#fallCUE Innovation Day Preso

I was lucky enough to get to co-present at fall CUE with Sarah Press about running your own Innovation Day. Check out the preso below - lots of links and other assorted resources and goodies. More thoughts on fall CUE coming soon. Promise.

Big Brother Is Here

Soooooooo. 

Yeah. 

This picture.

This picture was posted on the door of the teachers’ lounge - which is between two hallways at my school. Do I need to start to talk about how depressing this picture is?

We’re Watching You.

Don’t do anything bad - we’re videotaping you. Have fun getting suspended!

Because, you know, using fear to control students has got to be just about the worst way to go about trying to get them to do what you want.

Ugh. Just all of the ugh.

Also, the second time ‘lounge’ shows up on the sign it is spelled wrong. #facepalm

#FailForward: Learning From The Russian Revolution Unit

I’ve already written about the unit structure for my Russian Revolution unit. It was my next step towards trying to create the most student-centered history classroom that I can. The unit happened. And it’s done. What were the takeaways? Two big ones, in no particular order…

While the crowd-sourcing activity was cool - and a neat way for students to build schema about a unit - it wasn’t enough schema. My students didn’t have enough knowledge of the Russian Revolution unit when they went out and chose their inquiry topics for the unit. Some ended up choosing questions they were really interested in. Other students ended up with questions they weren’t really interested in and floundered as they went further into their research. This was my fault - live and learn. For the World War II unit, my students will have more schema before they go out and do their own inquiry.

Secondly, and students pointed this out as the unit wound down, some felt like the need for an inquiry question took away from their ability to go out and get a broad view of the unit. They felt like they didn’t really understand the broader progression of the Russian Revolution unit until they got to watch their fellow students present on their aspect of the Russian Revolution.

Again, my bad. It is rewarding, though, to get to own these mistakes with my students publicly in class after the unit ended. I think that as you try new things in the classroom, it is so important to model your learning from these experiences with your students. It was gratifying to get to name those mistakes and explain how the next unit would be different.  #FailForward, right?