I was listening to the Tavis Smiley Show on NPR last weekend and heard some youth speak who participated in Smiley's Youth Leadership Institute recently. Here's the audio link: http://www.tavissmileyradio.com/zen/TSR/guests08/091208/LeadershipYouth_FREEprev.php
A group called Youth Venture is coming to table at our school tomorrow: http://www.genv.net/ They work with students to develop and fund action plans. I see a huge potential to partner with them. GL students who are driven to take their ideas further and start clubs or organizations can get $1000 to get started. They do workshops on writing action plans, etc. but I think we will cover most of that in our classes. I'm going to meet with Alan from YV tomorrow and I hope to invite him into my class to speak when we start working on our first action plans.
Showing posts with label intro. Show all posts
Showing posts with label intro. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
FLOW
Hello again. We had office hours today. It was a little chaotic trying to get everyone up to par with class jobs. I still have 3 students who need class jobs and I don't think I can expand anymore of the existing ones. So I'm going to think this weekend about creating 1 or 2 new jobs. One might be to keep our New/Noticias bulletin board up to date.
We went over the CLP assignment and rubric. On Monday or Tuesday I hope to be able to take them to the library to do some research. I plan to put together my model presentation over the weekend. I am thinking about profiling Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times.
I have been posting a lot lately. I know that this blog is intended mostly for reflection on our classes, but is it okay to post about resources that we find too? Or is there a better way to file them on the blog? I think the tagging (adding labels) should help us stay organized if we continue to post resources.
On my way to school today I was listening to Democracy Now and the people who made the new film FLOW were on. I would love to find a copy if they are available. Here's a link to the interview. You can download the audio from the website and both the audio and video through itunes. The film opens at Varsity Theater in the U-District on November 7th. Could be a fun field trip.
We went over the CLP assignment and rubric. On Monday or Tuesday I hope to be able to take them to the library to do some research. I plan to put together my model presentation over the weekend. I am thinking about profiling Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times.
I have been posting a lot lately. I know that this blog is intended mostly for reflection on our classes, but is it okay to post about resources that we find too? Or is there a better way to file them on the blog? I think the tagging (adding labels) should help us stay organized if we continue to post resources.
On my way to school today I was listening to Democracy Now and the people who made the new film FLOW were on. I would love to find a copy if they are available. Here's a link to the interview. You can download the audio from the website and both the audio and video through itunes. The film opens at Varsity Theater in the U-District on November 7th. Could be a fun field trip.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Leadership and the Next Presidency
I'm finding that this blog is a good place to jot down ideas that pop into my head about GL.
Thanks for the Election ideas. Here's a resource that I came across today: http://howyoulead.org/
The Harvard Kennedy School Center for Public Leadership has come up with 15 questions to ask the 2 candidates about their leadership. It might be an interesting activity to ask our GL students what questions they would ask Obama and McCain to help them understand how they would lead.
From CPL President Andy Zelleke:
Few would question that leadership competence is an essential ingredient in a successful presidency. Candidates know this, routinely trumpeting their leadership prowess in commercials and bumper stickers. But campaigns rarely provide voters with the depth and quality of information about the candidates that they need to assess how much “there” there is beneath the self-serving slogans, and to judge—between two capable leaders—which candidate’s leadership would better fit the challenges of the day and those still unknown that will emerge.
Voters need a clear sense of the candidates’ inner core, and how they have dealt with and learned from their personal and professional challenges. Voters should also better understand the candidates’ visions of where they want to lead the nation, and how they will do the actual work of leading—inspiring, communicating, building high-performing teams, forming coalitions, making decisions, getting difficult things done against predictable resistance—if elected.
*****
I also came across these leader profiles today on the same website. There are a couple of them that I might consider using.
Thanks for the Election ideas. Here's a resource that I came across today: http://howyoulead.org/
The Harvard Kennedy School Center for Public Leadership has come up with 15 questions to ask the 2 candidates about their leadership. It might be an interesting activity to ask our GL students what questions they would ask Obama and McCain to help them understand how they would lead.
