Reflecting on Youth Frontiers Respect Retreat

Today our sophomores all participated in the Youth Frontiers Respect Retreat. It was such an eye-opening experience for me, as an observer of the day rather than a participant. In all honesty, I had low expectations going into it. My students were skeptical, and I reminded them to try to keep an open mind-- and by the end of the day, they'll all probably be crying! Normally, I feel like "cheesy" or "corny" events like this won't resonate with my students. Sometimes I'm right, but I'm glad that today I was wrong.

Upon walking into the field house, I was so surprised to see the students all sitting in groups together-- like they never do this willingly in my class! In the morning they played fun team-building and relationship-building games. It was fun to watch the screaming contest and burping contest. I also it was Most of the kids really got into it, and at the very least, were willing participants.

The Youth Frontiers leaders also told some great stories with important and relevant morals, like acceptance and empathy; and one of the leaders-- Dan-- wrote and performed some great songs.

The last activity brought all of the sophomores together to think about and discuss what each person could do to improve their experience at Central. Would they choose to put effort into respecting themselves, respecting others, or standing up for someone else? After students reflected on this individually, students had the opportunity to grab the microphone and share what they wrote with the entire class.

I was nervous for this. It's so intimidating to stand up in front of all your peers and share your thoughts. However, many students did. And they had great perspectives to share. They spoke about the importance of respecting yourself in order to respect others, standing up for people being bullied, and showing respect to classmates to make Central better. Some students' comments brought tears to my eyes. It was so devastating to hear that they struggled, but also very heartwarming to see them take a chance and put themselves out there. It made me proud to teach these young adults, and proud to be a teacher at Central.

DEAR: Drop Everything and Reflect on Wednesday

I'm writing this blog post after a long and tiring day. My students were state testing in social studies during my class today (Wisconsin's Forward Exam), and it was rough. I can't wait until Day 2 of testing is OVER!!!

What worked?
Testing on computers is so much easier than on paper. I think that all standardized tests should be on the computer, including the ACT. I know that logistics may not make that possible, but it would be awesome.

What didn't work?
Testing on computers also sucks because I have to take all my students to the library to do it. This inherently causes extra conflict, because I'm moving students to a new location, with different people, and more distractions. My students were very distracted.

Additionally, my students didn't really put much effort into testing, which was disappointing for me. I know that part of it was because they don't really see a value in the test if it doesn't directly affect their grades. It's really hard to make students see value in something, when I don't even know what the value is.

What can I do about it?
In terms of the Forward Exam, I don't think there's much I can do to improve the value of the test, since I have little control over it. I'll have to spend more time brainstorming.

3 Good Things for March Madness Monday

Today was difficult. I wasn't feeling well, my lesson plan was less prepared than I wanted, and I forgot to bring a lunch. Additionally, we are still over three weeks out from Spring Break! I think I'm more excited for Spring Break than my students are.

Yes, today was difficult. But I made it through, as I do everyday. On tough days like today it is more important to find positive aspects in order to boost my morale. So I am jumping back into the "Three Good Things" format for today. Because I need it.

1. Attendance was amazing today! I strategically scheduled a quiz for today because I knew that after this weekend I would need a little break, and I wanted to give my students the weekend to review for the quiz. One thing I didn't consider was that attendance may actually be better on Mondays than other days of the week, like Fridays when I usually give tests. Thanks to the great attendance today, the vast majority of my students completed the vocabulary quiz! It's about the little wins sometimes...

2. I'm getting more involved in AVID at my school. My school's academic dean, and leader of AVID, asked me to help out with tutorial days on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It's not a super big or important job, but I'm super excited to learn more about AVID and play a slightly larger role in AVID at my school.

3. A lot of my Freshman know a decent amount about World War I. I gave my students a quick pre-quiz on WWI vs. WWII today. Basically I gave them a list of topics, events, people, etc. and they had to differentiate them between the World Wars. Most of my students got about half correct, which was awesome. The pre-quiz gave me a much better idea of what my students know (which happens to be bit) so I can be a better teacher to them.

