Real Life Conversations with JT: Professional Attire edition

Real Life Conversations with JT: Professional Attire edition

The backstory: One day last week JT came to school with me to help with summer open house tours.  I made him wear khaki shorts and a school shirt for the day and I wore a school shirt and made an effort to look more professional myself.  Afterward, he had some complaints about my unreasonable khaki shorts requirement.

JT:  Why did I have to wear khakis instead of regular shorts? Note: For JT, “regular” shorts are any number of ratty nylon athletic shorts.

Me:  Because they look nicer and more appropriate for school.  I wore a nice school polo shirt with my skirt.

JT:  You also wore flip flops.

Me:  In the summer, I only wear flip flops.

JT:  And that’s supposed to be “professional”? 

Me:  It’s summer and I’m a native Californian who was born wearing flip flops so, yeah, that’s professional.

I don’t think that he was persuaded.  Perhaps he’s sad that he wasn’t born in California and therefore is not entitled to lay claim to flip flops as professional attire.

Great Belt Bridge

Our ship passed under the Great Belt Bridge twice during our trip, once around midnight as we headed east into the Baltic Sea and then around 7 pm, headed west as we returned to Copenhagen.  JT and I watched both times, impressed by the sheer scale of the bridge.  For miles as we approached it seemed impossible that the ship would fit underneath, but of course we did.  This picture was made on the journey west and I think the light is lovely.

Teaching and Learning: In Praise of Projects, part II

Teaching Middle School after years of teaching older students has been an epiphany for me.  While it is new and the comparisons are fresh in my mind, I’m making note of some of the biggest distinctions between middle schoolers and older high schoolers.  These thoughts of mine are sometimes open-ended; I don’t have any big answers.  But I do have plenty to mentally chew upon and I intend to do so.  Today’s topic is a continuation of yesterday's posting on class projects in lieu of final exams.

Yesterday, I made the argument that projects are better method of assessment and college preparation than exclusive reliance on midterm and final exams.  Today, I’m going to explore the experiences that brought me to this point of view.

Two years ago, as an exercise to prepare for midterm exams, my 11th grade U.S. History students formed groups and created illustrated projects on some big theme ideas in the first 100 years of U.S. History:  the missions and motivations of the different colonies, significant moments in the Revolutionary War, and major compromises from 1776-1860 were among them.  We did this as a way to bridge the gap of weeks of instruction lost to Hurricane Sandy and to practice use of iPads, which the school was adopting as part of a 1:1 initiative.  Between review, research, planning, and learning to use a new technology, the students spent a week’s worth of class time at work on the projects.  They enjoyed creating the projects and then shared them with one another to use as a study tool for the midterm.  Those midterm exam scores were the best I’d ever seen.  That they came from a class that hadn’t been particularly strong was noteworthy.  My mind was opened to the value of big ticket projects, the kind that take time to create and perfect.

So I was already thinking of the value of projects when my own child came home later that same school year year excited about a project he was to make in lieu of a final exam in his 7th grade U.S.  History class.  The task: to create a theme park based on American history.  A child who had spent most of the year complaining about schoolwork settled right in to create his very own American history theme park.  From the Jamestown Scavenger Hunt for Food Snack Shack to the Boston Harbor Lazy River Ride, my 13 year old wrote nearly 5 pages worth of creative and analytical descriptions of American history, creating and engaging with ideas and material in a way that he and I both found thrilling.   The project showed him just how much information he retained. It also persuaded him that he could write more than a paragraph without whinging and moaning.   In fact, more than a year later, JT remains proud of the project and open to the idea of creating more big-ticket projects.  He embraced the 8th grade end-of-the year- project.  American history remains alive and thrilling for him.

So it was that by the end of the 2012-2013 school year, I was sold on the value of projects as a learning tool superior to the traditional exam format.  This past school year, my 6th graders have practiced answering multiple choice questions on quizzes and they have written about history in all sorts of ways, from statements of fact to explanations of why certain events occurred.  For their end of the year project, in lieu of a traditional final exam, they generated an historical time travel brochure, written and illustrated work that illustrated the historical value of select places and people they studied in the Medieval world.  The final product was digital and illustrated with images selected from the Internet.  They worked on it in class and at home for two weeks and in the process I saw both how much they have learned and how they internalized the lessons about people in history.  In their final projects, I can see the sophistication of their thinking as well as their sense of humor.  Most important, the individual projects were fun to make and the students are proud of their work.

