girls brought me up some good writing of course it needed a lot of cleaning up but they got the idea no matter what century there is significance in Art it is an expression of beauty. Art reflects the culture and society in which it was made whether it is a structure, a painting, pottery, poem, music etc. and as Keats says Beauty is timeless and sometimes it is enough. Love and peace to you my friend
Amazing, best yet. I just wish all educators acted and saw the world like this and I wouldn't feel so compelled to home school my kids. And was an excellent piece of writing too. Thank you
Thanks for the memory prompt. Uncle Maxie was a Navy boxing instructor during WWII, taught Latin and absolutely loved Roman history. He could name every Roman emperor, their terms and the order in which they held them. He was also a high school principal down in Fayetteville, NC, where he and his brothers grew up including Dad of course. He and Dad were influential in my being in what turned out to be one of the last Latin high school courses in the state. “You get B’s in Latin, you’ll get A’s in English.” It was true.
He had a stroke working by himself on his own experimental peanut farm while digging out a stump. He drove himself to the hospital but the damage was done and he was no longer independent his care falling to his oldest daughter, Maxine. The last thing I did for him was to prepare a list of his beloved Roman emperors in large type so that he could read it. His vision was fragmented as he described it by the stroke and the large type helped him to piece together what he was seeing.
You and Uncle Maxie could have been soulmates it sounds like to me.
Uncle Maxie was the perfect high school principal at the time being an accomplished pugilist whose philosophy formed in the realities of the Great Depression if you get my drift. Dealing with those young ‘bipedal billy goats’ was second nature to them including my brother and I when we reached that stage where puberty scrambles the brain rendering making good decisions more difficult. 🎶Don’t pull the mask on the old Lone Ranger…🎶. 🤣😩 They were brothers indeed. I think that is why I like Secondhand Lions so much.
I didn't have teachers like you, so what got me into History was Pournelle and his thinly veiled stories of the Nika Revolt and other battles presented as the annals of Folkenberg's legion. And David Drake, to a lesser degree.
Wow! So interesting. Also, when I type "Phisto," my phone changes it to History, which is perfect 😆 You and coldsummer1816 teach History, Holly teaches English -- when I was in 9th grade, Social Studies class was where we discussed current events! Those kids are lucky to have you as their teachers.
I really appreciate and look forward to your posts. I teach sixth, seventh, and eighth grade social studies. I started last year after spending several years teaching elementary and I much prefer the middle grades - they are developmentally at a stage where they are instinctively oppositional, which suits my own personality.
It’s amazing how much you can accomplish and how much you can wake kids up by being enthusiastic about the subject matter. Like your ninth graders, my sixth graders arrive to me as complete novices - because of the standardized test obsession, most of them come to me having never had social studies instruction (!), and so 80% or more are unable even to locate our state on a map when they get to me. I try to strike a balance between “knowing the facts” and deeper thinking, especially since my students come to me without any historical, economic, or geographic knowledge or historical thinking skills. I am required to teach American history but pepper in lessons on other major historical or current events with similar themes or that are necessary to explaining causes of events in the U.S. (ex: we study the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars with the Louisiana Purchase and study the Enlightenment before learning about the Declaration of Independence). We study differences between modern American regions and their landscapes and economies, and I give quizzes which require students to memorize the names and locations of the fifty states, as well as the continents and oceans, etc. It’s out of vogue to require memorization but I find it to be valuable in helping kids understand how to remember information and we talk through explicit strategies for creating schemas to make the information more easily retrievable. Knowing also helps them to feel powerful, especially when they can apply the basic geographic facts to understanding a historical event we are studying.
My favorite activity I have started doing to wrap up a lesson is called “ten second takes.” I pose a question based on the day’s lesson and a random student begins, and gets ten seconds to articulate their opinion about the topic. Anyone in the class can raise their hand to rebut or elaborate on their point, also in ten seconds (I use a loud timer to add urgency and drama). For example, this past week my eighth graders studied the Mexican-American War, and I asked if they believed James K. Polk had a good idea in starting the war. I like the activity because it forces them to think on their feet; one kid said that “getting California and New Mexico was a good idea and good for the US but the country should not have gone to war to steal it from Mexico” and a couple of kids immediately pointed out that he offered to pay for it, and that he was positing an option that did not exist in reality: the US could either fight and win the land, or not fight and go on without it. It was a proud teacher moment for me. Like you, I am now at a point where kids ask me about what we are going to learn that day when I see them in the hallway. They come to me with questions about current events. I think they like me because I really try hard to avoid dumbing down or moralizing situations.
