Tuesday, October 31, 2006

What is it good for?

Absolutely nothing. Two stories, one topic.

Story 1.

My oldest son (5) has been into a series of books called the Magic Tree House. A brother and sister find a tree house that can transport them through time and around the world. In ten chapters and about 80 pages we've visited Pompeii, the Titanic, the age of dinosaurs, the ice age, Ancient China, and about fifteen other destinations. They usually involve a riddle or simple mystery and have served as a good learning tool.

When the latest group of books came into the library, my wife and I noticed that two of the books were about war - the Civil War and the Revolutionary War. My children are probably a bit sheltered. We do not let them watch much television, and even then, it is stuff that both the five and three year old can watch together. We do not own a toy gun, nor do we let them play with them at other kid's houses. We know that will change eventually, but we are not looking forward to that day.

Last night I tried to explain the concept of war to him.

"Sometimes groups of people fight one another"

"Why"

"For lots of reasons. For this war, there were two groups fighting. The Northerners were trying to stop the Southerners from hurting another group of people."

"Well, why didn't they just ask them to stop?"

"They did, but they didn't listen. So they started to fight about it. Now we try to avoid fighting, right?"

"Yes."

"But does it make sense that somebody is doing something wrong you might have to fight them to get them to stop?"

"Yes." (still a little puzzled)

So I start reading the book. The tree house takes them back in a Civil War battlefield where injured soldiers are walking towards some destination.

"Why are they hurt?"

"Well, people can get hurt when fighting a war."

"Do people die?"

"Yes, sometimes people die."

Tears start to well up, "Why do people fight then?"

"They fight to stop other people from doing bad things. Or they fight because they are making bad choices. Or they fight because they just can't agree."

Tears turn into sobs. "I don't like this, I don't want to read this."

After he calmed down, I read him a nice book about jungle animals.

He was probably too young, for this book and conversation. As are the children who actually have to witness war firsthand.

Story 2.

Last February, I wrote about a former student who visited me after his second tour in Iraq. Today, I got another visit from him. As soon as I saw him walk in I knew something wasn't right. He was shipped out for his third tour in March. He still had several months before his tour was up. Then he limped through the door. I left the front of class - the students were involved in a self directed activity for the time - and went back to talk to him. His leg had almost been "blown off."  Had it not been for the swift reactions of his friends, he would have died.  He spent two weeks in a medically induced coma and was able to wake to the face of his wife.

I didn't feel comfortable asking him too much about his injury, but he pulled up his pant leg and showed a nasty wound, now filled with scar tissue and skin grafts from his upper thigh.

He stayed only a few minutes. I shook his hand. As he left, I thought, at least HE does not have to go back.

------------

While I am a pacifist at heart, I do recognize that war is part of humanity.  One thing I always tell my students is that people, human beings as a whole, have issues. Humanity has always needed a good therapist - self help books just don't work. Religion doesn't seem to be the answer for world peace either.

Some times wars have to be fought. Sometimes they are fought over pettiness and greed.  In middle of any war are the innocent, the children who just don't understand why people would kill each on purpose. In the middle of any war are the young men (and women today) who follow orders, fight, and die for what they, or what their leaders, believe is right.  When is a sacrifice for the common good, just a waste and when it is it justified.

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posted by dan at 9:52 PM | 4 comments  

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Taking My Own Advice

Over the last few weeks I have taught four different groups of teachers about various technology topics. The emphasis in three of them has been on Web 2.0 - the read/write web. Every time I do one of these workshops I get the same types of responses about technology:
  • This is very cool
  • This is a priority
  • I don't know how to use it
  • I'm overwhelmed
In response, I try to emphasize that this technology is not the answer to everything. While I have a web page that ideally drives my classes and serves as the backbone, most activities, on a day-to-day basis are actually not where the students directly use computers. They have to take small steps. Do one or two things. Get comfortable with those things first. Otherwise it is overwhelming.

