Fund for Teachers Fellowship

I am so thrilled right now!  I just received the news that I was awarded a Fund for Teacher's grant for educational travel.  The program funds teacher travel with the purpose of enriching their classroom teaching.  I wrote a grant this winter break.  I poured my energy into writing a perfect grant, one that would give me experiences to build interest in the classroom. All of the things I've read about but could never picture... I wasn't sure I'd be given the chance to take this trip of a lifetime.  And now, I'm obsessed by thoughts of this wonderful learning experience I will get to have this summer.  :)

I'm posting the itinerary and also the narrative I wrote, because I spent so much time figuring out what I wanted to do with this trip and writing it up.  

Day	Drive from __ to __	Miles	Time	Activities
1	Lakeland to Charleston, SC	479m	6h 45 min	Spend day at Charleston, SC Explore and photograph the architecture of Charleston and connect to history of United States through different time periods.
2	Charleston, SC to Charlotte, NC	208m	3h 20m	Visit Greensboro, NC site of first sit-in of Civil Rights movement and the International Civil Rights Center and Museum Using this lesson plan
3	Charlotte, NC to Monticello, VA	270m	4h 46 m	Visit the home of Thomas Jefferson and explore the history of the birth of a nation
4	Monticello, VA to Harper’s Ferry, WV Harper’s Ferry, WV to Cass, WV	160m 35m	2.5h 1h 20 m	Stop in Appomatox, VA on drive Civil War and abolition research, history of place (location of town=water powered mill, strategic) free walking tour of upper town Harper’s Ferry National Park, Living History workshop John Brown Museum
5	Cass, WV to Beckley, WV	122m	2h 12m	spend morning at the Cass Scenic Railroad State Park- exploring the logging industry and how it has affected VW; 1900’s preserved village, classic steam engine to Bald Knob Run (4.5 hours) head to Beckley, WV and set up camp
6	Beckley, WV to Cumberland Gap National Park	234m	4h	Spend day at Beckley Coal Mining Museum exploring the underground coal mine with tour guide and homestead settlement recreation from 1840 to 1910 Check in at the Cumberland Gap Inn
7	Cumberland Gap National Park to Mammoth Cave KY	188m	3h 10 m	Cumberland Gap National Park- Hensley Settlement Tour- explore the homestead and living history village preserved from the 1850’s Drive to Mammoth Cave National Park and set up tent
8				Mammoth Caving Tour (3.5 hours, exploring the geological structures in the longest cave system in the world, African American and Native history links.   Research book: "Journey to the Bottomless Pit: The Story of Stephen Bishop and Mammoth Cave"
9	Mammoth Cave, KY to Oak Ridge, TN Oak Ridge, TN to Nashville, TN	175m 163m	3h 15m 2h 30 m	Visit the secret city where the Manhattan Project took place- driving tour visit the American Museum of Science and Energy Drive to Nashville, TN for the night
10	Nashville TN to Elephant Rocks State Park, MO Elephant Rocks State Park Topeka, KS	280m 345m	5h 5h 45m	Brief Stop at Elephant Rocks State Park, geological history of earth Brown v Board of Education lodging in Topeka
11	Topeka KS to Cottonwood Falls, KS Cottonwood, KS to Lindsborg, KS	75m 77m	1h 30m 1h 30 m	Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve Lindborg is a small Swedish town settled in 1860 (second wave of immigration), stay at Swedish Country Inn
12	Lindsborg to Mesa Verde, CO	517m	11h 30m	driving day Economy Lodge or similar nearby motel
13	Mesa Verde to Ouray, CO	105m	2h 16m	Mesa Verde National Park, Mesa Verde CO- Visit the museum which details Native American pueblo life, take tour of mesa verde (Cliff Palace Photography Tours)  which involves climbing the ladders into the cliff dwelling drive to Ouray. Stay at Miner’s Inn
14	Ouray, CO to Dinosaur National Monument, Jensen UT	229m	4.5h	explore Dinosaur National Monument and Quarry
15	Jensen UT to Salt Lake City, UT	189,	3h 15m	830am-3pm Rafting trip to photograph petroglifts: http://adrift.com/split-mountain/ drive to Salt Lake City or nearby
16	Salt Lake City UT to  San Francisco, CA- travel day	735m	11h	driving day
17				Travel to local sites by Muni/Trolley Visit Oakland, explore Black Panthers history Literary history map
18	Travel from San Francisco CA to Big Basin Redwoods State Park, CA Big Basin Redwoods State Park to Santa Cruz to San Francisco	66m 54m	1h 15m 45 min + return 1.5h	visit the Big Basin State Park Santa Cruz- Explore the tourism history of CA (Leftmost city in the USA as a resource)
19	San Francisco to Yosemite National Park to Manzanar National Park, CA-	461m	7h OR 5h	Contact the Committee for pilgrimage Manazar   Visit Eastern California History Museum in Independence, CA
20-21	Manzanar CA to Grand Canyan National Park, AZ- 2 days	535m	8h 30 min	Mule trip- 3 hours into the South Rim with interpretive tour
22	Tombstone, AZ	406m	6h	Tour of historical old west town, fact or fiction
23-25,	Return HOME to Lakeland, FL	2010m	30h
		8118 miles

