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Look, we all agree, that our job is to prepare our students for their future by teaching 21st Century skills, right?  Well, then why is cursive even a continuing debate?  

We can no longer afford to spend time on classes whose most valuable contribution is that they are traditional.  How can we be debating the necessity of more time devoted to greater wide-spread technology use and internet literacy, and still be spending time teaching the antiquated subject of cursive?

We see headlines about music programs cut, PE programs cut, standards struggling to be met with the time allotted, and yet, there’s still a debate about teaching cursive?

Look, my husband took cursive for five years and I still can’t read his notes on the fridge.  On the other hand, when we lived in separate cities, we wooed through yahoo.

If Evelyn Waugh were alive today, he would not be picking up a pen to “correspond.”  He would get a Twitter account.

Practicing cursive does not a good writer make.  But it does take time from other forms of necessary learning. 

Yesterday I was proud to judge a number of our group website entries for our History Day competition.  Three of our history teachers use History Day as a project-based learning opportunity for all of their students.  These students have their projects judged in their different categories by going through the process of oral presentation in front of a panel of teachers and administrators.  From this group is selected those who will represent our school at the next level of the competition.

It was fascinating seeing my own students through a different lens.  Groups of students came in front of my panel, some in suits, and some in the tuxes they perform in for orchestra, to present their websites.  The theme this year was “Actions and Legacies: Individuals in History.”  We saw websites about everything from Rockefeller to Ho Chi Minh.

The students for the most part used either Google or Synthesite to develop their free websites, which in regards to a competition is a little bit of a concern in that many competitors use more elaborate, paid-for sites that look far sexier.  But our kids did what they could with what they could and the sites, for the most part, look good.  And considering that they probably taught themselves how to create the site, the students should be commended.

We evaluated everyone’s site based on the visuals and the content.  In general, there were notes that we gave that were universal.  For one thing, the use of visuals to highlight specific points was an important concept the students needed to understand.  Without multi-media, for instance, a website might just as well be an essay.  It’s the visuals, the links, and the multimedia aspect of them that make them websites.  Timelines, for instance, that combine both primary sources and links, are a great opportunity for visual impact.

In regards to content, there seemed to be an overarching lack of commentary.  For middle schoolers, writing personal response can be hard.  But what we’re trying to emphasize is that just delivering the facts is not an analysis.  And if we’re looking to teach high-level thinking, there must be present that next step of information delivery - the evaluation.

Many of the students delivered the facts, but added no judgment.  They were missing the higher levels of Bloom’s.  They neglected the commentary.

When teaching history, it is vital that a teacher not just teach the facts, but give guidance in pulling back the lens and evaluating the bigger pictures.  How did this figure fit into history and amongst their contemporaries?  What is the impact that they made on those who followed them?  What is your opinion of their contributions given your expertise in their accomplishments?

Commentary comes in many different ways, but including it is the difference between information regurgitation and true, deep comprehension.

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I learned a version of this activity from Erick Gordon this summer at the UCI institute.  Basically, it’s a get-to-know activity where the students get to learn a little about me and then learn a little about each other.  It also becomes a very easy springboard for teaching Narrative and Memoir.

First I shared a list of 11 statements about myself.  Embedded in the list is one fib.  The kids read the statements out loud and then I have kids volunteer guesses as to which is the fib.  They also have to justify why they feel it’s the fib.

With each one they chose that is an actual fact, I do a quick one-minute oral narrative about that fact that makes them wanting more.  When they hit the fib, well, then I do a little soapbox number.

Here was my list:

1. My father is the 1969 World Champion Jeopardy player.

 2. I was kicked out of Brownies in 4^th grade.

 3. When I was a child, I was a model on The Price is Right.

 4. When I was 14 I went to Greece and dropped my coolest pair of sunglasses into a well of frogs.

 5. My dad created Capt. Jack Sparrow.

 6. When I studied at Oxford University in England, I ended up having an emergency appendectomy.

 7. My husband and I met in 2^nd grade.

 8. I am a certified OpenWater II scuba diver who goes diving with her mom.

 9. When I was in school, I was a straight A student.

 10. I once worked at a guest ranch, working in the stables, leading the kiddie rides across the Arizona desert.

 11. One weekend, I was so bored that I went skydiving just to do something new.

Can you guess the fib?  Answer: # 9.  Yes, it’s true. I was NOT a straight A student.  In fact, I didn’t find a joy in learning or in school until the occasional high school class or college class when I could actual point to classes I was actually interested in.  

In other words, I not only didn’t have a passion in or for school, but I also remember what I didn’t like or understand.  As a teacher, my recollections add to my ability to reach out to a diversity of learners.  As a teacher, my willingness to share myself, my strengths, and my foibles adds to my ability to reach them as well.

Share yourself, your experiences, and the themes of your life.  You are the supplemental material.  Share yourself and your students will learn more.

Hope your first day went as well as my own.

Is the tale of the recent surge of Interactive Whiteboards a grade-B horror flick or a Cinderella story?  Are they the villain or the belle of the ball?  They’ve begun creeping into trendsetting classrooms, taking over precious wall space and sending those unfortunate overhead projectors of said classrooms to basement warehouses to gather dust alongside carousel slide projectors and the purpled-mimeograph machines of yesteryear.  Are they an inevitable given in tomorrow’s classroom or an expensive fad?  

These questions and many more are explored in today’s The Opening Bell. (more…)

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