From CPL President Andy Zelleke:
Few would question that leadership competence is an essential ingredient in a successful presidency. Candidates know this, routinely trumpeting their leadership prowess in commercials and bumper stickers. But campaigns rarely provide voters with the depth and quality of information about the candidates that they need to assess how much “there” there is beneath the self-serving slogans, and to judge—between two capable leaders—which candidate’s leadership would better fit the challenges of the day and those still unknown that will emerge.
Voters need a clear sense of the candidates’ inner core, and how they have dealt with and learned from their personal and professional challenges. Voters should also better understand the candidates’ visions of where they want to lead the nation, and how they will do the actual work of leading—inspiring, communicating, building high-performing teams, forming coalitions, making decisions, getting difficult things done against predictable resistance—if elected.
*****
I also came across these leader profiles today on the same website. There are a couple of them that I might consider using.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Good meeting today
Thanks for all of the clarification Cat. I think most groups will be able to handle a 5 minute presentation. That gives each participant 1-2 minutes to talk.
I thought our class meeting went well today. We talked about a few quick items like the bathroom pass policy, cell phones, attendance (I updated them on the current total number of absences), and attention for speakers. The kids decided that it was obvious that cell phones should be turned off and put away and suggested that we build it into one of the class jobs that someone remind the class from time to time, especially before important discussions or events.
The kids are really into the whole concept of class jobs from the start, much more so than last year. Now I need to follow through and make sure they all know what to do. I'm glad that we have office hours now to do that.
I asked the students how we should approach choosing the jobs and we decided to go through the list and all interested people raise their hand. There are about 5 or 6 students who did not raise hands so I am going to take the list of unclaimed jobs and let them choose (or most likely I'll ask another student to approach them). I don't think I am going to change jobs monthly, but I will do it quarterly. My mind could be changed on that though. I may ask the students what they think.
I expanded the voter registration job to include mock election coordinator. One of our students is in ASB and has already said that ASB would partner with GL to put the whole thing together.
To answer Cat's other question, icebreakers are going great. I probably will slow down a little now, though. We played the name toss today and we even got a second ball going.
Tomorrow we'll do the 4 directions activity and introduce the CLP a little. The students have mentioned also that they would like to do more with the self-intros, so we may do another round of the fish bowl or partner introductions.
I thought our class meeting went well today. We talked about a few quick items like the bathroom pass policy, cell phones, attendance (I updated them on the current total number of absences), and attention for speakers. The kids decided that it was obvious that cell phones should be turned off and put away and suggested that we build it into one of the class jobs that someone remind the class from time to time, especially before important discussions or events.
The kids are really into the whole concept of class jobs from the start, much more so than last year. Now I need to follow through and make sure they all know what to do. I'm glad that we have office hours now to do that.
I asked the students how we should approach choosing the jobs and we decided to go through the list and all interested people raise their hand. There are about 5 or 6 students who did not raise hands so I am going to take the list of unclaimed jobs and let them choose (or most likely I'll ask another student to approach them). I don't think I am going to change jobs monthly, but I will do it quarterly. My mind could be changed on that though. I may ask the students what they think.
I expanded the voter registration job to include mock election coordinator. One of our students is in ASB and has already said that ASB would partner with GL to put the whole thing together.
To answer Cat's other question, icebreakers are going great. I probably will slow down a little now, though. We played the name toss today and we even got a second ball going.
Tomorrow we'll do the 4 directions activity and introduce the CLP a little. The students have mentioned also that they would like to do more with the self-intros, so we may do another round of the fish bowl or partner introductions.
Wednesday 9/10
Hello All--
Going to do my best to respond to everything, apologies for a long post:
First: try not to worry too much about being behind. Remember that we discussed not trying to cover everything, we will be cutting stuff periodically throughout the semester. I hear you, Noah, on wanting to fit in and be planning for Adopt a School and you're totally on with that, but if the lessons are too full, let's shorten them. Feel free to call me at night if you want to talk out what to cut.
In the interest of time
Let's cut out the portfolio decoration, have students label their binder or folder for the portfolio, inform them we will spend time decorating them at the end of the semester when their portfolio's contents really represent themselves and they can have a better idea of how to decorate it accordingly.
How are the icebreakers working for you guys? They're written in almost every day for several weeks. Feel free to cut them back and let's shoot for 2 a week. Every day is not necessary once the general tone of the class has been set which you have already been doing together.
