Tag Archives: classroom
FacBlog12NewEdition

New bottle, old wine. Sort of.

by on 29. Nov, 2011 in Joy Sawyer Mulligan

Two years running, I tried a hand in each camp: one edition of The Catcher in The Rye (what we fondly came to call the “Wee Version”–the maroon cover most readers recall) in my right for the students who’d purchased that one, and in my left, the other–larger format, red carousel horse, sunshine yellow title, a reissue with 1950s cover art. Given how much in-the-text work we do, this juggling made me feel even clumsier than I actually am, but mostly it just took too much time to get everyone on the right page, right paragraph, right line. What with all that, plus reading glasses perpetually slipping southward on my nose and having to get to the other side of the room to re-up the heat every once in awhile, it was just too much.

So this year, we English 1 teachers were determined: it would be all for one and one for all, the reissue.  No choice.  And for me, sadly, the one with dramatically less marginalia and far fewer Post-its marking especially critical annotations.

Of course, on the plus side, the print was significantly bigger. And, serendipitously, another benefit: I had company. A student who’d studied the novel last year had, on our first day with Salinger, come smiling through the door with the Wee Version, confident that his thoughtful 8th-grader scribbles and highlighting would give him a leg up on the nightly reading and daily discussions. I tried rallying his better nature with the cry of the Three Musketeers, clapping him on the shoulder for emphasis– we’d be fellow travelers on a sail through the pages of a fresh, unmarked copy of the novel.

“Really? I can’t just use this one again?” He smiled hopefully.

“I know you’re comfortable with it, but no. If I can do it, you can do it. We’ll both wean ourselves off what we thought we thought about Holden. It’ll be fun.”

As the chapters ticked by, we both saw parts of the novel differently or more fully than before. For me, the very words on the page–a different font style and size from what had become so familiar to me over several years–yielded more meaning as I read each night’s assignment. In a sense, the medium was a whole new message–an object lesson in the value of even small changes for opening the mind one or two cranks wider.

 

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Macroinvertebrates & Biodiversity in AP Environmental Science

by on 15. Nov, 2011 in Brian Pidduck

Students in AP Environmental Science recently completed an assessment of the quality of Reeves Creek (near Thacher) by sampling for the macroinvertebrates that inhabit the substrate. Based upon the relative dominance of the species, students were then able to calculate a water quality index. The field work involves using the kick-seine technique (a lot like what it sounds!), handling of the macroinvertebrates (Stonefly larvae, Caddisfly larvae, Dobson Fly larvae and the common Giant Water Bug!), identification and then calculations. This fieldwork also has the benefit of getting the students out of the typical science classroom and into the greatest science classroom we have – our surrounding environs!

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Creative Learning: Made in America

by on 11. Nov, 2011 in Mike McGowan

As I continue to reflect upon and make sense of the recent week-long Thacher trip to Japan and China, I’ve thought a great deal about why so many Chinese students want to study in the US.  Recent articles in the New York Times and The Chronicle of Higher Education, along with a story on NPR, document the growing number of Chinese students who are seeking access to the American political system.

While I was in China, I often wondered: what is it that we have that these students want?  Clearly, many Chinese secondary schools do a wonderful job of training their students, especially in preparation for the demanding and rigorous college entrance exams.  As a result, the Chinese educational system–I was told–fine-tunes students’ abilities to master a wide range of information.  As strong as the Chinese system is, however, many people with whom we met informed us that Chinese schools focus too much on entrance tests, causing many students to struggle to develop creative thinking and problem-solving skills.

Coincidentally, while I was in China, I asked my AP Government students to imagine that they worked for a political consulting agency that one of the underdog Republican presidential candidates had contacted for help on his or her campaign.  The students were then charged with the tasks of creating a pamphlet to be handed out political rallies, a catchy sign with a slogan, and a minute-long ad extolling their respective candidate’s strengths.  To my pleasure, student began by “mastering” information, learning about the candidates’ backgrounds, views and positions, and strengths.  Then, they set to work “creating.”  While they didn’t finish the project having memorized the Republican presidential candidates from the last sixty years, the final product required them not only to use their “creative” abilities but to employ real-world skills.  I’ve been so proud of what the students created that I’m tempted to get in touch with some of the candidates who are in most need of help.

I’m quite sure that Chinese students and their families hope for more from American high schools and universities than simply a chance to engage in creative learning.  Indeed, the opportunity to learn English, experience life in another culture, and receive an “American education” are certainly some of the prizes.  But I also believe that when we unleash the best of our pedagogical practices and teaching styles, we export a home-grown product that is in high demand in other parts of the world.

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Morning Gifts

by on 07. Nov, 2011 in Joy Sawyer Mulligan

I teach first period two days a week, and on those Monday and Friday mornings, I typically (and gratefully) find the classroom much cleaner than I left it the day before–thanks to Joanna, Room C’s Morning Jobster Extraordinaire. In the appreciation engendered in me, that neat-and-tidiness is matched by other ephemera: magnetic poetry gifts on the board. Teenage id energy being what it is, I’ve had to remove a few words from the sea of little magnets over the years–you can probably guess pretty accurately what those potential offenders might be. (Context, of course, is everything.)

But mostly, I’m greeted by lines that make me laugh out loud, or puzzle a little, maybe just nod in sympathy with an impulse or view of the world. The fact that there are actually three sets of words up there–one for kids, one “regular” version, and one cowboy, no punctuation–makes the offerings all the richer, because I know that these “writers” have intimate knowledge of “dirt” and “critter” and “wrangle.”

So today, I read

street dinosaurs dally on the prairie

imagine night fly ing

leave behind my delicate angel mother

And wishful thinking: school let me sleep

All proof that putting words together is as irresistible for some as messing around with numbers and formulae and testing out dance combinations and basketball plays is for others. It–the home/school we have here–takes all kinds.

Before I head over to rev up the SmartBoard, I see one more, nearly lost in the muddle, a subject that perhaps needs no verb or direct object:

darn manure

 

 

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Calculating Biodiversity of the Chaparral Ecosystem in AP Environmental Science

by on 28. Oct, 2011 in Brian Pidduck

Students in AP Environmental Science recently undertook a field project that involved the quantitative assessment of biodiversity at two sites in the chaparral ecosystem above the Thacher campus. The first site is currently undergoing secondary succession after being cleared by a trail crew

Molly Taylor and Jack Weil identify native chaparral species and record their occurrence and interval length along a 20 meter transect above the Thacher Campus.

last year in order to establish a firebreak.  The second represents an intact ecosystem with higher biodiversity and plant density, having reestablished after a wildfire in the late 1990s.

Data was collected to determine coverage of species, density, frequency and diversity (according to the Shannon-Weiner Diversity Index).  Fieldwork such as this is an invaluable opportunity to apply the ecological theory and dimensional analysis, which is a significant portion of the curriculum in AP Environmental Science.  It is also a great opportunity to make the outdoors our classroom!  I know I enjoy the opportunity to work in the outdoors with Thacher students.  We are blessed with natural surroundings that make conducting fieldwork as easy as walking out the classroom door and into our backyard (which is the Los Padres National Forest BTW!).

The most inspiring example of transects are those conducted by Michael Fay, such as the African Megatransect and the Redwood Transect.

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