Quote For This Week

Historical Fiction: Margaret Peterson Haddix

Historical fiction does not have to mean historical “friction” for students. If you include creative and interesting activities for students to complete, you can actually make historical fiction fun. Margaret Peterson Haddix’s Uprising is an excellent choice for middle school students. Haddix has masterfully included information about the history of immigration, the struggle for women’s rights, the origins of the organized labor movement, and the deadly Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911. Uprising includes all of these wonderful ingredients within a narrative full of fascinating characters and action.

This book would be an excellent choice for students to use as inspiration for a simulated journal. Have students research the time period of the book and learn about their favorite character’s culture and background. Uprising includes a wide variety of characters from different cultures and socioeconomic status; therefore, this would be an excellent opportunity to tackle these issues.

Another possible activity would be to have students compare the cost of living in 1911 to today. Ask students to bring grocery sale papers from home. The class can work in groups to find ads online from 1911. Have them compare prices of important food items like bread and milk. Also ask students to calculate how much money per hour Bella was earning at the factory.

It would also be a good activity to allow students to create a poster about the characters and what they learned from the book. I have included some photos below of  cards created about Uprising characters Bella and Jane.

Encourage Reading

According to a recent HuffPost/YouGov poll of 1,000 U.S. adults asking about their reading habits, 41 percent of Americans had not read a fiction book in the last year. In addition, 42 percent had not read a nonfiction book. Moreover, 28 percent had not read a book at all in the past year! Are you surprised by this poll? Check out the poll in more depth by clicking here.

Parents and teachers need to work together to encourage young people to read. It is important that students actually want to read for enjoyment. In the UK, there is a program called Drop Everything And Read (DEAR). Schools have set aside ten minutes each day for students to “drop everything and read” to each other and/or an adult. The schools provide a wide variety of books for the students, and this program is used across all subject areas.

Quote For This Week

Sonder

One of my friends who is currently a classroom teacher told me about a website that the Tennessee Department of Education hosts called the Tennessee Classroom Chronicles.  One article on the site is written by Reagan Homen, an 11th grader at Ravenwood High School: http://tnclassroomchronicles.org/student-voices-love-write-much-needs-documentation/


In the article, the writer mentions a made-up word that her AP English III class encountered while reading This is Water by David Foster Wallace. “Sonder: The realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.”

This really made me think of the Golden Rule and some other favorite quotes of mine:

  

 

To be honest, I had never heard of David Foster Wallace or his work This is Water.  I learned that this work was part of a commencement speech he presented in 2005 to Kenyon College.  Though probably not appropriate for middle school students, this is an interesting and appropriate read for college students and adults.  I challenge you to watch this!

Calculating the Distance from Lightning

I taught a lesson this week about four types of severe storms.  After teaching this lesson, I stumbled across these resources about how to calculate the distance from a lightning strike.

Since sounds and light travel at different speeds, you count the number of seconds between the point where you first see a lightning strike and the point where you hear the thunder.  An explanation of how to calculate this in miles can be found here:  http://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-thunderstorms.htm

However, there is a slightly different method for calculating this distance in kilometers.  Watch the video below to see how to do this in kilometers.

This made me think about the following quotes:

     

To be successful in science and in life, one must appreciate the differences and similarities in all things, whether you are talking about people, plants, animals, or severe storms.

Happy Pi Day!

 

 Happy Pi Day! 3.14.15

 Pi Day is celebrated by some every March 14, but this year's celebration is unique since today is 3/14/15.  This is pi to four decimal places! 3.1415

What is pi?  Read all about pi at these web sites:

• http://www.piday.org/learn-about-pi/
•  http://math.scholastic.com/top_news/2015/03/a-once-in-a-century-pi-day

Some children celebrated Pi Day by reciting the digits of the irrational number:  http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/03/14/pi-day-kids-videos/24753169/



If you want to read some interesting books on pi, here are some suggested titles:

      

Developing Empathy

Elisabeth von Thurn und Taxis, the editor of Vogue magazine, posted the photo above to her Instagram account. She captioned the photo, “Paris is full of surprises....and @voguemagazine readers even in unexpected corners!” This photo was deemed “tasteless” and “cruel” by many people online.

I personally found the photo dehumanizing, both for the homeless woman and as a spectator. People need to think twice before they post something on social media. Moreover, we should think before we take such a photo of a woman without her permission. It seems as if people today lack empathy for others.

What do you think about this photo and caption? Do you find it in poor taste? Do you think it is appropriate to take a photo of a homeless person and share it with everyone on social media without her knowledge? Do you think people are too “politically correct” today?

Fortunately,  Ms. von Thurn und Taxis deleted the photo and issued an apology; however, it is impossible to remove all traces of this post from the internet. We should all remember this story when posting online and proceed with caution. 

After the jump, I have included an activity from the Southern Poverity Law Center for developing empathy in Middle School students. It would also be a good idea to review the dangers of social media with students.

Quote for This Week

Stop Multitasking

Many of us seem to always “multitasking” - claiming to accomplish more than one task at a time. In fact, one recent study claims that we are not actually doing more than one thing at a time. Rather, we are “task switching.” I am guilty of task switching myself; however, after reading this study, I have decided to make a serious effort to stop. It may seem like we are saving time, but research shows that the more we switch between tasks, the greater amount of time we actually lose during the switch. Moreover, if the tasks are complex like instant messaging while driving, task switching can be deadly.

As you read this right now, what else are you doing? Are you answering texts or some other distracting task? Try to take 30 minutes out of the day and focus on one thing. For example, try reading a good book without any other distractions. Try to shut out everything other than what you are reading. This is the only way to fully immerse yourself in the book and benefit from what you are reading. Read something that you want to read too!

Read more about task switching here.

Reading Dogs

I saw a news story today about Maureen Ward, a dog trainer, who teaches dogs to “read.” Although the dogs are only recognizing simple words from memory, I felt it was an impressive accomplishment. The word cards are shuffled to prove that the dog can recognize the words and is not simply memorizing the order of them. The trainer claims she can teach your dog to read within four weeks. Click the link below to read the story and watch the video.

Reading Dog Is For Real