Election Stuff
How do you all feel about doing something election related for the first AAS visit?
We're going through the curriculum links that Noah sent to pull some stuff out, maybe we can find something to modify for the elementary students. We'll see if FTF has anything too.
I REALLY like the podcast idea AND the idea of having Ss look at 2-3 issues and comparing candidates' stances. that's a great way to set them up for debate and have concrete info to refer back to.
To be honest, I think the meat of relating the electionfor our GL class is focusing on looking at them for ideas about leadership, but the specificities of their platforms are good for debate practice.
Initial election ideas:
CLP response:
Class Meeting:
Strongly encourage you all to use debate cards for upcoming discussions to allow folks the opportunity to step up and step back this is in your binder with more info:
If you want anything mentioned above to be hashed out further let us know.
Rock on GL teachers!
Going to do my best to respond to everything, apologies for a long post:
First: try not to worry too much about being behind. Remember that we discussed not trying to cover everything, we will be cutting stuff periodically throughout the semester. I hear you, Noah, on wanting to fit in and be planning for Adopt a School and you're totally on with that, but if the lessons are too full, let's shorten them. Feel free to call me at night if you want to talk out what to cut.
In the interest of time
Let's cut out the portfolio decoration, have students label their binder or folder for the portfolio, inform them we will spend time decorating them at the end of the semester when their portfolio's contents really represent themselves and they can have a better idea of how to decorate it accordingly.
How are the icebreakers working for you guys? They're written in almost every day for several weeks. Feel free to cut them back and let's shoot for 2 a week. Every day is not necessary once the general tone of the class has been set which you have already been doing together.
Election Stuff
How do you all feel about doing something election related for the first AAS visit?
We're going through the curriculum links that Noah sent to pull some stuff out, maybe we can find something to modify for the elementary students. We'll see if FTF has anything too.
I REALLY like the podcast idea AND the idea of having Ss look at 2-3 issues and comparing candidates' stances. that's a great way to set them up for debate and have concrete info to refer back to.
To be honest, I think the meat of relating the electionfor our GL class is focusing on looking at them for ideas about leadership, but the specificities of their platforms are good for debate practice.
Initial election ideas:
- Choose three qualities of a leader from our class list and see if one of the candidates demonstrates those qualities--assign this as homework, then discuss in class the following day. Ss must be able to support their comments with concrete evidence
- Which direction from the Celtic wheel does the candidate fall today?
- Where does the latest ad that you’ve seen for a candidate fall on the wheel today?
- What qualities does your leader have (from your CLP) that you’d like to see in your president?
- Youtube videos of an ad or a snippet of the candidate as openers to class, brief discussion instead of opening with an icebreaker game.
- Action Plan: have Ss register people to vote. this would have to be done this month because the cut off in Washington State is 30 days prior to election. (http://your.kingcounty.gov/elections/voterregistration/voterregistrationforms/MI-VRCard.pdf)
CLP response:
- oral presentation 5-7 minutes. sorry for confusion
- size of groups 3-4 people
- choosing a leader: local, global, historical, all great!
- leadership wheel: yes!! if you guys can get it in as an activity this week or next it will be a great reference, especially for discussion on the election.
- model presentation: what if you profile a student--maybe a GV participant from last year who you could use as a youth leader and do a brief presentation on them. less work for you: ask the GV participant to write up a brief bio of themselves after looking at the CLP outline. What do you think of that?
Class Meeting:
- how did the cel phone discussion go?
- agreed with respecting guest speakers: how did that go?
- confused on spider incident...was the quiz that you gave directly related to the spider incident? was it a consequence to the action taken by those students? sorry, not quite following you on that. Maybe you've already addressed it in class meeting? I understand not wanting to let that go unaddressed.
Strongly encourage you all to use debate cards for upcoming discussions to allow folks the opportunity to step up and step back this is in your binder with more info:
Because debates and discussions tend to be dominated by Ss who are comfortable speaking in public, the Global Leadership Class uses a “stacking” method for debates/discussions. This means that the moderator of the discussion or debate keeps track of the order in which Ss will speak. Ss each receive 3 name cards one of which they will turn in every time they speak so that each Ss must speak at least 3 times and only 3 times. Once a Ss is out of cards, that Ss may no longer speak in the discussion. The moderator will keep track of the hands that are raised to speak and keep a visible running list for the class of who will speak next. This is the debate or discussion “stack.”
