Day Ninety-Five
I sometimes joke about how I need a clone in order to get things done, even though I am a wizard, and I was really feeling that today. I spent my prep time helping Mr. SF get ready to teach his first real lessons in American Studies (students were doing state testing for the last two days, so he was just supervising), drafting an email to my department to communicate what was discussed at yesterday's leadership team meeting, putting together a supply order, and then actually getting my lessons together.
Luckily, neither lesson required much set-up. I just had to upload some materials to Classroom, prep my whiteboards, and hook up my projector. In Global Studies, we were discussing the aftermath of WWI. I lectured through a set of notes about war trauma, damaged infrastructure, the flu pandemic, shifting views on race and class, the seeds of anti-colonial movements, the KKK backlash against Black veterans in the US, the Treaty of Versailles and the conditions in Germany. I ended with Hitler's emergence in Germany. I supplemented my notes with images, which was really effective. Then I gave a research and citation assignment as a follow-up; students chose one topic to learn more about, and they have to tell me four additional facts, cite their sources in-text, and create a works cited page. It's a simple assignment, but it works for building skills and a bit of knowledge.
I had to go to a meeting halfway through my third section, so Mr. CS came up to cover for me while students were doing that research. It's his first experience with the ninth graders, and that group is particularly good, so he enjoyed it. He told me later that he was a bit blown away that some of them thanked him when class was over. Some of his tenth graders do that, too, but he wasn't expecting it from students he doesn't teach on the daily. He's excited that he'll likely be teaching a lot of them next year.
The meeting I was at was a Google Meet, so I did it in my office (best decision Mr. N and I ever made was cleaning up the staff room and making the adjacent offices usable again). The Curriculum Coordinator set it up with me, The Principal, The Middle School Principal, and two of the consultants who have been helping with our PLC work in order to discuss a new law that's made some changes to NH's requirements for social studies. The Curriculum Coordinator wants my department and our middle school counterparts to meet to do some vertical alignment work with the new law in mind, so we were establishing an agenda and timeframe for that.
I hopped off the call with an, "I have to teach about the US government now!" which got the expected laughter, wincing, and good luck wishes.
I had just enough time to eat my lunch before the bell. Then it was discussing the Declaration of Independence and the NH 1776 Constitution. Was there a realization of real-world relevance when one student brought up quartering soldiers and not prosecuting them for their abuses? Yes. So then I made the point that one reason why we study our foundational documents is because many of the things they say are still so relevant.
I had students tackle the Articles of Confederation, too, and explain how the national government was structured and what powers it had. Then I asked what weaknesses were evident, and that's where I ended the lesson for the day. We'll pick it up next class, of course, and while that'll probably be tomorrow there is a slight chance we get a cancellation due to cold weather. Yes, we're the north and all, but there are negative temps forecasted for tomorrow morning and, on top of that, the windchill could reach -30. That would make my district think twice about having kids waiting at bus stops.
We'll see, though.
I had an IEP meeting after school. I was late because I was helping Mr. O with some new semester things, but everyone knew I would be and was okay with it. It was an unexpectedly quick meeting, so I went back up to my classroom to write up sub plans for Mr. SF to follow for the next few weeks. That took me about an hour, so it was late when I left, but at least there was still daylight!