We are simply "Skipping a Stone" across U.S. History

 I talk with my students all the time about all of the U.S. History events that are contained in our 8th-grade Content Level Expectations set by the Michigan Department of Education. 
(CLICK HERE for Marzano Style Lesson Design)

I also try to explain the fact that what we cover is "One-inch deep and a mile wide on a vast lake of knowledge." Meaning that we cover a variety of topics from the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the War of 1812, the U.S. Civil War, Reconstruction, etc. but we don't go too deep into any of them. We cover all of those topics (and more) in a nine-month school year, whereas we could spend a semester on each of them individually. I guess that's what college is for.

I try to link events together by using a TIME WEB on my board. Right now it is just a visual of what it could look like. Next year I want to fill it in with actual events showing how certain events are linked to other events and how personal experiences helped shape our history, just like our personal experiences shape the way we live our lives.

Continuing with my, "One-inch deep and a mile wide" analogy, sometimes I feel like we are simply skipping a stone across the vastness of U.S. History. We are just skimming the surface on certain topics while ignoring the depth underneath. I try to make the biggest waves, while also acknowledging the ripple effects and how, when they collide with ripples from other stone touches, other events were born.

My hope is that on the topics we do dive deeper on, specifically the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, I am providing the bedrock that our Nation is founded on so that my students will have a better understanding of our History when we only have time to skip that rock.

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Stop saying, "I'm sorry."

Before you demand an apology from me...read on.

I didn't say, stop apologizing. I said, stop saying, "I'm sorry."

There is a more meaningful way to apologize.

Let's use an example to drive this point home.

Sam and Bill are both 3rd graders in the same class.

Sam walks over to Bill's desk, takes his pudding cup, and starts eating it. When Bill gets back from the water fountain, he sees Sam with a smile on his face as well as some of his pudding.  Bill is MAD and SAD! I would be too...I love pudding!

Bill starts crying and their teacher walks over to investigate. After about seven seconds, the truth is clear. The teacher reprimands Sam and he tucks his chin into his chest with a scowl on his face and says, "I'm sorry" as he storms away. 

Bill is still crying, Sam is upset that he got yelled at, and nothing has been rectified. On top of that, Bill and Sam will probably not be friends for the rest of the day.

Sam apologized, but it didn't mean anything. He said it because he knew he was supposed to, but it didn't have any meaning, feeling, or sincerity behind it. It was a "fire and forget" apology that did nothing to show remorse, support the healing of Bill, or mend their friendship.

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When something happens where an apology is warranted, there was usually a power imbalance in which the person who did the wrong thing took power away from whoever was wronged. In this case, Sam took the power away from Bill by taking his pudding cup and eating it. Bill was wronged by Sam. Let's see how we can remedy this power imbalance by having Sam apologize in a more meaningful way. 

Sam says to Bill, "Bill. Please forgive me for taking your pudding cup and eating it."

Sam, who originally had the power advantage, just tipped the scale in Sam's direction by the way he worded his apology. Sam is now at the mercy of Bill and his choice to forgive him or not for the infraction. Even though he will not get his pudding cup back, the ball is now in his court and he gets to make the decision, not Sam. 

He did not have a choice to eat his pudding cup. That choice was taken away from him. But he has a choice now. The scale will be tipped in Bill's favor until he makes the choice to balance it again by forgiving Sam. 

How we apologize and forgive each other can be very shallow with the "fire and forget" form of, "I'm sorry," or it can be meaningful and sincere by shifting the power imbalance to the injured person and allowing them to shift the scale back to zero. By placing meaning, feeling, and sincerity behind an apology, it will also speed up the healing process and let us get back to being friends, and hopefully eating pudding!

Try this technique the next time you have to apologize for something. You will feel a twinge of uneasiness as you realize you have given up all power on whether you will be forgiven or not. That decision is not up to you. It is up to the person you wronged. 

Time Web

 While I love teaching 8th grade U.S. History, I do with I hade more time so that my content wasn't, "a mile wide and an inch deep." So many of our topics are intertwined and deeper than the one or two days we get to spend on them. I am trying desperately to make connections in history stick together.
Enter:

The TIME WEB

I talk to my students all the time about how the points in history that we study are all interrelated. History isn't so much a TIMELINE as it is a TIME WEB, with events linking to other events happening at the same time, in the future, and in the past.

Today in class was a great example. While talking about the Missouri compromise and California statehood, a bunch of different points in history that we have already learned about came into play. Thomas Cobb, James Tallmadge, and John Q. Adams all predicted the civil war decades before it would take place.

We brought up the revolt of Nat Turner and how that led to first amendment issues in Mississippi when them offering a reward for the arrest and conviction of any person "who shall utter, publish, or circulate" abolitionist ideas.

We talked about how the women's rights movement, the temperance movement,  and public school reform all helped lead to the abolition of slavery. We talked about the tabling of slavery issues by congress, basically, "kicking the can down the road." We also talked about what it meant to, "Make a motion" and "Table" something.

We recalled the U.S. - Mexican war and how it was brought on by the annexation of Texas. It helped us to, "REMEMBER THE ALAMO!" and General Santa Anna. When President Polk asked for money for the war, David Wilmot of Pennsylvania brought up a Proviso that would ban slavery in any territory that was gained as a result. 