If you want anything mentioned above to be hashed out further let us know.
Rock on GL teachers!
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
SJ and EJ
When I read through my students' GL interviews, I was astounded by how much they left blank. Most students freely admitted that they did not understand the concepts of social and environmental justice. We worked through each of them, but in the end, ran out of time before we could arrive at a satisfying student-generated definition. We'll need to come back to this. In the meantime, I'm encouraging some of the kids to finish their GL interviews (I will raise their score when they do). I think it would also be beneficial to go back to these interviews at the end of the semester as part of the portfolio process to reflect on how their views might have changed.
I still have some thinking to do before tomorrow's class meeting. It seems like there is so much to do. I plan to distribute class jobs. I also would like to discuss attendance and revisit the class norms. There are also a couple of small issues like cell phones (they have been ringing in class) and attention during guest speakers (One World Now was in class for a few minutes today and we didn't have 100% eyes on the speakers.) I want to set a high standard for future guest speakers and for class presentations.
On a side note, today in class while we were doing the name slap game, a student spotted a spider on the floor. Quickly, another student shouted "kill it" and a third student stomped it to death. Wow, definitely not a GL-type action. I plan to address it briefly tomorrow at the class meeting: was everyone comfortable with the way the class handled that situation? On one hand, I don't want to make a big deal about this. But I also don't just want to drop it. The way I reacted today was to have them all sit down and take a name quiz individually (instead of the fun class quiz that I was planning to do). They had to list as many names as they could in the class and I would divide the total number of names by the total number of students in class to get an average total on which I will base their class grade.
I'm feeling a little tentative about diving into the Community Leaders project this week. In our temporary site we only have one computer lab right now and it is not easy to reserve. I'm also weighing how to approach the project. Like Kate's classes, my students will need a lot of guidance with the research. I don't want to rush them through a project without making sure that they have the skills to do a solid job. There seems to be a lot of scaffolding for the oral presentation, but not as much time dedicated to the actual research. Also, a few questions/thoughts came up while I was reading through the lessons again tonight:
I'm feeling the need to make a calendar. I'm already behind on the leader project and I haven't done anything with portfolios. I want to make sure that we are on track to make the first visit by the 1st or 2nd week of October.
I think that's all for now.
I still have some thinking to do before tomorrow's class meeting. It seems like there is so much to do. I plan to distribute class jobs. I also would like to discuss attendance and revisit the class norms. There are also a couple of small issues like cell phones (they have been ringing in class) and attention during guest speakers (One World Now was in class for a few minutes today and we didn't have 100% eyes on the speakers.) I want to set a high standard for future guest speakers and for class presentations.
On a side note, today in class while we were doing the name slap game, a student spotted a spider on the floor. Quickly, another student shouted "kill it" and a third student stomped it to death. Wow, definitely not a GL-type action. I plan to address it briefly tomorrow at the class meeting: was everyone comfortable with the way the class handled that situation? On one hand, I don't want to make a big deal about this. But I also don't just want to drop it. The way I reacted today was to have them all sit down and take a name quiz individually (instead of the fun class quiz that I was planning to do). They had to list as many names as they could in the class and I would divide the total number of names by the total number of students in class to get an average total on which I will base their class grade.
I'm feeling a little tentative about diving into the Community Leaders project this week. In our temporary site we only have one computer lab right now and it is not easy to reserve. I'm also weighing how to approach the project. Like Kate's classes, my students will need a lot of guidance with the research. I don't want to rush them through a project without making sure that they have the skills to do a solid job. There seems to be a lot of scaffolding for the oral presentation, but not as much time dedicated to the actual research. Also, a few questions/thoughts came up while I was reading through the lessons again tonight:
- What is the ideal length of the oral presentation? 3-5, 5-7, 0r 7-10 minutes? There are references to all three time limits in the curriculum.
- Did we decide on a size for the groups? I'm thinking 3-4.
- I think that some students will want to choose local community leaders, maybe even people they know. And some will prefer to take a more historical or even global approach. I think both ways are fine, as long as they focus on what it means to be a leader.