The historian George Macaulay Trevelyan said, “If one could make alive again for other people some cobwebbed skein of old dead intrigues and breathe breath and character into dead names and stiff portraits. That is history to me!”  I want what every teacher wants...to make learning come alive for my students.  I am a teacher at a public Montessori middle school, where I teach an integrated language arts, research and social studies curriculum.  I teach a multi-grade, two year cycle that covers a variety of history standards grouped thematically (instead of chronologically).  Every year, I begin with lessons on historical research and thinking like a historian.  Then, over a two year cycle, I present six week units in: Foundations of the Nation, Civil Rights (including Triangle Trade, Abolition, Civil War, and Civil Rights), Civics, Economics (including Industrial Revolution, Western Expansion, and the Depression), War and Peace, and Human Rights.  My school serves seventh and eighth graders coming from a variety of cultural, educational and socio economic backgrounds, and yet we have a unique model with time dedicated to inquiry and and critical thinking.

History and research are typically areas where students feel disengaged.  Because they have previously experienced history through textbooks and lectures, rote learning of a series of facts and dates, they often feel little connection to it.  In Marzano’s book, The Highly Engaged Classroom, he discusses the importance of teachers designing lesson plans for engagement.  He and his research team detail a number of ways that teachers can help students feel excited by and connected to learning.  He states, “When a teacher indirectly communicates, “This is fun!” or “This is exciting!” it is contagious for students.”  He suggests that personal stories and movie clips or media related to learning enhance the students’ emotional engagement.  In addition, through compelling introductions to new material that highlight the context and possible real life connections, teachers can facilitate student interest and a feeling of efficacy.  

Teachers can not manufacture experience; it has to be lived.  Two years ago, I was able to visit Philadelphia, the birthplace of our nation.  As I sat in Independence Hall, I got chills when the tour guide told us that in that very spot, on March 4, 1797, our nation had its first peaceful transfer of power when George Washington stepped down and John Adams was inaugurated.  Later, when I taught my students about the birth of our nation, I remembered that emotional connection I felt.  When I showed them pictures of that historic site, the weight of that moment became more real, for them, and for me.  I would like to feel that kind of connection to everything I teach.  Author Hannah Farnham Lee said that,”A mere compilation of facts presents only the skeleton of History; we do but little for her if we cannot invest her with life, clothe her in the habiliments of her day, and enable her to call forth the sympathies of succeeding generations.”  I want history to come alive for me, and I want to transmit that enthusiasm to my students.  

There is a wonderful program funded through the National Endowment of the Humanities called “Teaching with Historic Places.”  The program works to provide lesson plans based on registered national historic sites.  It combines exploring the site as well as the history of the site through primary sources, architecture, and readings.  Using real historic places creates curiosity and excitement about the people who lived long ago and the events they experienced.

