Tuff Stuff

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We have started to read The Outsiders in my 8th grade class. I am using the novel to explore the following essential questions:

  • Is it ever necessary to question the status quo?
  • Does labeling and stereotyping influence how we look at and understand the world?
  • What are the causes and consequences of prejudice and how does an individual’s response to it reveal his/her morals, ethics, and values?

One of the main themes we are investigating to gain a better understanding is the idea of a search for self. In the novel, Ponyboy has all the worries of a boy his age; is he strong, brave, or handsome enough to match up to the masculine ideal? In class we are discussing identity and how is created. How do we help create our own identities? How successful are we? How much do other people’s ideas about us influence the way we interact with society?

I asked the student to use Glogster as a way to create a poster that reflects the things that they think are “tuff” In the book Ponyboy explains that “tuff” is really cool.

Here were the basic guidelines:

  • Use Glogster for your display-
  • fabric samples of tuff materials
  • jewelry
  • album jackets or jacket copies of tuff musicians
  • nail polish and lipstick samples
  • titles of tuff books, videos, or movies
  • lists or pictures of tuff people in your life
  • any other tuff, appropriate ideas you would like to include
  • photographs

In effort to learn more about Glogster, I created the following poster:

You can also see it here, if the embed has trouble loading. People can argue that Glogster is nothing more than a glorified poster, but I found the tool very interesting. Easy to use and very intuitive, it can be used in many ways to help students create multi-media presentations showing their understanding of themes and ideas. I found it fun to use and hope they will too.

I am now thinking of other ways to use this tool. Here are some ideas:

Knowledge: arrange, define, duplicate, label, list, memorize, name, order, recognize, relate, recall, repeat, reproduce state.

Arrange and Label a series of words, themes, moods, literary terms with images, video or songs

Comprehension: classify, describe, discuss, explain, express, identify, indicate, locate, recognize, report, restate, review, select, translate,

Students can create short Youtube clips in which they discuss content learned in class and create a glogster where the video clips follow a chain of events. Or they can use a video clip to explain a corresponding image.

Application: apply, choose, demonstrate, dramatize, employ, illustrate, interpret, operate, practice, schedule, sketch, solve, use, write.

Illustrate the setting of a novel using images, video, and music.

Analysis: analyze, appraise, calculate, categorize, compare, contrast, criticize, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, examine, experiment, question, test.

Analyze a central film clip with labels, stickers, and other video clips.

Synthesis: arrange, assemble, collect, compose, construct, create, design, develop, formulate, manage, organize, plan, prepare, propose, set up, write.

This one is pretty self- explanatory.

Evaluation: appraise, argue, assess, attach, choose compare, defend estimate, judge, predict, rate, core, select, support, value, evaluate.

Create a two-sided Glog which argues to opposing views with images and video.

The possibilities are endless really. I will be using this tool more in the future. Have you ever used Glogs? If so in what capacity? What ideas can you think of? Final note, as I am sure you will see in the comments, there is also an EduGlogster site.

Random Thought

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In the world in which I want to live, want my daughters to live, in the world I am trying to shape, I do not want young people being “taught” how to think solely in lines of what is or  has been. I do not want them to tow the line and/or accept what “is” as a concrete reality. I want them to know enough about the world and understand the people and other species who inhabit it, to make    informed, honest, and compassionate choices in how they live their lives and treat their fellow earthlings.

What Had I Done?

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In 7th grade history class where we have just begun studying the Industrial Revolution. As we lay the ground work for the unit, the curriculum suggested we take a look at a few key terms: laissez faire economics, factories, stocks, corporations, communism, unions and  capitalism.


Fair enough.  This is my cup of tea. This is what I love to teach. I started with a very simple, what I thought was unbiased and objective look, at the basic principles of capitalism. We discussed, corporations, shareholders, profit margin, competition, etc… The kids seemed very interested.

Then we moved on to Communism. We discussed labor, unions, strikes, means of production, etc…

By the end of the class, I had a few kids yell out, “I want to be a communist!” Woah, what had just happened? All day, I have been thinking about how we teach. What had I done? Even though it was not my intention had I skewed their views to match mine? Or had they simply, at the age of twelve, been able to see the fundamental flaws in a system that is rarely questioned.

I explained that we had simply looked at very basic outlines of both economic systems and that we would be looking more closely at them both throughout the unit, as they were the major outcomes of the Industrial Revolution. But will looking at child labor, factory conditions, both then and now in the developing world, build a case of Capitalism? How do I do that? Should I do that? Isn’t the world we live in constantly bombarding them with cases for capitalism? From the media they consume, to the clothes they wear, to the food they eat, to the images of themselves they are forced to have?  Who is making the case that maybe there is an alternative system? Not necessarily a communist one, but a system that doesn’t involve factories in China, a system that doesn’t generate wealth for 1% of the world’s population. A system that may be, what’s the word? Fair? Just? Sane?

While we often accuse young people of being unfeeling, materialistic, and shallow, (the very outcomes of life lived on the basis of possession and profit) they are often very kind, fair and egalitarian. They look out for people, this despite the fact that they have been marketed toward their entire lives. So what does that say about them that they recognize poor labor practices as not fair? That making money should not be the end all in the human story?