- I like Kate's idea of doing the 4 directions activity before starting the project. I think I'll try it on Thursday.
- Can we talk a little more about the model presentation on day 8? (maybe we can collaborate on coming up with a subject).
I'm feeling the need to make a calendar. I'm already behind on the leader project and I haven't done anything with portfolios. I want to make sure that we are on track to make the first visit by the 1st or 2nd week of October.
I think that's all for now.
Monday, September 8, 2008
First post from FHS
Al at Franklin here-
The calendar is a nice addition. We require our students within the PSA (Public Service Academy) to attend two community events per quarter; we call it the KICKS requirement (Kids in the community). The calendar will bring more relevance specific to the GL class than the types of events we have been pushing in the past.
I am thoroughly impressed with the Noah and Kate's use of the blog. Teaching 3 different grades + 3 different classes has made me weary of the additional screen time, but reading the questions/comments has me feeling more inspired to try and check in...
Best start to the year in my nine years of teaching experience! This is largely due to the influence the GL recommended community building activities across ALL of my classes. The group quizzes and playful approach have my students much more unified. I did shy away from the knot game, thinking it was a little early for the physical contact. Have had some success with the Dartmouth method, physical movement/name game, a variation of Zip, Zap, Zop that my wife taught me. The fishbowl twist to the knot game sounds more accessible and will try the day after tomorrow.
I have all student using comp books. My TA and I have been recycling abandoned ones and a case discovered from summer school, as well as selling new ones for $1. "Do you want to kill a tree or use a recycled one" was my mantra for today. I have a few cases of binders donated from a law firm and will be pushing students to use these for the portfolio collection. How to store 50+ binders though?!?
I am off in terms of the specific lesson days aligning with office hours/journaling/classmeeting, but this is a normal state of affairs in my classroom. We will still keep the Mon/Wed/Fri routine, and the lessons will be adapted to fit around this consistency. Starting the Leaders Project will be tight to manage this week and may have to be put off until Monday. I am honostly rolling with the preps on a 1-2 day basis right now in all of my classes.
Wow! The Chrisjordan website is awe-inspiring. It seems like great fodder for journaling / warmups.
The calendar is a nice addition. We require our students within the PSA (Public Service Academy) to attend two community events per quarter; we call it the KICKS requirement (Kids in the community). The calendar will bring more relevance specific to the GL class than the types of events we have been pushing in the past.
I am thoroughly impressed with the Noah and Kate's use of the blog. Teaching 3 different grades + 3 different classes has made me weary of the additional screen time, but reading the questions/comments has me feeling more inspired to try and check in...
Best start to the year in my nine years of teaching experience! This is largely due to the influence the GL recommended community building activities across ALL of my classes. The group quizzes and playful approach have my students much more unified. I did shy away from the knot game, thinking it was a little early for the physical contact. Have had some success with the Dartmouth method, physical movement/name game, a variation of Zip, Zap, Zop that my wife taught me. The fishbowl twist to the knot game sounds more accessible and will try the day after tomorrow.
I have all student using comp books. My TA and I have been recycling abandoned ones and a case discovered from summer school, as well as selling new ones for $1. "Do you want to kill a tree or use a recycled one" was my mantra for today. I have a few cases of binders donated from a law firm and will be pushing students to use these for the portfolio collection. How to store 50+ binders though?!?
I am off in terms of the specific lesson days aligning with office hours/journaling/classmeeting, but this is a normal state of affairs in my classroom. We will still keep the Mon/Wed/Fri routine, and the lessons will be adapted to fit around this consistency. Starting the Leaders Project will be tight to manage this week and may have to be put off until Monday. I am honostly rolling with the preps on a 1-2 day basis right now in all of my classes.
Wow! The Chrisjordan website is awe-inspiring. It seems like great fodder for journaling / warmups.
Monday
Thanks to you guys for using the blog, I already feel so much more in touch with what is happening in the classroom. I'm going to look at the meat stuff for the Climate Change Unit.
Kate, I agree with broadening the CLP to Social Justice Leaders (that was how it was originally written in to the unit but we cut it back in the interest of time). If you see ways to do that, please keep blogging about them and I will update the unit for next time.
very excited to see the definitions your students came up with for Social and Environmental Justice.