Professioal Development Day

Today we had a professional development day during which I watched a documentary called Most Likely to Succeed. This documentary was basically a case study of High Tech High, a charter school in San Diego, California. High Tech High utilizes project based learning and does not adhere to state and national standards. The documentary shows that this concept has both strengths and weaknesses, which were interesting to explore throughout the film.

The leader of the film session, the district's Instructional Technology Specialist, provided us with many reflection questions and resources to consider during and after the documentary.

I found High Tech High's story to be highly engaging and interesting, however, the real world quickly came crashing down on me. My school in particular, has a lack of resources, state standards to follow, and community constraints. Though I was inspired by Most Likely to Succeed, the reality of my situation prevented me from truly buying into the message.

Relevance, personalization and meaning are words used more and more frequently to describe high quality student learning experiences.

How do these words resonate with or relate to the work you do as a teacher?

These words definitely resonate with me as a teacher, especially in my goals and learning targets for lessons and units. Relevance is the concept that I work hardest on in my instructional planning so far this year. I try my best to make the content I teach in history as relevant to modern issues and student lives as possible. 

However, this is not easy. I find myself to be a little out of touch with my students' cultures, though I am not much older than them. However, I found during Election 2016 it was somewhat easy to raise the topics of politics and social issues. And when discussing the Black Death, I related it back to the recent Ebola problems of the last few years.

Basically, though it's not easy, I MUST MAKE MY CONTENT RELEVANT TO MY STUDENTS.

That is the moral of my story today-- I'm going to work hard to make my subject relevant and though I may not always be successful, all I can do is try.

3 Ways I Get News

Admittedly, I find myself reading the news through Facebook a lot more than I should. With all of the #fakenews abound, I've really got to be careful about getting it from Facebook. However, getting news from FB isn't all bad, and can be a great way to dip your toes in the massive ocean of national and international news.

As a government teacher, I have to be well-read on all current events, and be knowledgeable about ALL perspectives of news outlets. Here are some *legit* ways I get my news:

1. I get The Skimm. This is my go-to every morning when I get up. The Skimm sends you an email every morning with updates on the news, including jokes, quotes, and hashtags. It's the best way to introduce yourself to reading the news, because it's short, explains everything, and uses verbiage that pretty much every person will easily understand.

2. I read The Hill. This is my favorite site for up-to-the-minute news without much bias. I really appreciate that the Hill's perspective and tone is mostly "center" biased, with readers who are both liberal and conservative. If you want the facts, this is the place to go.

3. I follow news outlets with multiple perspectives. Though it would be comfortable to stay within my own ideological box when it comes to reading news, it's BETTER to also read articles written by sites that represent views that are different from mine. Many Americans are disappointed in how polarized our government has become, but part of that is due to the polarization of the American people. This is because we surround ourselves with views just like our own. We read news that shares our views, we discuss with people who share our views, and we get into pointless shouting matches with people who don't share our views. In order to move our politics back toward the center we have to begin immersing ourselves in perspectives that are outside of our comfort zones. It will make us all more empathetic citizens. #Illgetoffmysoapboxnow

We've made it through February

The road through February is looooong.

Can we all just agree that February is like the worst month ever? I am SO GLAD it's over. SO SO SO GLAD.

But now it's March, and Spring Break is somewhat in sight (only like 37 days!). This time of the year is stressful, depressing, frustrating and tiring all in one. But some good things happened in February, so I can't complain too much (though I did notice I complained a lot more in February than in other months).

1. I am forming some great bonds with my students. This seems to be the time of year when students become more "attached" to teachers, and I actually feel like some of my current students might like and appreciate me. Some students even stand up for me when other students do rude stuff! That seriously feels so nice-- I can't think of anything else that compares to it.

2. I'm in a book club/study. An assistant principal at my school is leading a small book study with a few of us teachers, Innovator's Mindset. I really enjoy being part of this book club because we all share similar mindsets on education, and it's really inspiring to work with them. I cannot overstate the value in reading books with other people (who are similar to you!). It really improves my outlook!

3. My boyfriend came to visit. I don't get to see Chris too often because he lives out of state (for now hopefully!), so I really try to take advantage of the times he does get to come back. I hadn't seen him since Christmas Break. It definitely adds more "stress" to my life not being able to see him or spend time with him. However, it does make me value the time I do have with him so much more.