Freshly picked ideas are worth climbing to the highest branches. Luckily, we need not always scurry up a tree, but rather we can find inspiration in much closer confines. Today's post is about the brainstorming and spitballing that makes classroom magic happen.
Cultural Literacy at Holy Family Academy
As part of a dynamic duo teaching Sophomore Cultural Literacy at HFA, I work closely with my partner in crime and co-conspirator, Ro Vigilante @vigilantewords. Together, we integrate American literature into the cultural context of 20th century American history and culture.
This means that the students are truly developing a sense of the world in which they immerse themselves. In a way, we develop a taste for what it was like to live within the world that once was--to test its boundaries and limitations... To tackle it's challenges and embrace it's opportunities.
For example, our exploration of the 1930s demonstrates a good mix of complimentary content, skills, and dispositions needed for students to connect with the world of the past, and engage the present moment via 21st century skills and design thinking.
Ro selected a bold play, Clifford Odettes Waiting for Lefty. Together we conducted a table read of the play--I thought this was neat on so many levels: Ro has an extensive background in theatre, so the students experienced Ms. Vigilante not just in her teacher costume, but as a real person, passionate about drama and the arts.
On the heels of this discussion, focusing on the nascent labor movement, a push to unionize, and the plight of young people facing a bleak and uncertain future, we transitioned to the Works Progress Administration and the Alphabet Soup programs designed to get us out of the Great Depression.
Instead of focusing on content alone as in a traditional history class, we looked closely at the principles of human centered design and embarked upon a collective journey--project based learning and role play. Our students explored the way both the Depression and WPA affected the lives of real Americans.
Want to learn more? Check out my blog post on using the principles of design thinking to develop Depression Era persona profiles. There's a groovy YouTube video of student perspectives on the making of the persona profiles, too.
The tech skills that we acquired using GAFE and our knowledge of the Depression helped students to build persona profiles. This also helped us to focus our attention on the disposition critical to being a good amateur historian: empathy.
After students shared their work and posted their persona profiles to our learning management system, they recorded reflections discussing the critical need for empathy when embarking upon a venture such as this. Our students really developed context spanning the bounds of time, geography, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Where else could all of this be possible but in Cultural Literacy, an integrated classroom.
Inspiration comes in many forms... It helps to have a good partner and to work at an innovative school that empowers teachers to have the creative confidence to "go for it" and take their moonshot ideas from the drawing board to the classroom. Needless to say, I have rediscovered my teaching vocation at HFA this year.
At my former school and alma mater, Trinity High School, I worked closely with a cohort of teachers whom happened to be my lunch buddies, too. In a public school, there are fewer opportunities to modify the curriculum, unless you get the chance to write curriculum.
I took advantage of this offer when designing the curriculum for AP Lang & Comp a few years back. Last year I shifted gears again, when I jumped at the chance to incorporate 21st century tech and active learning strategies in the 9th Grade Academy. This lead to a bit of curriculum hacking and creative use of resources to build a low resolution Makerspace in my classroom.
First, it should be noted that freshmen are in a precarious state of knowing all of the answers and being terrified that they will be exposed for not having all of the answers... They are miniature versions of the juniors and seniors that I taught for years, only more malleable. I jest... But with lots of elements of the truth.
In the 9th grade academy, there were no opportunities to rewrite curriculum, but as previously reported, plenty of chances to "hack-curriculum " existed. For instance, Vonnegut's Harrison Burgeron was teamed up with NPR stories about an autistic classroom and their iPad band... The classic short story The Most Dangeroous Game was coupled with a podcast on street violence and a gang of teenagers on Long Island profiling and hunting Latino youth.
My students, predominantly Middle-class teens living in a rural suburb of Pittsburgh, were transfixed. Their ability to make relevant connections to both fiction and the new media that I presented them with skyrocketed. From here, we began to supplement the existing curriculum with digital media that highlighted the relevance of the text. It was 9th grade English remixed and reimagined...
The addition of digital media and relevant, real world content transformed a short story unit into a decisive turning point in our classroom--to work within the confines of curriculum and Common Core Standards familiar to all public school teachers, but find ways to remake learning for our students.
Again, it goes back to having good partners--people that you can trust with your both your heart and your thoughts: because for teachers, we live a thousand lives within our classrooms, and the spillover into our personal world has few boundaries.
Case in point: I keep tablets and post its around the house (and in my car's cup holder) to jot down ideas for school--I happen to be blogging at the stove on a Friday night, seasoning a pot of chili...but duty calls!
Yes, and... It comes down to this: To be a teacher is to be fully alive in your vocation. For you and your students are on a path of learning and discovery; it was written in the eternal dream of God. Your mission is to author that story for future generations. A future of wonder and possibility.
Thanks for looking back with me...
There are so many of my former colleagues that I wish to thank--and maybe that will be a post down the line. But I really want to tip my cap to special Ed teacher and my partner for over 4 years Jen Rakoczy, my best friend across the hall and Empress of Empathy Diana Denman, my Chewba writing creative consultant Swarrow, my Pirate game companion and the golden voice of Trinity Athletics Matt White, my difference-maker/ keeper of perspective and Frida Khalo fan club president Marna Day, my trifecta of oracles of insights at the far end of the school Erin Helmkamp, Nicole Welch, and Gretchen Mountain, my history pals who always encouraged me to brainstorm about World Affairs Council and to bridge the gaps and help students make the connections between our two fields--Mary Ellen Jutca , Joe Dunn, Lou Majoris--and my carpool partner and rogue educator in constant search of ways to improve educational practice and get kids to actually speak another language "German Josh" Baringer, aka Herr Bear.
These folks, as well as a huge cast of characters from all over the district, helped me to brainstorm some of the most interesting and creative projects for our students. I loved my time at Trinity and I grew so much as a watched eight classes of students graduate... I am forever grateful.
So, find your tribe--in your department, in your school, in your world. Next week, I'll write about online PLNs via Twitter.