Really great to hear from someone else in a similar position who is making it work and enjoying their job despite the amount of nonsense going on in the education system at large. Hope your year continues to be great - your students are lucky to have you. And please keep posting about teaching - there are so few voices of happy and intelligent teachers out there.
Thanks for stopping in! Really happy to hear about you and your work.
Thank you so much! You are truly one of a kind!!! I don’t know how you do it 5 days a week. As a Sub in different classes different schools it is hard for me to make real connections but I do try if I see a real opportunity. My style is sort of in your face like yours but also a mix of Grandma just wants to see her babies smile and give her some conversation. It is hard to help with assignments that are on their computers without breathing over their shoulders. But I move from one to another to finally get an idea of the task at hand. Tell me if you think this was a little much mix of 11th and 12th graders whose eyes just glazed over when they ( the ones that did) actually pulled up the task. Compare and contrast two poems and write a 300 word essay on the Poetic devices and structures used to express art, culture and society. The poems were “ Ode on a Grecian Urn” and “ Facing It”. My friend these are students who don’t know how to make paragraphs or remember to capitalize the first word of a sentence. I showed them the chart on the wall and said without even reading these two poems just knowing a few basic facts about them such as the author and the year it was written and the object of art it is about I can give you a good into with a great hook!! Let’s have some fun! I did I had a great time. And surprisingly a few girls brought me up some good writing of course it needed a lot of cleaning up but they got the idea no matter what century there is significance in Art it is an expression of beauty. Art reflects the culture and society in which it was made whether it is a structure, a painting, pottery, poem, music etc. and as Keats says Beauty is timeless and sometimes it is enough. Love and peace to you my friend
So you’re like a hero
I get it now
On my better days.
Amazing, best yet. I just wish all educators acted and saw the world like this and I wouldn't feel so compelled to home school my kids. And was an excellent piece of writing too. Thank you
Glad it resonated, Dave. Happy to hear you home school your kids. Gotta do what’s best!
Thanks for the memory prompt. Uncle Maxie was a Navy boxing instructor during WWII, taught Latin and absolutely loved Roman history. He could name every Roman emperor, their terms and the order in which they held them. He was also a high school principal down in Fayetteville, NC, where he and his brothers grew up including Dad of course. He and Dad were influential in my being in what turned out to be one of the last Latin high school courses in the state. “You get B’s in Latin, you’ll get A’s in English.” It was true.
He had a stroke working by himself on his own experimental peanut farm while digging out a stump. He drove himself to the hospital but the damage was done and he was no longer independent his care falling to his oldest daughter, Maxine. The last thing I did for him was to prepare a list of his beloved Roman emperors in large type so that he could read it. His vision was fragmented as he described it by the stroke and the large type helped him to piece together what he was seeing.
You and Uncle Maxie could have been soulmates it sounds like to me.
Let’s see if any of the “peanut gallery” zoomers et al know what a pugilist is. 😈
Uncle Maxie was the perfect high school principal at the time being an accomplished pugilist whose philosophy formed in the realities of the Great Depression if you get my drift. Dealing with those young ‘bipedal billy goats’ was second nature to them including my brother and I when we reached that stage where puberty scrambles the brain rendering making good decisions more difficult. 🎶Don’t pull the mask on the old Lone Ranger…🎶. 🤣😩 They were brothers indeed. I think that is why I like Secondhand Lions so much.
Didn't know you operated behind enemy lines.
Indeed. I didn't name it The Partisan for nothing. ;)
I like this teaching style. My gpa would say something like if you throw enough shit against the wall it will stick! Your students are lucky.
I am a shit cannon. Haha!
And it does work. Just takes patience.
Wow!
I didn't have teachers like you, so what got me into History was Pournelle and his thinly veiled stories of the Nika Revolt and other battles presented as the annals of Folkenberg's legion. And David Drake, to a lesser degree.
These days, it'd be Sabaton.
Amazing. Truly. You’re digging in ways many college teachers wouldn’t. Very cool you have the license to do this. Sounds like a match made in heaven.