Part 2

The main focus of my trip is to explore the geography and living history sites related to the curriculum I teach so that I can have a deeper understanding of history.  In addition, I will collect primary source materials in the form of first hand accounts, photographs, maps, video footage, artifacts, and other documents to use in my thematic units.  Over the course of my three week trip, I will explore sites related to the pre-Columbian, revolutionary, civil war, industrial revolution, and civil rights time periods.  Although the road trip will not unfold chronologically, I am able to research many different time periods over a relatively short period of time (25 days).  Because I am attempting, as often as possible, to utilize home stays with friends and family, and because a cross country trip involves much driving, there are a few days of simply driving through ecosystems and natural preserves that are different from my own.  

I will begin my trip by conducting an architectural research study in Charleston, SC.  Charleston is important because it has 2800 historical buildings which encompass 8 different architectural styles from colonial through modern times. By analyzing the form, function and structure of the different buildings, I will have insight into the lifestyle and philosophy of the people who lived there.  I can apply this research to my own small town, to a smaller scale, with my students.   From there, I will head over to Greensboro, NC, where, in 1960, four university freshman staged an instrumental sit in which later led to the reversal of Woolworth’s racial segregation policies.  I will visit the International Civil Rights Center and Museum which has preserved the site where students led their nonviolent protest.  

Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, is next on my list.  There, I will gather resources to explore not only the foundation of our nation, but also explore Mulberry Row, where enslaved people lived and worked on Jefferson’s plantation.  Then, I will make a brief stop at the Appomattox Court House where General Lee surrendered his Confederate troops, and I will head over to Harper’s Ferry, WV where I will visit the John Brown Museum and the national historic park.  I will gather resources so that my students can do a mock trial of John Brown, famous abolitionist who led a bloody revolt.  I will need to find primary sources related to his guilt and innocence.  

From there, I will explore a living village dedicated to the logging industry at Cass National Scenic Railroad Park and a tour of a coal mine in Beckley, WV.  At these locations, I will gain a deeper understanding of the causes and course of child labor at the turn of the century.  I will explore a living history homestead settlement at Cumberland Gap, and I will pass through Oak Ridge, TN, the Secret City where the Manhattan Project created the atomic bomb.  I will then go underground to explore the longest cave system in the world at Mammoth Cave, KY.  Deep in the caves, I will be able to see, first hand, artifacts from the Native American Woodland tribes over 2000 years ago.  On my way across the country, I will stop at Elephant Rocks State park where, 1.5 billion years ago, molten lava pushed to the surface to create this unique geological feature.  I’ll pass through Topeka, KS, and visit the Brown v. the Board of Education national site. I will pass through largest remaining Kansas prairie preserve.  

In the next week, I will explore by raft the Green River, stopping to examine Dinosaur National Monument and the Fremont Indian petroglyphs from over 800 years ago.  I will explore the Native American cliff dwelling pueblo society at the Mesa Verde National Park.  From there, I will cross to San Francisco, CA where I will explore Oakland, CA, specifically looking for primary sources relate to the Black Panthers and their contribution to the Civil Rights movement. On our cross back home, I will stop at Manzanar National Historic Site, where, during WWII, Japanese Americans were interned.  I will explore the Grand Canyon, taking a mule trip down into the canyon to explore the territory cleared by the Civilian Conservation Corp as a part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal during the Great Depression.  Finally, I will stop in Tombstone, AZ, where I will look for primary source materials related to Billy the Kid, so students can examine fact and fiction related to western outlaws.  I will also explore the town which is a replica of what a Gold Mine town would have looked like during the Gold Rush.

Part 3

Historical thinking is an act of interpreting multiple perspectives.  As a teacher, I have a multitude of goals.  One of the most important goals, for me, is to understand the different viewpoints in history.  Depending on the storyteller, the story changes, but there is evidence that makes some things indisputable.  I want to interact with history, to be a part of it.  When I read about the children in the coal mines of West Virginia, I want to know the feeling of being in the dark, the weight of the world above me.  This trip will give me the time and experiences to build this deeper historical understanding.  

