Recap & More

So I apologize for not updating whatsoever over the past two weeks. These past few weeks have been ridiculously busy with curriculum mapping for professional development, administrative internship coming to a close (that Curriculum Mapping paper ended up being 26 pages), midterms being due, and life on top of that. So things have been a bit hectic.

But, to recap, way back when we finished up my “Growth of Cities” Unit by examining and analyzing city grids and talking about the different sections of a city. After that, each student had to create their own city using Google Sketch-Up a 3D rendering/architecture computer program. The “technology integration specialist” was ridiculously excited about what I was doing in class and help me out a lot with support and advice. She asked me if she could write about the project in her monthly newsletter for some educational technology thing. I said sure. She also bragged about me to the Academic Vice Principal who popped in on my class a few times to check out what the kids were doing. So that felt good, I had the support to know I was doing something right and somewhat impressive. (Below is a city I made when I was bored)

The kids also had to do an immigration project and trace back their family’s roots and immigration story. I students whose parents came from Ireland, Italy, Russia, Poland, Portugal, Greece, England, France, Spain, Lebanon, Syria, Morocco, Norway, Sweden, China, Thailand, Peru, Japan, Guatemala, Belize, and more so it was a good mix.

Some of the highlights:

• My great-great grandfather was kicked out of Norway because his dad thought he was a screw-up
• My great grandfather fled Italy because the Italian mafia was after him and his family
• 5 students’ families settled down in Medford, MA – kind of weird how many that happened to
• One girl refused to say her family was from Lebanon, she was embarrassed for some reason

I have had two students with concussions over the past month. One girl got in a car accident on the way to school and hit her head. Another girl is a soccer goalie and was kicked in the head so hard she had to get 20+ stitches in her eyebrow and the concussion was so bad for the past three weeks she hasn’t been able to

• Look at a computer
• Look at a projected computer image
• Use a cellphone
• Take tests/quizzes
• Take notes
• Do homework
• Read
• Be around loud noises 

She’s a wicked dedicated and hardworking student so it was really aggravating her that she couldn’t do anything in school. At one point she actually lied to all her teachers and said she could do work again but the guidance department quickly shot that one down. They say she should be fully back after Christmas Break. 

Words with Friends is a scrabble-like game people can play on their smartphones and ipod/ipads. So in study hall a few kids have been pretty competitive with it lately. Being bored, I decided to help a kid out who needed to play a word. The word I ended up helping him with scored him 75+ points which caused his friend he was playing (sitting next to him) to get wicked upset and started to whine and pout because I wasn’t helping him too. I tried to help him for the next couple rounds but I couldn’t get him any words that scored more than 15 points. Oh well.

Words with Friends is a scrabble-like game people can play on their smartphones and ipod/ipads. So in study hall a few kids have been pretty competitive with it lately. Being bored, I decided to help a kid out who needed to play a word. The word I ended up helping him with scored him 75+ points which caused his friend he was playing (sitting next to him) to get wicked upset and started to whine and pout because I wasn’t helping him too. I tried to help him for the next couple rounds but I couldn’t get him any words that scored more than 15 points. Oh well.

Last week we started covering WWI in class. Every time I teach the outbreak of WWI I like to teach it as if it was high school girl drama. In no way am I trying to make light of the situation of the war, but in order to understand the chaos and confusing of the time period – high school drama works as an analogy. It’s all about Amber (Austria) and Stacy (Serbia) who fight over Frank (Franz Ferdinand) and the chaos that ensues as a result. It really worked but my kids are getting a little sick of me lying to them so much to create a lesson. They haven’t really trusted me since the Abe Lincoln/cheating fiancée story. (Here's a conflict map to characterize the outbreak of the war)

We’ve covered the US standpoint at the start of the war, the beginning of US involvement, the war in Europe, trench warfare, submarine warfare, aerial combat, biological warfare, and the war at home. Today, we focused on propaganda. We talked about what it was and used modern day examples to explain how it evokes a specific message subtly (sometimes) and how it tries to get an emotional response from the audience (ie Sarah McLachlan ASPCA commercial). Then we went over different propaganda posters from WWI and talked about them for a class period.

One poster we looked at (below) tries to get men to feel guilty for not joining the war effort. I asked my students “what is the poster saying” trying to go for the overall message when one of the guys in the room enthusiastically yells “gee, I wish I were a man!” Only after he said it did he realize what he was actually saying and got ridiculously embarrassed. It was pretty hilarious.