So, I am taking a break from lesson planning and watching the Super Bowl where a ton has been made this week about Petyon Manning's use of the word "Omaha" as he changes plays at the line. For the record, when I was coaching football our quarterbacks used the same audible, but there were some interesting stories this week. One about how the city of Omaha was using Manning's audibles in their commercials, and how Omaha steaks was donating money for each time Peyton used the world Omaha. Others- complained about how annoying the word Omaha was and how they were sick of hearing it. At half-time....Peyton's not playing to hot.
So- in honor of the word Omaha, I would like to take a look at two of the words that annoy when teaching social studies. I am going to apologize in advance if I offend anybody (current and former colleagues a like)...or whoever actually reads this thing- I only know of one person that actually does!
Number 1: The use of the word "Chapter." This has bugged for for a long time.....since I was in high school. When you are studying a topic: Greece, Rome, Civil War, Africa, etc a teacher goes "We are studying chapter 6" or 7 or 8 or whatever. I had a teacher in highschool- A student would ask..."what are we studying," or "What will a quiz/test be on" the answer was: "chapter 6" Hey- that's fine in English, if you are studying a book or a piece of literature....study all the chapters you want. I guess....I've never thought of history as "just a book." I had the pleasure of having a Frosh History teacher who did not teach with a History book. To me, this is what history should be: A study of various sources: secondary, primary, video, text, etc. It should also include some historiography, writing, argument development....not just a chapter in a book.
Number 2: The world "Packet." This word made me cringe in high school. A "packet" designed the right way can be quite useful....but what I always received (and came accustomed to see on the copy machine at previous places I've taught) is a collection of worksheets. Just a whole bunch of worksheets. I notice now when ever I hand out a document or something that is more than one page long it becomes a "packet" with that same tone I had in High school.
Anyway- there it is...my two most hated words in the teaching of social studies. Peyton..best of luck...you might need a little more Omaha tonight....I gotta cheer for the Seahawks...just more Badgers than the Broncos have. Go Red!
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
That time of year
I will be honest- I am not a fan of January- it includes many of the things that have frustrated me over the years- football teams losing, the baseball off-season (hot stove league), final exams and reflection.
I've had a great conversation with my school's on-line PLC regarding the use of Final exams. There have been many great blog entries my the educational pundits/experts/talking heads out there that tend to get me thinking. Just a few for those who care: http://www.chicagonow.com/white-rhino/2013/10/final-exams-in-high-school-unnecessary/, http://www.thenerdyteacher.com/2012/01/final-exams-have-it-all-wrong-edchat.html, http://www.patrickmlarkin.com/2014/01/pondering-mid-term-and-final-exams.html . OK, so I read the "Nerdy Teacher" one last year- whatever.
I am seriously contemplating how I want to do my assessment in the future- I can see an exam in Math/Science classes- but what about History? I feel that my exams end up being a god-awful list of names and events- I am getting too much towards that "Dead-White Guy - memorize a bunch of crap" history that I told myself I wanted to avoid! But, it ends up that way! I think about my exam last year to finish off the year- 150 multiple choice questions- YUCK go figure..kids did terrible on it. In History we need to find a gray area in History- some of the important background information and the story- but also how to think, analyze, and tell that story. It is truly frustrating to me and honestly makes me wonder if I am meeting my students needs in those departments- honestly- it makes me wonder if I am a good teacher at all and if I should be doing this job at all! Anyway- January rant over. Plan for the future!!!
How is flipping? Flipping is flipping awesome- a majority of my students seem to like the idea and some are even reading more outside of class to do the flipping notes- I would love to find some more flipping materials- maybe some other articles or something to add in...but for now I will use my recorded lectures and textbooks...It is a start! This way I have some good "thinking" type activities planned going forward. I would love to start blogging in my classes- but without a constant access to computer technology I think I will be waiting on this process- it could just be biting more off than I can chew- I have no idea. I just need to find a way to get my students to: Think, analyze, and write about history- and in the process learn and think more about the world around them.
New toys I plan on trying out this spring: One isn't really a toy, but it is Stanford's "Reading Like A Historian" They have some killer primary source activities for both US and World History. A lot more for US than World- but still good. I also want to play with "Thinklink" interactive images. I a hoping that I will be able to use a visual primary source or sources and have students do some research to annotate them for an assignment or activity.
I've had a great conversation with my school's on-line PLC regarding the use of Final exams. There have been many great blog entries my the educational pundits/experts/talking heads out there that tend to get me thinking. Just a few for those who care: http://www.chicagonow.com/white-rhino/2013/10/final-exams-in-high-school-unnecessary/, http://www.thenerdyteacher.com/2012/01/final-exams-have-it-all-wrong-edchat.html, http://www.patrickmlarkin.com/2014/01/pondering-mid-term-and-final-exams.html . OK, so I read the "Nerdy Teacher" one last year- whatever.
I am seriously contemplating how I want to do my assessment in the future- I can see an exam in Math/Science classes- but what about History? I feel that my exams end up being a god-awful list of names and events- I am getting too much towards that "Dead-White Guy - memorize a bunch of crap" history that I told myself I wanted to avoid! But, it ends up that way! I think about my exam last year to finish off the year- 150 multiple choice questions- YUCK go figure..kids did terrible on it. In History we need to find a gray area in History- some of the important background information and the story- but also how to think, analyze, and tell that story. It is truly frustrating to me and honestly makes me wonder if I am meeting my students needs in those departments- honestly- it makes me wonder if I am a good teacher at all and if I should be doing this job at all! Anyway- January rant over. Plan for the future!!!
How is flipping? Flipping is flipping awesome- a majority of my students seem to like the idea and some are even reading more outside of class to do the flipping notes- I would love to find some more flipping materials- maybe some other articles or something to add in...but for now I will use my recorded lectures and textbooks...It is a start! This way I have some good "thinking" type activities planned going forward. I would love to start blogging in my classes- but without a constant access to computer technology I think I will be waiting on this process- it could just be biting more off than I can chew- I have no idea. I just need to find a way to get my students to: Think, analyze, and write about history- and in the process learn and think more about the world around them.
New toys I plan on trying out this spring: One isn't really a toy, but it is Stanford's "Reading Like A Historian" They have some killer primary source activities for both US and World History. A lot more for US than World- but still good. I also want to play with "Thinklink" interactive images. I a hoping that I will be able to use a visual primary source or sources and have students do some research to annotate them for an assignment or activity.
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