In addition, I want to inspire my students, to be a role model historian who asks questions, explores, and analyzes.  Research has proven that teacher enthusiasm and knowledge both have a significant impact on student engagement.  

Finally, for years, I have toyed with using the idea of creating video introductions to my units, with a provocative question and a context that connects to the lives of my students.  First hand experience in the settings in which historical events took places will give me more ideas for how to connect to the world.

Student Growth and Learning

Students will benefit in many ways from this fellowship.  First, and foremost, they will benefit with increased engagement.  Students are motivated by real places, primary sources, and expert opinions.  They enjoy mock trials, and argumentation.   I will be better able to facilitate a deeper understanding for and interest in many different aspects of history.  They will benefit from my increased knowledge and understanding of historical content.  

Additionally, this research will lead me to using a new structure within the classroom, one better aligned with the aims of the new common core standards.  I will gain valuable knowledge of a variety of primary sources outside of the textbook learning.  Research, inquiry, and analysis of primary sources will lead students to build their critical thinking abilities.  They will have a better understanding of cause and effect, chronological reasoning, multiple perspectives, understanding historical context, interpretation, and synthesis.  Students will feel a great connection to the history we learn, much more than simple rote learning.

Benefit to school community

There are many ways that my school and professional community will benefit from this deeper understanding I feel.  In middle school, students typically pull away from their parents, and parents long for a way to feel connected to their children’s educational experience.  I will share my introductory video hooks with parents, along with ways they can participate in their child’s deeper understanding of topics, movies they can watch together, places they can visit.  This will create a collaborative community.  

Professionally, colleagues will benefit from this experience as well.  I will keep a detailed blog of my learning which I will share with my peers.  This will include videos, primary source documents, photographs, architecture, and oral interviews.  I will include lesson plan ideas on the blog, and will solicit opinions and ideas from my peers, so that I can benefit from their wisdom and knowledge as well.  I will use the lesson plan template for the Teaching with Historic Places website (http://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/) and will submit a minimum of two lesson plans for considerations on their website.

PLAN FOR FELLOWSHIP IMPLEMENTATION OF LEARNING

Goals: My overall goal is to engage students in historical research using primary sources ….  Specifically, my goals are

1. To gather primary sources from a variety of different time periods.
2. To deepen my understanding of geography and history related to different parts of the country and different time periods.
3. To facilitate critical thinking about the connection between locations and events that took place there.
4. To create and share a number of lesson plans with a video hook and primary sources related to a variety of lesson I teach biannually
5. To share my enriched understanding through application to presenting at the American Montessori Society national conference, creation of a blog with resources, and submission of lesson plans to the Teaching with Historic Places website.

Strategies:  In order to accomplish these goals, I will

1. Keep a blog with photographs, videos, journaling, and research to document my learning in the six historical themes I teach.  
2. Use footage, facts, and photographs to create engaging videos to introduce the context, significance, and each unit.  
3. Collect primary sources at historical museums and sites (including oral interview).
4. Organize resources to facilitate student independent and cooperative research
5. Write lesson plans in the format of Teaching with National Historic Places in order to submit for use by other teachers.
6. Apply to present the lesson structure and plans at the American Montessori Society conference in

Outcomes:  

1. Students will demonstrate markers of engagement (Marzano, 2011) energy, interest, and perceived importance and perceived efficacy.
2. Students will analyze primary sources including historic sites and primary sources.
3. Students will demonstrate an awareness for multiple perspectives in history.
4. Students will apply their learning about historic places to research of local historic places.
5. Through sharing my experiences and exploration, other teachers will use historic places to teach with with, in the long term, affect people’s appreciation for national sites and dedication to their preservation.  

Mathcounts

We just got done our yearly MathCounts competition.  I was very proud of the kids.  They gave it their all for the few weeks we prepared for it.  One of the side effects of teaching all of the subjects is that I'm stretched in many directions.  This year, I'm doing some pretty involved projects...I directed the school play, am working with the students to participate in Model United Nations, will coach the kids through the Scholastic Book Bowl, am participating in the Map Your World project...and MathCounts.