Noah, if you think binders work better than hanging folders, that makes sense to me.
As soon as you guys have a chance to do the FTF pre test will you get those in a folder for me, please? I'd like to hang on to them for when we meet and plan with FTF.
Kate, you mentioned more guiding structure. I will get you a rubric for the CLP tomorrow, an intern is drafting it and I should be able to send it off to you tomorrow. What else can we provide for that guidance? Really glad you're making it a more thorough research project, I think that's important. Sets a good base to work from for future presentation projects.
thanks guys!
Kate, I agree with broadening the CLP to Social Justice Leaders (that was how it was originally written in to the unit but we cut it back in the interest of time). If you see ways to do that, please keep blogging about them and I will update the unit for next time.
very excited to see the definitions your students came up with for Social and Environmental Justice.
Noah, if you think binders work better than hanging folders, that makes sense to me.
As soon as you guys have a chance to do the FTF pre test will you get those in a folder for me, please? I'd like to hang on to them for when we meet and plan with FTF.
Kate, you mentioned more guiding structure. I will get you a rubric for the CLP tomorrow, an intern is drafting it and I should be able to send it off to you tomorrow. What else can we provide for that guidance? Really glad you're making it a more thorough research project, I think that's important. Sets a good base to work from for future presentation projects.
thanks guys!
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Quick Thoughts on adjusting plans for this week
Greetings, this is Kate H-F.
Our class came up with a great definition of social justice and environmental justice. I'll pass it along when I'm back in the room and can transcribe it from the chart paper where Abdul wrote it down. We had our first office hours on Friday, and the agenda for this week's class meeting is already developing to include a drafting of a HW policy we can agree on and also setting up class jobs. We're going to get started on setting up portfolios this week, do the Proud Introductions on Monday along with the journal. After our class meeting on Wednesday (class doesn't meet Tuesdays) I want to do the 4 directions of leadership activity--I found the link and got the materials from the Hollyhock Institute and I encourage others to do the same. http://www.hollyhockleadership.org/resources/fundraising/teamtypes/view?searchterm=four%20directions
Like Noah I'm not going to get started on the Community Leaders Project until Thursday at the earliest. I revisited a UCSC website on Social Justice Leaders and I'm toying with the idea of broadening the scope of the Leaders Project to include a bit more research. http://collegeten.ucsc.edu/activists.shtml I'm also going to work with our school librarian to this end a bit. So that's another reason for pushing it back a few days. I really like the community leader approach, but want to build in some more variety to the research skills included in the project. Also, I realize that my students are going to need some more guiding structure. Thoughts?
Our class came up with a great definition of social justice and environmental justice. I'll pass it along when I'm back in the room and can transcribe it from the chart paper where Abdul wrote it down. We had our first office hours on Friday, and the agenda for this week's class meeting is already developing to include a drafting of a HW policy we can agree on and also setting up class jobs. We're going to get started on setting up portfolios this week, do the Proud Introductions on Monday along with the journal. After our class meeting on Wednesday (class doesn't meet Tuesdays) I want to do the 4 directions of leadership activity--I found the link and got the materials from the Hollyhock Institute and I encourage others to do the same. http://www.hollyhockleadership.org/resources/fundraising/teamtypes/view?searchterm=four%20directions
Like Noah I'm not going to get started on the Community Leaders Project until Thursday at the earliest. I revisited a UCSC website on Social Justice Leaders and I'm toying with the idea of broadening the scope of the Leaders Project to include a bit more research. http://collegeten.ucsc.edu/activists.shtml I'm also going to work with our school librarian to this end a bit. So that's another reason for pushing it back a few days. I really like the community leader approach, but want to build in some more variety to the research skills included in the project. Also, I realize that my students are going to need some more guiding structure. Thoughts?
Friday, September 5, 2008
TGIF
Our first fire drill of the year took up part of our class today, so we fell a little behind. Overall, another pretty good day. We had our first absence today and another student was very late. I didn't react other than adding attendance to our list of agenda items on the board.
The kids did an AMAZING job of adding leadership key words to our list after the pair-share. I will type them up on Monday. We also did office hours for the few remaining minutes of class after the fire drill. Each student labeled a hanging folder with his/her name and we collected homework.
