In the AP class last week, we had a mock congressional hearing to judge both President McKinley and President Roosevelt's actions in regards to imperialism. The students had to use documents and historical information to write testimony from the perspective of their historical person. Some struggled with the application skills but with a little help from me and their classmates, they were able to extrapolate the information and evidence they needed. After our test on the 16th, they will begin the Progressive Era. My student teacher, Ms. Kirchmer will begin to team teach with me in those classes next week.

In the Academic USII classes, they are in the middle of the unit on Progressivism. Ms. Kirchmer assigned a very creative project that required the students to research a famous person from that era and create a "Fakebook" page for them. This week the students will look at their classmates' "Fakebook" pages and determine which ones would have been in their "network". For example, the Civil Rights figures will have to locate each other and the Suffragists will have to find each other. They will write historical appropriate posts on each other's walls. Finally on another day, their "networks" will work as a team to determine overall how successful their movements were and what effect, if any, they had on history.  The students were required to use Facts on File, a database that the district pays for and is available in school and at home, for their research. I love the idea for this project because it hits so many skills--research, information processing, application, technology, and evaluation.

Finally, in our ELL. USHistory II class, our focus last week was on vocabulary and map skills. All of the teachers that teach ELL this year are using the same graphic organizer for vocabulary. We are hoping that the consistency will help them across the board in all of their subjects.  Subject wise, we have been talking about Imperialism so it has given us a chance to talk about some of their home countries like Colombia, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and China.

This is a day off from the classroom but not a day off from the work involved. I am grateful for the day to catch up.  I am determined to finish all of my college recommendations for my former students  before returning back to school tomorrow.  It is lengthy assignment but one that must be taken seriously--I would never want to be the reason a student was kept from their dream college.  Students seem to be applying to more and more universities each year; most of the applicants are applying to ten or more. Luckily, with almost all universities, the process has moved online and I no longer have to feed the CNHS letterhead into the printer (and hope I put it in the correct direction). Technology has definitely made this an easier process, at least on the teacher side of it. Now of course, I intend to finish the ones that have already requested a recommendation from me, but from experience I know I will get a few more requests about one week before their applications are due. A teacher's work is never done. ;)