The gold rush to California in 1849 and the follow-on application for statehood as a free state-linked us back to the Missouri compromise and the "line in the sand" at the 36 degrees 30 minute parallel and why it wasn't drawn all the way to the Pacific ocean.

Our TIME WEB got a workout today, linking the founding of our Nation with several historical stops along the way on our mile-wide, inch-deep journey. Days like today make me feel like we are simply skipping a rock across the pond of history, touching only key points, and leaving out other vital topics.

My hope is that my 8th graders learn to love learning and make connections of their own.

Two-Hour Delays

When morning temperatures are below zero, it doesn't take much wind before I get the text message stating that we are on a two-hour delay. Now what?

Some will go back to bed, some will get up and get moving. I'm a get-up and get moving kind of guy, but I have to have a plan. If I don't jot down a plan for my extra time, I will waste it.

I don't work well from home because I get distracted by other things, and I don't want to go to my classroom yet, so I have been visiting a local coffee shop and bringing my computer. I place that last sentence in the plural because we had three two-hour delays last week. 

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Contrast Coffee provided me with great tasting coffee, calm music, and a relaxing place where I can flip the lid on my laptop and catch up on things that have been on my to-do list. I never understood "going to the coffee shop" to work until I did it myself. I have been missing out!

Starting school two hours late provides a host of issues that need to be hammered out. Lunch count, attendance, normal morning routines are all jazzed up. Usually not a huge issue in the middle school environment, but with shared staff and 8th graders that move between the middle school and high school for band, art, etc. it can cause some friction.

The biggest issue I face is now I have two classes in the afternoon that will be run "as normal" and two classes that I won't see at all, and one class that gets caught up in the morning routine of lunch count, announcements, etc. 

That's the lesson management issue.

Again, if it's one day, no issue. When mother nature refuses to turn up the thermostat and we end up with three in one week, then it becomes something we need to work through.

Do you keep going through the content and have the afternoon classes get almost a week ahead of the morning classes? Do you do some SEL things in the afternoon to keep everyone at the same pace? 

I like the SEL idea because I think students and teachers both benefit from it. That's easy and covers one of the days. For the other two, I don't go ahead in the content, but I do expand on the topic we are studying. Teaching from 1760-1900 in U.S. history, we are, "a mile wide and an inch deep" in the content. When I end up with extra time, I dig a little deeper.

For this past week, we were covering Horace Mann and school reform. So naturally, I had my students come up with reform ideas for 2021. There were some very interesting ideas on how to make public education better, as told by my 8th graders.  Below are a few of the more popular ideas:

1) Start school between 9:00-11:00. Their argument was that they did not like to wake up early in the morning, and most of them took a class period or two before they were fully awake. 

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2) "Real Life" class. Students wanted to have the option to take classes that would teach them about taxes, how to take out a loan for a car, and how to do a basic home repair (fix a leaky faucet, change a tire, etc.) 

3) "Real Life" field trips. The students wanted to actually go to some of the places that they talk about in class. Virtual field trips and YouTube tours are nice, but it's not the same. **I looked into taking students to Philadelphia, where the Declaration and Constitution were written, but it is expensive.  Maybe we can take a trip to Lansing or Madison to see how government works.

These ideas may be the next step in making public education better. Thanks to those two-hour delays, students were able to think through some of their ideas and explain them to others.

Thanks, mother nature!

....we get the point...can you PLEASE get temps above zero?

Transition from STEM to HISTORY

It has been a LONG time since I wrote a blog post. Way too long!
I have been concentrating on other things and the blog has taken a backseat. Some of the other things I have been doing:

The STEM Teacher Podcast:  THIS has even taken a backseat because I am no longer teaching STEM! I have revived it though. Instead of pushing out an episode once a week, I am on track for once a month. You can find it wherever you listen to podcasts. The link to Anchor is above.

The Kingsford Flivver Flash! Podcast: This has been a TON of fun! I started this podcast to highlight the amazing things surrounding Kingsford football. If you like high school football, Michigan, or the Flivvers, check it out.

The Kingsford Flivver Flash! Blog: I just started this after reading an article that said if you want to increase your podcast audience, start a blog. That article pushed me back into this blog too.

Changing Jobs
I was incredibly blessed to be hired as the STEM teacher for Woodland elementary. I can't express how it has changed my life. With that in mind, I struggle with elementary students. I like to think that I was very good at teaching the younger students, but it took everything I had, every single day. I would get home and have NOTHING in the tank for my family.

When I had the opportunity to apply for the 8th-grade history position, I jumped at it! Sent in my letter of intent, stoped in to see the principal, etc. I made it widely known that it was my dream job. When I was told I was selected, I could not contain my excitement!

Two reasons 8th-grade history is my dream job.

1) I get to teach the "Masters of the Universe!" Just ask an 8th grader and most of them have everything figured out. Everything. So teaching someone who already knows everything is a challenge and a reward.

2) The content for Michigan 8th-Graders is the founding of our country. From the treatment of the colonies under King George III to the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Constitution, Bill of Rights, War of 1812, Manifest Destiny (We do play the old school, "Oregon Trail" game!), the Civil War, etc. I love every bit of it! The opportunity to put students into the Constitution almost every day is amazing. With the craziness of our world and the media spin, it's awesome to be able to go to our founding documents for true answers.