Despite the fact that nearly all international schools boast a litany of Values and Mission Statements which emphasize camaraderie, global citizenship, compassion, and honesty, I felt like I had done something wrong by encouraging them to question Capitalism. As if the ghost of Joseph McCarthy was somehow looming in the halls. It is 2010 and I was afraid I would get a parent email chastising me for spreading propaganda. When all I had done was try to lay out the two philosophies at their most basic level. One is designed to create profit and wealth for its shareholders at any cost. The other to empower the labor force to gain control of their own wealth.  Is there more to it than that?

In an effort to make sure my students have as fair and balanced an experience as they possible, I have since sent out a Twitter notice asking for any ardent Capitalists to Skype into my classroom and make their case. I have also arranged a debate with a fellow teacher in which I will take the Capitalist view and channel Milton Friedman and Ronald Reagan.

But do I need to do all this? Should I feel guilty if I tried my best to be objective and the kids saw the flaws in a system that is at its core unjust? Anyway, would love your thoughts, ideas, or suggestions on where to go next.

Keep in mind that we have only briefly discussed Communism. We have not dealt with the regimes that came about, or the subsequent transformations of Marx’s simple philosophy. That is coming soon…

Maybe tomorrow I just sing this song and move on:

No Flash. Just Read.

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I was going to simply Tweet this latest video and ask my question, but felt that since I haven’t blogged here in such a long time, and the fact that I am sitting here not doing much of anything, and since my post revolves around the idea that words are powerful, I thought I would write a few more than 140 characters. Take that Twitter! Blogging is not dead.

I found this link from the Huffington Post on one of my wandering journeys of the Interwebs, and I was not sure how I felt about the video below. Please watch and come back for some thought sharing.


The article says that:

Some of these content creators have taken advantage of Apple’s new platform better than others, incorporating colorful, interactive, video, and web elements into their e-versions.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the App is stunning, and I think my daughter would love to play with it, but the question I was left asking as a father, educator, and of lover of words was:

Is this reading?

Are we so committed to re-inventing reading that we lose site of what it is really about: The power to transform ourselves and our realities through the simple act of sitting quietly by ourselves and absorbing, consuming, being transformed by words? Sure media is fun, as are games, movies, and now iPhone Apps, but I am left wondering if we are doing our kids and students a disservice by not getting them to love to read the old school way first.

I see how my daughter interacts with books. She is not yet four, but she is slowly, through a lot of hard work on my part, falling in love with the idea of stories and words. We have begun to read books without pictures and she can keep up. She is constantly asking me to tell her “Nikka” stories. Nikka is a fictional character that does everything she does. I tell her these stories at breakfast, in the car, every second it seems, but I am excited and proud that it is in the story, the narrative that Kaia is learning to love reading not in the Flash. (Sorry I know the new iPad doesn’t have Flash; you know what I mean) So would something like this make our old books seem boring? Will she not care about Nikka unless there is some App attached to it?

So what do you think? Do we need to inspire reading with cool apps and gadgets, or can we simply rely on the  art of reading and the magic of stories to improve literacy. I am open to any ideas and hope this proves to be a good conversation. Go!

As I was cross pollinating this post on Twitter injenuity sent me this great link:

Forcing me to rethink my ideas of literature and literacy all together. Will let thoughts and comments stew a bit before moving forward, but I urge you to contribute.

Nature of War

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In year nine history this unit, we have been looking at 20th century warfare and conflict. Rather than focus on people, places, or dates, I have chosen to first examine the very nature of warfare. The standards we have been working on for this unit are as follows:

  • Select relevant information from a source to group and sequence
  • Select and combine information from sources on the basis of content

Firstly, I asked the students to find ten images of twentieth-century warfare. I tried to have them find Creative Common images, but finding historical Creative Common images proved difficult, so we decided that we would use any images we could find. Working in groups, the students sorted the images, devising their own criteria for sorting.

We lead a class discussion to clarify the criteria the different groups used in sorting. Students, in groups, then sorted against specific criteria, looking at common threads, eg naval warfare, civilian experiences. They came up with a variety of categories, then narrowed them down to about ten:

  • Urban
  • Naval
  • Air
  • Bombs
  • Civilian
  • Etc…

As a class, we discussed a ‘concept map’, eg ’cause’, ‘nature’, ‘impact’, ‘effect’ of war. We then used a selection of the images from the sorting activity as a basis for an overview of the “Nature” of warfare. Each student picked one photograph from one of the categories and free wrote a piece of sensory writing, which was then crafted into a poem.

Because Windows Movie Makers does not allow multi-track narration, we had to use Audacity to record a three-track soundtrack including sound effects found online, music, and narration. Most students had little to no experience with the sound recording software, but were quickly able to align their audio tracks with the WMM file. This process would have been much more simple on Mac, but it was a good experience for the kids finding ways to use a variety of software.

After our spring break we will begin to look at the Causes and Impacts of the major 20th century conflicts. Moving on to these standards:

  • Identify similar factors leading to the outbreak of major world conflicts
  • Describe and make links between relevant reasons for, and results of, events and changes

I hope our video work will help students achieve the following standards:

  • Explain the reasons why attitudes to events differ
  • Use knowledge and understanding to analyse and interpret information
  • Describe characteristic features of twentieth-century conflicts
  • Research and summarise information for use in group discussion

As the projects are completed, I will post them on our wiki for review and comments. In the meantime, here is the first one:

Any comments, suggestions, or further ideas would be appreciated.