So, I'm not sure what to do about the portfolios: binder or hanging file? I don't know that I have room in my classroom to store 27 binders. But the hanging files are not going to do it. Maybe I'll have them decorate the hanging file for now and we will transfer things to a binder later on. The decorated hanging file could be hole punched and included in the binder or slipped into the cover.
Monday I will do the FTF pre-test, continue with names (try our first quiz), start self-intros, and do our first journal entry. I am probably going to push back the Community Leader Project until next Thursday. Last year I purchased comp books for all of the students for journals. If I have time this weekend, I might go out and buy a bunch for this semester. Let me know if you see any good deals where the limit is more than 4.
Have a great weekend!
The kids did an AMAZING job of adding leadership key words to our list after the pair-share. I will type them up on Monday. We also did office hours for the few remaining minutes of class after the fire drill. Each student labeled a hanging folder with his/her name and we collected homework.
So, I'm not sure what to do about the portfolios: binder or hanging file? I don't know that I have room in my classroom to store 27 binders. But the hanging files are not going to do it. Maybe I'll have them decorate the hanging file for now and we will transfer things to a binder later on. The decorated hanging file could be hole punched and included in the binder or slipped into the cover.
Monday I will do the FTF pre-test, continue with names (try our first quiz), start self-intros, and do our first journal entry. I am probably going to push back the Community Leader Project until next Thursday. Last year I purchased comp books for all of the students for journals. If I have time this weekend, I might go out and buy a bunch for this semester. Let me know if you see any good deals where the limit is more than 4.
Have a great weekend!
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Thursday at CSHS
Great class today. We started with the name go-around. They did much better today - no laughing. I read the profile of last year's Wales Foundation winners and they came up with an impressive list of key words.
We talked about homework and I assigned them both the community interview and the self interview. Hopefully we'll have time to talk about both tomorrow.
We returned to the ground rules and added a couple more. I may type them up this weekend and bring them to next week's class meeting.
I tried a little Dartmouth today and it worked well. I did it with names and colors.
Tomorrow I expect we'll run out of time before we get to self-intros, but I'm really looking forward to them. The self-into presentations were a key turning point early on in my class last year.
Overall, the climate of my class is a B+. There are still a couple of kids who need to comment after something their friends say. We're working on that. Luckily, I know 2 of the 3 powerhouse 10th grade girls pretty well from last year.
I'm excited that GL is also my homeroom. They were pretty fired up today when I went over the school's new attendance policy during homeroom. I encouraged them to bring their ideas to the student council. Secretly, I think I'm hoping that our class attendance policy ends up being more strict than the schools after a couple of more class meetings.
So far, I have near PERFECT attendance: 26 out of 27 for the first 2 days. The one girl that has been absent will likely drop the class. I want to keep that momentum going and really keep on top of attendance this year (and more importantly, get the kids to be accountable for the group's attendance). I've requested that my administration close the class. Even in just 2 days, it seems like it would be difficult for a new student to just jump in.
My only real source of anxiety right now is getting the group going with class jobs and reaching a functioning level. It feels like there are so many elements of the class that require training. It's almost a little overwhelming. This weekend I plan to take a look at all of the parts and figure out a strategy to make it manageable.
Here's a cool resource that makes a great opener for class or a hook to get a discussion about consumption going: http://www.chrisjordan.com/
If you haven't heard of him, Chris Jordan is a Seattle environmental activist/artist who uses photography (and photoshop) to spread messages about consumerism among other issues. Here is a more direct link to some of his most powerful consumption pieces: http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php (be aware of the Abu Ghraib photos before you scroll down in front of your class).
We talked about homework and I assigned them both the community interview and the self interview. Hopefully we'll have time to talk about both tomorrow.
We returned to the ground rules and added a couple more. I may type them up this weekend and bring them to next week's class meeting.
I tried a little Dartmouth today and it worked well. I did it with names and colors.
Tomorrow I expect we'll run out of time before we get to self-intros, but I'm really looking forward to them. The self-into presentations were a key turning point early on in my class last year.
Overall, the climate of my class is a B+. There are still a couple of kids who need to comment after something their friends say. We're working on that. Luckily, I know 2 of the 3 powerhouse 10th grade girls pretty well from last year.