Reviewing the value of final projects, I’ve generated a list of the skills gained in my 6th graders' most recent project work.  It's a list that can be applied to other project-based assessments:

1.  Thinking big and then narrowing down to specific examples to support a point of view.
2.  Reviewing the whole of material studied in the school year.

3.  Creativity in a whole variety of ways, from design of the brochure to organization of their time travel tour.

4.  Planning, organization, and time management.

5.  Practice in both detail and analytical writing.

6.  Practice and facility with variety of digital applications.

7.  Patience, as they manage big ideas and summarize them in a useful fashion

I think it’s this list that really confirms the value of projects.  Midterm and final exams are useful, but they cannot lay claim to this kind of value.  Projects are about process and the final outcome.  The students have something tangible to show for their year in the class and that’s of much greater value than an exam score on a sheet of paper.

Teaching and Learning: In Praise of Projects

Teaching Middle School after years of teaching older students has been an epiphany for me.  While it is new and the comparisons are fresh in my mind, I’m making note of some of the biggest distinctions between middle schoolers and older high schoolers.  These thoughts of mine are sometimes open-ended; I don’t have any big answers.  But I do have plenty to mentally chew upon and I intend to do so.  Today’s topic is class projects in lieu of final exams.

Learning has many moving pieces and assessment is a big part of the process.  The idea behind a midterm or final exam is to measure student knowledge over the course of a semester (or year).  In theory, a major exam is an important part of that process and it is one that is proceeded by review so that the students can identify the material they should master in preparation for the exam.  I’ve given plenty of exams in this style.  Some students do very well; some don’t.  But it’s fair to say that no one really enjoys taking such exams.  And as much as we like to tell ourselves otherwise, enjoyment is essential to successful long-term learning.

In my experience, most prep school teachers are fans of midterm and final exams.  Convinced that the world of college will require big exams, teachers rely on their own versions of midterm and final exams to fulfill the preparatory part of their mission.  Our teaching goal in a college prep environment should be to provide students with the skills to prepare for the large final exam-style standardized tests that will sometimes occur in college.    This is not the same as taking sample examples of such exams.  Here is where I take a non-traditional stand:  preparing students for college need not require endless rounds of midterm and final exams.  To fulfill the goal of successful preparation for college, we must consider the fact that giving major exams ourselves is neither creative nor particularly useful as the major assessment in a course.  

Big exams are understandable preference, but I feel that it is short-sighted.  I can say this because I used to be a fan of midterm and final exams.  I’ve since seen the light when it comes to projects as a replacement for major exams.  My epiphany wasn’t immediate.  But over the course of the last two years I’ve come to see that midterm and final exams don’t really facilitate creative, long-term learning.

Tune in tomorrow, when I will have a post about the value of projects as final course assessments.

Real Life Conversations with JT: Know Thyself edition

The backstory: JT was in my debt and had to come to the mall with me.  Before we left the mall, I announced that we would stop in the Uniqlo store.  Questions ensued.

JT:  Why are we going in here?

Me:  Because they have nice clothes for you and I think we should look at them.

JT:  For me?  You * know I don’t shop for my own clothes. 

*True story, as I well know.  JT does not enjoy shopping, preferring that new clothes magically appear when he needs them.  As shopping with JT is like chewing glass, I have been known to indulge him in this preference.  

Summertime on the Porch

Two weeks of travel in June rather delayed pictures of the front porch in June.  It was lovely and prior to my departure, I enjoyed a cup of coffee in this rocker each morning.

The table had a bright oilcloth covering and the plants enjoyed the sunshine and warmth.

I hung some bright lights along the porch ceiling.  Thanks to a timer, the lights came on in the dark and turned off at sunrise and they added cheer to the June porch.  Just the edge of the light string can be seen in the picture below.

As is my custom, things are changed up for July.  The lights have been removed and my summer flag has been added.  It’s cheerful in the breeze.  

I added some new plants to the mix on the table and changed out the oilcloth covering for some red polka dots.  

I also added some polka dots in the form of a teal blue cat in the schefflera pot, a Christmas gift that is quite charming.

I have a glass of iced tea and read a book out here most afternoons.  Summer seems to settling in quite nicely.

That's happy!

Among the Noble Swedes

Despite our constant temptation to make Swedish chef jokes, we were welcomed into Sweden with the gracious charm that seems to characterize all of the Scandinavian people.  For this shore adventure, Grandma joined the party.  The boys helped keep her in line.

