Field Trips and A Teaching Goal

Another week down, and more fun planned for my students! Here's what I'm working on this weekend and the coming weeks:

Transdisciplinary Field Experience:

This is the third year that I will be collaborating with other 11th grade US History and American Literature teachers to take about 100 11th graders to the Smithsonian for a Transdisciplinary Field Experience - a big field trip.  We met as a team yesterday to start the process of constructing the different experiences the students can choose from (they will get about 7 options) and they will follow a set agenda for the day. Options now include Espionage&The Cold War, Journalism and Headlines fromUS History, War in American History, The Native American&African American Experience, Atrocities and Oppression-Focus on the Holocaust and the Jewish-American Experience. These are currently a work in progress. Each option has an agenda and students are to keep a field journal and record artifacts to bring back to the school house for a project. Their options for the project usually center around a Prezi, creating a unique document based question using their artifacts, a persuasive essay, or some other multimedia presentation. I'm open to suggestions from anyone! My goal with a field trip is to bring information and learning back into the classroom and create new media and new student-generated material. The students have really enjoyed the trip in past years, and I love following our # on Instagram and Twitter to see student excitement. I'll be making up the # shortly before the trip in March. 

Smithsonian Night:

Last week my husband & I went to the annual Free Teachers' Night offered by the Smithsonian - we came back with so many awesome resources that I combined into one document arranged by content (I added a couple that aren't Smithsonian-related links, but I found on Twitter last week). https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ArQC0FTQVLgjdHkwSEU2MUFnRExxak13enE1YjRQa3c&usp=docslist_api

I also sent this to my staff development teacher in the hopes we'll be able to create more staff-suggested content. 

(We were at the Natural History Museum for Teachers' Night)

University Research Project:

I'm also in the planning stages of taking my students to two local universities in order to learn how to authentically research a topic on American History (and those skills will transfer to all contents). I struggle with student research skills - it's my responsibility to teach them how to research correctly and validate scholarly sources (not just Google), but electronics are at their fingertips and they have the ability to find any content anywhere (I'm acutely aware of this as I type this blog post from my phone). I have introduced them to our public school's online databases for research, and in the past I stressed the importance of having a public library card to access their databases. I need more guidance in this realm. I know how to research correctly, and most of that came through self-learning as I was part of the first generation to use the internet for research purposes in college. Not having it modeled for me is leaving me a little lost - again, suggestions are welcome. Anyway, I am in the process of planning this trip - I would ultimately love to have my students be published historians before they leave my classroom! This will be a long term goal of mine. 

*The answer is probably to Google how to teach research skills and I'll be able to cull through suggestions until I find an appropriate suggestion. 

Ok - happy Saturday, and happy learning!

Edscape, Edcamp BMore, and Other Stuff

Well, it's been a while since I've blogged, mostly because I am rarely in front of a computer anymore, save for putting grades into Edline. So, when I saw Blogger had an app, I realized it was time to bite the bullet and get back into it. I'm always on my phone for almost all interactions, so it just feels right!

What I've been up to: 

I attended Edscape October 19th in New Jersey at New Milford High School. Eric Sheninger (@NMHS_Principal) hosts a fantastic conference with great break-out sessions, including a short tutorial to iBooks Author (which I was desperate for - I have been dreading sitting through hours of video to watch how to use it). The highlight for me though was listening to George Couros (@gcouros) speak - it made it so evident how desperate I have been to have true inspirational leaders in my educational experience. Eric and George spoke during the #satchat session about the challenges of giving autonomy to teachers who might not have the buy-in to the changes they implement in their school - listening to their answers and reading their blogs/tweets...well, I want to be that inspiring to my students and colleagues. 

A few weeks later, Edcamp BMore was on tap. I joined the Edcamp BMore (Baltimore) Planning Committee (@edcampbaltimore) this summer - it was AWESOME to be with such a great group of women who are passionate about teacher growth. I learned so much from Shannon (@montysays), Chris (@ccshriver), Margaret (@teachingdaisy), Jenna (@teachbaltshaw), and Molly (@historyfriend), particularly how exciting it is to plan an event that ultimately runs itself due to participant-driven break-out sessions. 

We planned a lot and for many months in advance, but nothing is better than watching what all the educators who attend bring to the "unconference."  One of my favorite moments was the session on building relationships to foster school change facilitated by an assistant principal at Edgewood High School, Brad Spence (@therealbspence) https://docs.google.com/a/gfs.org/document/d/1e3kZRpXgpv2Osu8JmlEv2LZWTk0xQoq9yeOyzzkJEK4/edit?pli=1

I was so excited about the info I learned here that I immediately shared it with our Advisory Planning Staff at Pikesville High School. We've been struggling to know the best way to build relationships between staff and students, and among the student population as well. The videos Brad showed that his school put together were so inspiring and really energized our Advisory Leaders. We hope we will get permission to implement them in our school. 

Other Fun Facts: 

The last few weeks I've been absorbed with the PHS Boys Soccer Team - they're in the MD 1A State Championship Game this Thursday, so many of my students are pumped for that. I love my students and hope that they know it - they're awesome and each individually unique. I have had the privilege of teaching some of them for the third year of their high school experiences - it's been a true blessing to be able to see them mature before my eyes. 

Ok - blogging is back!! Let's hope I can stick with it!

Happy Fall!!