#MLKDay

History is so important. To start our MLK Day story, I started at the beginning when Africans were brought to America to work in the fields as slaves. 

We talked about the Civil War where the Northern States & Southern States fought and Abraham Lincoln signing the "Emancipation Proclamation" into law. 

Even though they were free, the African-Americans were not treated fairly. 

They organized a boycott of the buses to protest the unfair bus policies. "That law was stupid" 

They held marches to protest the unfair treatment

Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous "I have a dream" speech in Washington. 

The students drew a lot of parallels between MLK and Malala, who we read earlier this year. Both of them won Nobel Peace Prize. Both were shot. Both were advocates because things were not fair. 

Teachers play "Indian Bingo"

Staff morale after the break can go a little down, so I highly recommend that you play Indian Bingo. I had never played it before and it was incredibly fun.

Our principal bought lots of little gifts (and one big one: CROCKPOT) and wrapped them. We were around the perimeter of the table where there were 4 pairs of dice. Each person took a turn trying to get doubles. If you rolled doubles, you got to pick a present. 

The school counselor who is from Ireland was the only one who didn't end up with anything to unwrap after that first round. The principal joked "No luck of the Irish!" and she retorted "I can see why its called Indian Bingo" (Our Gwich'in staff had the biggest piles!)

After all the presents had been claimed, you got to open it and see what everyone had. Then came the fun part! The stealing. You rolled the dice and every time you rolled doubles, you could steal a present from someone... That crock pot moved hands many times... 

At the very end, our Irish counselor stole the crock pot from ME and the game was concluded. Lots of fun. I didn't end up with the crock pot, but I did get a nice water bottle & cutting board. 

Honestly, the most fun staff game ever! Great way to come back from break. 

Houdini, Glass-blowing, Crickets, & Rhino Conservation

The students read individual stories on the ipads using Epic! or ReadLive. If they like a story, they recommend it to their friends and it leads to great discussions.

One student read about Houdini and we ended up looking up more videos about him.
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We were reading about volcanos and one of the students wondered "If sand is little rocks, how come it becomes glass and not lava because lava is melted rocks" We watched 3 videos on glassblowing, which they found absolutely fascinating.

Side Note: I think every city needs to have a glassblowing studio to take glass from landfills. I think of the garbage dump here... instead of having the bottle rot away since there is no recycling center, wouldn't it be nice to put them to use?
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We were talking about 3 things we were excited to learn about. One student decided he wanted to help save the rhinos. We looked up the WWF site and he wants to fundraise some money. He wrote that one one of his goals this year. Another student updated her goals to having a job and being in college.

Many Students said the multiplication tables were the hardest thing they did in 2016, but it was often the thing they were most proud of. One student said their proudest thing was giving rabbits to the elders.

One student came back from break and said his favorite present was "crickets" and they were crunchy. Coincidentally, NEWSELA did a great article on edible insects. So several students had "eat crickets" on their lists of things they wanted to try!

Coding in the Arctic

My students coded Dot to be a "hot potato." It was really simple. They made a repeat loop and then Sound 1 was Dot saying "hot potato hot potato hot hot hot and Sound 2 was Dot saying "You're out" By re-arranging the blocks, they made it be long and short durations so it was random.

I can't wait to see what else they will come up with! 

Books

One student took the Bill Clinton biography off the shelf of Presidential Biographies and remarked "Now, they are going to have to make a Donald Trump book."

Another student chimed in "Did they make a Barack Obama book?" Yes, I replied but we didn't have it in the classroom. I would have to order it the next time we did a Scholastic order. This small interaction underscored how important diverse role models are and their stories. There is such a huge gaping hole in our library for diverse books.

One of the things that has made me sad here is the limited book selection at the library. They are hand-me-downs with the word DISCARD emblazoned on many of their covers. There are a lot of great ones in the pile, but a lot of out-dated ones. (I also think of the library of books for my own two boys which are sitting in a dark storage unit since clothing & food made the cut for our weight limit flying in and books can't.) So grateful for these books since the kids treat them like gold. Thanks to the Friends of the Seward Library! (http://www.friendsofsclm.org/used-book-sale/used-books-to-fort-yukon-school) They devour them and all the stories inside. They love scholastic orders, I've never had students so enthusiastic about books. I treat the free book rewards like gold ordering things that I know we need. My Aunt in New York sends me boxes of books because where she lives piles of free books go unclaimed.

"Can you order a Bernie Sander book too?"

Yes, I can.

“Apprentice Style” Education

Instead of being a teacher and students, we should be mentors and protege. We are helping give them experiences they need to succeed.

“The Apprentice” works because it divided people into two groups and gave them the same assignment, which they interpreted in different ways. They were then judged by how successful they completed the challenge:

-Sometimes they won because they went out of the box.
-Other times they won because the other group strayed too far from the criteria. 

-Sometimes it was because they were more successful: having more people come to their event or raising more money. 

Could you imagine if the classroom was made into this “Apprentice Style” Education? The teacher could assign the task in large groups, small, groups, pairs, or individuals. The teacher could set these groups differently each time to ensure different groups of students worked together. At the beginning, there would be a set objective with open-ended interpretation. 

1. Project Manager: When working in groups, there should always be a project manager and people need to pick different roles. Who is the best artist in the group? Maybe they design the posters. Who wont stay on task? Lets assign them to work with someone who is vigilant. At first Project Manager should be by volunteer, with the understanding that everyone should have a turn with it at least once. 
2. “The Boardroom”: Debrief time. In the classroom, you should have students go around and talk about what went well, what didn’t, and how to improve next time. They should focus mainly on self-improvement, but if there was someone not pulling their weight, it should be modeled in a respectful way. (“X, it made me frustrated when we were all working and you were siting in the corner and not participating” X would get a chance to respond and students can give suggestions on how to improve this behavior in the future) 
3. “You’re Fired”: Members of the different groups could then vote on which project they thought was successful of the original assignment instead of the teacher picking a winner. 

Instead of focusing on small assignments, you could be focusing on real practical experiences. How do you have a fundraiser dinner? How would you write and market a kids book? Art Gallery? Newspaper/magazine/radio/tv show? Sport tournament? Auction? Carnival? Pop-up cafe? Marathon? Community clean-up? Tour company? A shop? A lawn business? All of those are invaluable life experiences. 

How do you poll people? How do you modify what you want to do with what your audience wants? How do you modify with your budget or time constraints? It involves so much design thinking and problem-solving. Such a great way to look at education in a pretty easy to replicate format! 

Happy New Year

January 2016 was rough for me. Coming back to work after maternity leave is always rough... Not knowing where you'll be next year makes it even rougher... For once in my life, the support of my family & friends wasn't enough and I had to seek help from a counselor. Even then, I suffered from my first panic attacks and swinging emotions. It is so hard to stay motivated and positive when you are so disheartened... and I found out how strong & how fragile I am. In some ways, I wish 2016 hadn't happened but, it has built me stronger and honed my focus.

2017 will be transitional year for me. I look to the Pope, the Dalai Lama, and oddly Frank Raegan from Blue Bloods. Stay positive. Find solutions. Rise above the fray. Most of all I will be a voice to the voiceless. I will make sure that I am heard and a part of these difficult conversations that will be coming up. I am ready now, so thank you 2016.