Feudal System

These are just some pictures from our feudalism lesson. There's a picture of one of our classes being involved in the hierarchy activity. Another is a break down of the essay prompt. The other is a picture of Kristin's description of how the feudal system works on the board. This was a very successful lesson as the students were very engaged in the activities and were able to convey the content through their essays using Robin Hood to explain and use as examples. It was a truly integrated lesson! Loved it! We will definitely do it again next year!

Tagxedo!

As the end of the 1st semester is quickly approaching, students are preparing for their final presentation. We used www.tagxedo.com. It's a website that creates word clouds in different shapes. The students blogged about every major religion after the lesson or guest speaker and put the text from their blogs into the word cloud. Here is an example: http://www.tagxedo.com/artful/b27b5ce2a59f4db5. Today, they prepared for their presentations by using a rubric and a short list of requirements. Their goal is to explain the shape they chose as a symbol for religious tolerance and use their content knowledge to promote respect for others with different faiths. We ran onto some technology problems today with keyboard shortcuts and emailing the URL to themselves, but we were able to work around those unexpected hiccups. We'll see how it goes tomorrow!

Calling in Sick....Again

Here is another example of a student calling in sick.

"I just wanted to let you all know that I will not be attending school today due to a stomach virus. If there is any work I can do from home, please let me know. Thanks!"

World Religions

Kristin and I have been teaching a World Religions PBL. Yesterday we had our students do exit visas. They wrote a question about Christianity on a Post-it. Before they could leave, they had to stick it on the door.

Today we had a guest speaker, Reverend White, to talk about myths and answer the students' questions about Christianity.

Collaboration: It's not that easy

I think some people believe that collaboration comes easy for Kristin and I when, in fact, it definitely has its challenges. Take this picture for example. This weekend we attended the NCSS Convention in Washington, D. C. where we stayed in a hotel together. This photograph represents us well. If you know us, you can automatically pick out which bed is mine and which is hers. We struggle with being complete opposites all the time.

My bed is on the left. No clutter, no mess. This may be a result of the self-diagnosed claustrophobia or maybe it's just how I am. Regardless, I am more structured. I like to have a plan.....for everything. If things don't go as planned, it's alright; however, I like to have a back-up. I like to consider myself an organized and tidy person, sometimes to the point of annoyance. Just today I was re-wrapping all of our laptop chargers....this is probably a twice a week occurrence.

Kristin is more laid back and unstructured. For her, having a general outline is comfortable for her. And because she is a great speaker to the kids, she is able to loop around information to make a great point without having the details of a lesson plan 100% laid out for her prior to her deliverance. You can imagine how this may strike up some anxiety when we teach together. Here is an example of the method of her madness....

This is her explanation of the term advocate using Cyrus the Great, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

It was a beautiful mess. I was so amazed at her delivery of the message that I took this picture specifically for this blog. Our students were nodding their heads while she was talking and demonstrating the definition of one vocab term. I knew at this point that we could coincide with each other and I was able to let go of my structure a little.

So maybe opposites attract, but it sure is difficult when you have different teaching styles. Collaboration has a lot to do with compromise. We give and take everyday, but the most important thing is that we both have the same goal for our students - we want all of them to succeed. I believe it is our professionalism that gets us through the day.

Crazy Mondays

Well, after a week off for Thanksgiving break I assumed our students would be ready for nothing today; however, they were ready to go and wide awake. Maybe they were bored at home? Who knows. But after the Monday we had today, I sure am glad we have the great students that we do.

Writing Benchmark Enthusiasm

I've not been teaching too long, but I have been around long enough to know that students hate taking standarized tests, especially the writing portion. It was a little different this time, however. Last week I didn't have many students who grumbled about having to take it. Usually I have several students that write a little and submit, not caring about their score. This time most of the students took their time and wrote a lot more than what I expected and when they submitted their essays, they were angry. They wanted to retake it right then. They wanted higher scores! I'm not 100% sure why they felt this way, but I do believe that they're beginning to experience intrinsic motivation. It felt good to witness that as their teacher.