Like everyone else in northern Europe during our trip, the Swedes were enjoying long daylight hours and though the temperatures weren’t as warm as they would have liked, we were nonetheless charmed by the beauty of it all.  Our trip to Sweden found us docking at a southern harbor town, Nynashmn, and then driving 58 km north to Stockholm.  The drive was pretty and I enjoyed the views of the Swedish countryside.  The city itself is built on a series of islands that lie at the juncture between the Baltic Sea and Lake Malaren.  Our tour guide took us to a spot which afforded us a lovely overview of the city and our first view of it was splendid.

The Swedes are proud of of the Nobel Prizes they award each year and our tour took us to the museum created to commemorate the history of the prize.  The square outside the Nobel Prize Museum in the old town (called Gamla Stan) was a lovely example of the city’s architecture and history.

As we left the museum and walked up the block toward our bus, we happened upon the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace of Stockholm.

After lunch, we visited the Stockholm City Hall, a lovely 19th century building where some of the Nobel Prize ceremonies are held (the peace prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway).  The building is rather splendid.

City Hall is built alongside the water and the view from the promenade was lovely.

All in all, I found Stockholm to be a lovely city.  Our tour guide explained that the city was sometimes called the Venice of the North because of the river and islands that dot the city landscape.  It was certainly awfully lovely.

Freedom and Justice for All

The alternate title for this posting could be “Poor People Love Their Children, Too.”  I also considered “Happy Birthday, Nation of Immigrants.”  By now it should be clear that I am writing about the current immigration crisis of children being detained at the border as they seek to enter the United States.  NPR has been running some terrific stories about the problem.   And they have lingered in my mind.  If you’d like them to linger in your mind, you can find them here.  

My day is filled with the needs of children.  They are well-loved children who are safe and secure, which is a very lucky thing.   The challenges in my world are most often in terms of their parents who, like parents everywhere, worry about their kids.  The Latin and South American parents who are sending their children on an unknown journey north in pursuit of the elusive American dream are sending their children because they worry about their children’s safety, security, and ability to eat.  These are basic needs.  Concerns about them can cause reasonable people to take risks that the rest of us find unthinkable.  There is no way that I would send my 14 year old on a harrowing 1500 mile journey to sneak across the border.  Of course, I don’t have to do that to keep him safe and nourished.   The fact that other people do have that worry makes me terribly sad.  That they live in our world, let alone our hemisphere, makes it my responsibility.

That responsibility is complicated by the fact that I live in the United States, a nation of immigrants.  The privilege of being an American is not one that I earned; it’s an accident of my birth.  I respect the fact that good luck that put me in this situation and I believe I should pay it forward.  I expect my government to do right by the children we find at our borders.  As I see it, we have two options:  send them back to safe homes or keep them here.  Sending these children back to safe homes means helping the governments in places like Guatemala and El Salvador to keep their citizens safe; it means ending government corruption and finding a way forward for the citizenry’s basic needs.  If we can’t (or won’t) do that, then these children should become ours.  We should keep them safe, nourish their bodies and minds, and find a way to take them into the homes, churches, schools and communities of their relatives in our nation.  If they don’t have those resources, we should share ours.  

I realize that neither of these solutions is easy.  I understand the complexities of opening our nation to strangers.  But, after all, as a nation of immigrants from all over, we have always been a nation of strangers.  And with that status, we have fostered some powerful ideas (the Declaration of Independence is a big deal, a fact we acknowledge every year on July 4).  We have done some powerful things (the World War II victory comes to mind).  

There are children at our doorstep and they need us.  Let’s show them the basic humanity that we would extend to a stranger on our own front porches.  Let’s do right by these young immigrants and fulfill the promise of freedom and justice for all. 

Noted

When we saw this truck parked at our local Sonic last weekend, complete with logos for Sonic and Dunkin' Donuts, T observed that the van was a ride to delicious.  Indeed.

July 1: Front Yard Flowerbed

It’s rather hard for me to believe that the month of July has already arrived.  June passed in a busy blur of travel adventures and I am just now settling into my summer routine.  It was hot and sunny while we were away and we are headed into another spell of heat and humidity this week, all of which is good news for the flowers in my garden.  The day lilies have bloomed.

The dahlia bulbs are coming along nicely.

I’ve spoken to them about the achievements of their Swedish dahlia cousins and while I can’t be sure that I was heard, I am hopeful that blooms will be coming my way soon enough.

I take a walk around my garden every evening, marking the progress, counting the fireflies, and enjoying the lush green growth that surrounds me.  This month and next will be filled with garden produce as I reap the rewards of patient cultivation of plants.  That’s happy!