I'm excited that GL is also my homeroom. They were pretty fired up today when I went over the school's new attendance policy during homeroom. I encouraged them to bring their ideas to the student council. Secretly, I think I'm hoping that our class attendance policy ends up being more strict than the schools after a couple of more class meetings.
So far, I have near PERFECT attendance: 26 out of 27 for the first 2 days. The one girl that has been absent will likely drop the class. I want to keep that momentum going and really keep on top of attendance this year (and more importantly, get the kids to be accountable for the group's attendance). I've requested that my administration close the class. Even in just 2 days, it seems like it would be difficult for a new student to just jump in.
My only real source of anxiety right now is getting the group going with class jobs and reaching a functioning level. It feels like there are so many elements of the class that require training. It's almost a little overwhelming. This weekend I plan to take a look at all of the parts and figure out a strategy to make it manageable.
Here's a cool resource that makes a great opener for class or a hook to get a discussion about consumption going: http://www.chrisjordan.com/
If you haven't heard of him, Chris Jordan is a Seattle environmental activist/artist who uses photography (and photoshop) to spread messages about consumerism among other issues. Here is a more direct link to some of his most powerful consumption pieces: http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php (be aware of the Abu Ghraib photos before you scroll down in front of your class).
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
First Day
I have about 20 students in my class, an interesting mix that's bound to shift a bit as schedules get finalized (there were a few no-shows today also).
The Knot activity was fun (I was skeptical for some reason, thought it might be too touchy-feeling for these cool kids). We ended up doing it as a fishbowl activity, a quick adaptation since one student in the class uses a wheelchair and is not able to hold hands with partners (mobility issue with her arms). Half the class was on the inside of the circle and the outside circle gave advise and feedback, making the debrief even better.
The group was extremely respectful throughout, seeming to be very much on board. It's an interesting mix: definitely some quieter ones, including a student who contributed the idea that "it's okay to be shy" onto our brainstorm of Class Agreements. The list is definitely subject to revision, and I'm ready to challenge her in her shyness (despite this comment, every single one of them gave great introductions on the first try, very little corrections or re-does required). It reminded me, though, of how I want to incorporate the Four Directions of Leadership activity into this unit somehow, and soon--like next week. Ideas of where this might best fit?
I managed to 'get through' everything on the plan for this first day--though I held off on saying much about course specifics, particularly Portfolio.
The community leader profiles are interesting, but I'm interested in collecting some more to have more options. The list of leadership traits on chart paper is underway and it's a great idea.
I improvised a Rapid Fire session in the last 5 minutes of class and they responded really well to it--it was all just questions about names. Very helpful to have had that practice with everyone last Friday!!!
The Knot activity was fun (I was skeptical for some reason, thought it might be too touchy-feeling for these cool kids). We ended up doing it as a fishbowl activity, a quick adaptation since one student in the class uses a wheelchair and is not able to hold hands with partners (mobility issue with her arms). Half the class was on the inside of the circle and the outside circle gave advise and feedback, making the debrief even better.
The group was extremely respectful throughout, seeming to be very much on board. It's an interesting mix: definitely some quieter ones, including a student who contributed the idea that "it's okay to be shy" onto our brainstorm of Class Agreements. The list is definitely subject to revision, and I'm ready to challenge her in her shyness (despite this comment, every single one of them gave great introductions on the first try, very little corrections or re-does required). It reminded me, though, of how I want to incorporate the Four Directions of Leadership activity into this unit somehow, and soon--like next week. Ideas of where this might best fit?
I managed to 'get through' everything on the plan for this first day--though I held off on saying much about course specifics, particularly Portfolio.
The community leader profiles are interesting, but I'm interested in collecting some more to have more options. The list of leadership traits on chart paper is underway and it's a great idea.
I improvised a Rapid Fire session in the last 5 minutes of class and they responded really well to it--it was all just questions about names. Very helpful to have had that practice with everyone last Friday!!!
Day One
What did you do today in class that you were pleased with?
Did you do even just one thing to begin building community?
Any immediate suggestions for what to do or what not to do on the first day of GL?
Did you do even just one thing to begin building community?
Any immediate suggestions for what to do or what not to do on the first day of GL?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)