There are schools near us with thousands of kids to recruit their team.  They work all year, every week, to build their problem solving skills.  We, on the other hand, are light-weights.  We enjoy working together, but our competitive streak runs thin.  (Well, maybe mine does...this year, after the competition, the kids told me they want to start earlier next year, and really put their all into it.)  I'm excited for them, and willing to facilitate a more involved team next year.  I figure we can set things up earlier.  Maybe they'll enjoy a course through Art of Problem Solving.  (The website has tons of mini problem solving videos.)

If you want to add a little fun to your class, start a MathCounts club.  They give you a box of fun, engaging projects and lots of tips.  Best of all... the club membership and box of activities is FREE!!

Spoken Word

Last year, I planned an awesome spoken word unit. The students amazed me with their brave hearts, sharing so much of themselves in their writing.  This summer, I was inspired to visit the NuYorican Poet's Cafe in NYC.  I didn't plan to read any of my own poetry.  In fact, I didn't even bring anything with me, but there was this fundraiser for a group of kids attending the Spoken Word Slam competition in California, and a young girl trying to raise money for a film about struggling poets...For awhile, no one stepped up on the stage, and it looked as if the fundraiser would be a bust.  I used my phone to go into my Google Drive, and, lo and behold, I had some poems stashed in there...mostly drafts I'd never revisited or poems from my college year, but I only had to pick two.  A few others stepped up as well.  I didn't realize until after I got on the stage that this was actually a competition, and they'd be holding up scores for me after my reading.  No worries.  I wasn't the best;  I wasn't the worst . (I came in second.)  I can look back and say I did it, which is more than many people can say.  And, I got one of my favorite self-photos out of it.  :)

Starting September, I'll be hosting a small, local poetry reading in Lakeland, FL once a month.  I'm hoping I can expand it to include young people, after we're going strong.  Everyone needs a place for their voice to be heard.  :)

Deconstructing Standards

One of my big tasks for myself this summer has been to create math pretests and lesson cards so that I can individualize in class more.  I want to be able to teach specific small groups of students lessons they need while other students work on tasks to practice what they need.  In this way, I can individualize, but not by sorting the kids into high, middle and low.  Every lesson might have different students.  It also means I'll have time to give lessons to students who need extra challenges, as well.

I'm toying with a structure that can tie all of this in together, because I really enjoy doing cooperative group tasks and application projects, as well.  I know I will be using a lot of interactive math notebook work, and will give differentiated menu choices so students have some time available for exploring on their own.  I'd really like to include some math history, as well.

I've done a lot of work on this, this summer, gathering tremendous amounts of resources.  My stumbling block has been putting together a student friendly list of standards, one that narrows down exactly what students will need to do in a language they (and I) can understand.  I want my list to cover pre-7th grade skills and span over into pre-algebra.  From there, I will give the students unit pre-tests covering these skills and will analyze to see what specific lessons they need.  (I'll use a spreadsheet to show who missed which questions.)

Deconstructing standards, though, isn't a matter of just finding a list and using it.  I've been looking into each standard and trying to figure out what I want the kids to be able to do.  I've also had to figure out what they should have been able to do from previous years.  I am hoping that this beginning list will be a good start for what skills to pre-test, student independently (in order to catch up), and receive small groups instruction.  I posted my first go at the number sense 7th grade standards unpacked on my new Teachers Pay Teachers store.  I'm hoping others can use them, and maybe give me some feedback on what I should add.

A Fresh New Year

Four more days of official vacation.  I'm excited about a new year, but I can't help feeling a little sad that my days of reading in the hammock by the pool and sleeping past 8:00am are coming to an end.  It is crazy to think that so much time has passed since my last post, a whole two years and all of the learning that I didn't log.  I am hoping that I will be more on top of things this year.

