How Do I Build Community In My Classroom

It is all about relationships for me. I make it a goal of mine to learn something about every student every week. The faster a solid relationship can be built the the faster trust will set in for all parties involved. Too many times I hear students say "my teachers know nothing about me," I find that sad and then ask myself why you/they became a teacher.

I will try and explain a couple things I do to build that trust and community. 1) learn my kids names ASAP. 2) Get down and dirty with them on projects and lessons while learning with those students. 3) When a student asks a question that I do not know the answer to I always tell them "I don't know, but lets find out."  4) Show them how successful they can be when working in a small group.

Any AP class is a hard class for students, or at least for some students. For students to grow and be successful academically they need to know that teamwork and communication is key.  Trying to analyze 4 different historical thinking skills can be extremely difficult to understand and comprehend. If you can communicate those skills on paper you are going to have great success in the class and in future class.

How do we stop negative attitudes from coming into my classroom?  I understand we are in a tough educational setting in Michigan, but what can be done to stop the negativity?

Research in APUSH

I remember when I was in high school and college, many many moons ago, all we did was write I thought were research papers. In reality is was more just writing essays that were descriptive and I really did not take any research skills away.


10 plus years later I know realize I need to help my students in understanding different research methods.  Any student can Google a question and get the answer. That skill is not hard to master, my 4 year old is doing that these days.

I now spend most of my time teaching the Point-of-View, Historical Context, Intended Audience, Purpose of various historical topics. This year was the first time I started to use these skills in my teaching and it took a while for my kids to truly understand what they mean and how they can use them in writing and analysis. I personally don't think I did a good job in teaching these skills for my group of kids. I made many notes, throughout the school year, to make changes for next year. This year taught me a lot about myself, my kids, and the college board.  This summer I am in charge of online learning and I will be spending numerous hours reflecting and making major changes to my APUSH curriculum.

Fouch

Flash Blog for #Flipclass

I typically do not do a lot of student-centered learning in class. My main argument is I do not have time to allow my kids to create so much content. Teaching in the AP environment does not give me a lot of options for student creation.  If you have any suggestions on how to incorporate more of this please let me know.

With that being said, I have allowed my students to create a final exam project for Delia Bush's 5th-grade classroom.  They are creating lesson plans for their student and the kids actually love doing this. We took 3 days to stop APUSH and created the first of two lessons. It really helped with the moral of the class last week, in a time of year that is hard to teach.

***Had to put Cooper and Sully to bed and had to take a 10 min break.***

Also, it was Sully's 1st birthday party yesterday.

I really want to find more ways for my students to create more in class but I am worried it is going to take more time away from learning critical thinking skills that my students need to master in order to have success on the APUSH exam.  FYI - I have 4 chapters left to cover and get them ready for the exam on May 8th.

I Teach in Fake Life!!!

This is the million dollar question that I struggle with on a daily basis. Teaching an AP class makes you feel like you teach in augmented reality, thanks CB.  My kiddos are asked to do so much in so little time. 50 prompt driven Multiple Choice questions, 4 short answer questions, 1 document based question, 1 long essay question all  have to be done in little over 3 hours. In my opinion it is not really fair but what I do know is that I am just a little minion to the CB.

I do not have time to cover all the little things in US History, this year the CB had a redesign for APUSH and I have to say I like the changes for the most part. It is the lack of resources and scoring guidelines I hate.  Should I spend time going over the little parts of US History or should I spend time going over the big ideas and hope the little things stick?  This year I have done the least amount of "flipping"I have ever done. I am spending most of time going over process and skill vs content. I honestly feel I am cheating my kids because we are not covering all parts of US History. There are days where it seems like my kids understand the process or skill then tomorrow comes and I feel like I am 4 steps behind.

Is this what I am supposed to be blogging about?

The following Historical Thinking Skills are the most important for my kids to understand where everything falls in line for US History.

 Historical Causation, Intended Audience, Point of View, Purpose are the areas I have spent the most time in this year. However, there are many more they have to know like Continuity and Change over Time, Periodization, and synthesis. It never stops in APUSH.

Well I have to get back to the #flipclass chat. Let me know if you read this.

Sunday Afternoon...

...I spent this afternoon, like I do most Sunday's, at school getting ready for my week in AP US History.  However, today was little different.  30+ students showed up to review for their mid term exams this week.  I feel honored and privileged to be able to teach at school where the kids are willing to come in on Sunday.  When I got home the emails from parents saying Thank You blew me away.  This is not me trying to brag, I do this for my kids in class. They want to be successful and they work extremely hard. I hope the review helped them understand some tough content that they need to know that the College Board expects them to understand. 

Should my posts be longer?

This Is What Matters

Last night I had to give a brief but very important presentation to our Athletic Boosters at school.  I was lucky enough to celebrate Andy as the Athlete of the Month for Hockey.  I have been coaching hockey for 4 years for our high school team.  Andy is the epitome of the student-athlete in every way.  He is our captain and works hard on the ice but even harder in the classroom. This past weekend, as President of National Honor Society, he organized Hockey for Hearts benefit hockey game that supported heart and health awareness.  I have learned a lot from teaching and coaching, and I hope my 2 boys at home will grow up with same work ethic and determination that Andy shows on a daily basis.  It has been a privilege to know him in the classroom and on the ice.

It has been a while...

My last post was in 2013, yeah that is problem.  I really want to start blogging on a regular basis.  I don't want to make excuses for myself but I have a extremely busy life right now with hockey coaching, 2 kids and awesome wife at home, and teaching a full load of AP US History.  Blogging is on my mind but "Time" is always the issue.  Someday's there is just not enough time in the day. There are days I would much rather blog and get my thoughts out vs. grading and scoring AP essays. I need to stay up to date with this blog.