In a moment of exhaustion last night I finally decided to take my own advice. The first six weeks of my AP World History curriculum need some major revisions, but I also decided that my college prep curriculum needed some retooling. So I have spent an inordinate amount of time reinventing and fine tuning lessons I've been doing for years. Part of my plan from the start was to changing my Industrial Revolution major project to a branching simulation (like my Holocaust Wiki Project). However, seeing that I still had hours work to do, I realized I have done a lot already and my students will survive if I do another non-technology lesson in its place that I have implemented successfully in previous years. I will work on it over the summer and have it ready to go next year.

This hits at the core of the problem that most teachers face when trying to do new things. Time. There is simply not enough time. For all the cool ideas that Will Richardson, David Warlick, and others have, those of us actually in the trenches have to find the time and resources to actually put these great ideas into practice. There are some schools and districts that are making these ideas happen (how I wish I could be a part of Chris Lehmann's new school), but for most it is difficult. How can we tell the new story or have new conversations when we barely have time to do the same old thing.

I love the ideas that will be central to the k12 Online Conference (I knew I would be over extended so I didn't submit a proposal) - but schools have a lot of changing to do in order make them mainstream. Individual teachers, even with the Internet and the blogosphere, can only generate so much progress.

We are still a minority in the teaching world.

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posted by dan at 6:20 AM | 3 comments  

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Genocide and Rock

Still too busy to think much, but I just read this:

BBC in league with a rock band to broadcast a documentary about genocide, starting with the Armenian massacre

Source: Press Release -- Total Assault LLC (10-10-06)

In Iraq, Reagan did not want the horrors of Saddam Hussein’s massacre against the Kurds to come out, because then he would have to do something to stop him. In Bosnia, world television coverage of the genocide convinced the international community to step in...but only after 200,000 had been murdered.

In Rwanda, Bill Clinton did not want the true horrors to come out ...because then he would have to do something. And now, in Darfur, George Bush has finally declared the desolation of the Southern Sudan a “genocide”—yet refused to do what it takes to stop it.

Why? Because, once again, as in 1915, when the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Henry Morgenthau, first reported the wholesale extermination of the Armenian population by the Ottoman Turks in Anatolia, it was denied so the United States would not be forced to act. That reaction gave Hitler his impetus for the Holocaust: “Who remembers the Armenians?” he declared in 1939, before ordering the murder of 6 million European Jews.

In “Screamers,” Garapedian and the multi-platinum selling, Grammy-winning Armenian-American rock band System of a Down trace the history of modern-day genocide from the fertile “Holy Mountains” of Anatolia to Darfur ... in a documentary as shattering as it is powerful, laced with seven of their most famous songs from “Holy Mountains” to “P.L.U.C.K.” to the #1 hit “B.Y.O.B.” that illuminate why the world’s inability to recognize the Turks’ annihilation of the Armenians leads directly to Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. And shows us we can stop it. (You can read the whole press release here).
Genocide is a subject I spend a lot of time on in my world history classes during the spring. One of the more powerful ways students connect with these events (or any historical topic for that matter) is through some sort of individual connection. To have a rock band lie System of a Down with a personal link to an event like the Armenian Genocide could be powerful. I'll have to watch the documentary to see if I can use it in the classroom.

posted by dan at 6:19 AM | 0 comments  

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Ask the Mentor - Published!

My column in Teacher Magazine has been published online and will also be in the print version that is being sent out soon. You have to register to read my responses to submitted questions (maybe yours?). Access the article here.

Still treading water. Here are the items consuming my life
  • The first two months of AP World needed to be completely redone.
  • I'm finally getting around to revising much of my college prep world history curriculum.
  • I'm focusing a lot more on student achievement and making sure students are learning.
  • I'm teaching a one unit graduate-level seminar on digital video at SDSU in a couple weeks (in San Diego? There are seats left. Interested, click here).
  • NECC 2007 presentations are due tomorrow.
  • We are implementing a professional learning community (PLC) this year in world history.
  • I'm teaching five technology integration workshops in October and November.
  • Add it all together and I have to leave my classroom 12 times first semester for school-related reasons.
  • The Padres made the playoffs, and might actually advance :)
  • The lawn needs mowed.
  • Life at home is particularly crazy.... perhaps more on that soon.
In other words, I will be back, but blogging is last on the priority list. I still need to fine tune what I'm teaching today.

posted by dan at 5:45 AM | 4 comments