Things that have changed:

1. I used to hate teaching math, and now, teaching 7th grade math is one of my favorite times of the day.  I've spent the summer researching, revamping, and revitalizing my math lesson plans.  I've analyzed the common core and Florida standards, figured out what "I can" statements I want students to be able to make, planned pretests and lesson cards similar to the SRA Math Lab boxes, and found what fun hands on projects and extensions I want to offer for each cycle unit.  This year, I will even be presenting a talk about motivating middle school math students at the American Montessori Society annual conference.  Once I cozied up to math and started having fun with it, I felt more knowledgeable and had so much more fun.
2. This year, my co-teacher and I will be doing block scheduling.  I will teach a 6 week Social Studies/Language integrated unit to one group of 30 while she has the other 30 students for Science/Language.  After 6 weeks, we'll switch.  This will really allow us to facilitate deep understanding of the content and context of our curriculum.  I hope to pretty up the lessons I wrote myself and post them on my TPT store.  
3. This summer, I went to the coolest training ever.  I was trained in implementing the Montessori Model United Nations curriculum.  I'll be guiding my students through a small version of it this year, but next year, I hope to be able to bring a group of delegates to present at the MMUN in NYC.  Imagine you are 12 or 13 years old, sitting in a cushioned chair that the ambassador from China usually sits in, around the room...the buzz of negotiations between students from all of the country and more than 13 other countries, adolescents all focused on playing the role of their assigned country, challenged to come up with solutions for the world's most pressing problems.  I get chills just thinking of it.  
4. I think we'll be starting this school year with, amazingly, all of our intersessions planned. Intersessions are always one of the most fun parts of our school, but scheduling them seems to be so hard during the school year.  Between my co-teacher's awesome ideas and mine, it looks like we'll have a very connected set of trips to really enhance the content with which students will be working.

There are more changes, but I do not want to post for too long.  Setting my phone reminder to post each week, at least once.  

I’ve begun summer, sort of. My summer will consist of a series of cool trainings and hanging out with my children.  My favorite thing about summer, though, is the chance to read, read, read.  I read a book this past weekend, and it was a joy to completely lose myself in it.  The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly is a book that completely stole my heart.  I simultaneously wanted to be Calpurnia and save her from history.  Calpurnia is a young girl in 1899, trying to figure out how she can grow up to be a scientist while dealing with the educational demands of young ladies at the time…In school, she is graded for her posture, hand-sewing, and lace making. Her mother is trying to teach her house-keeping and cooking.  Meanwhile, Calpurnia slinks away any chance she gets to spend time with her naturalist grandfather, digging in the mud for worms, collecting and logging specimens, classifying new plants, reading Darwin and trying her best to avoid becoming a debutante. Even though I don’t really like bugs and plants, I identified with Calpurnia.  She is a girl trying to make a place for herself in the world, even though she is kind of different from all the other girls.    I won’t spoil the book for you, but highly recommend it!

When I told my marine biologist co-teacher about how much I liked the book, she passed me Emma and Charles: The Darwin’s Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman.  I’m about halfway through, and I am learning so much!  I never knew all of the scientists that were getting close to figuring out the same theory (or pieces of it) as Darwin.  I also never knew how religious Darwin’s wife was.  How incredible.  I can’t wait to find out how they deal with their differences of perspectives on the world.

I say I have  ”sort of”  begun summer because I’ve been in class for the last four days, ten hours a day.  No breaks. (Not even for lunch!)  I've learned a lot about what not  to do.  I also learned some great strategies for teaching reading skills.  We’ve got a great text, Literacy and Learning in the Content Areas by Sharon Kane.  It is a thick book with tons of wonderful activities that I think (hope) we will enjoy.  Some of the important things to help support struggling (and even non-struggling) readers include building background and vocabulary, teaching comprehension monitoring skills and teaching how to boil things down to the relevant information and summarize.  Here is an interesting podcast from the author of another book I've recently read:

Janet Allen Podcast

Cast a Vote: Should We Enter the War of 1812

I've been exploring the use of games in the classroom.  This website is cool.  In a short, 90 minute period, students learn multiple perspectives of people living in the United States in 1812.  After analyzing their different viewpoints, they debate, in small groups, whether or not the United States should enter the war.  I'm always up for an interactive activity that gets my students considering many different ways of thinking about issues.  I don't think this will come up for next year when we explore world history, but just for fun, some students might like to explore it.