middle school

Student: Mrs. Meyer, can I have a baggie?
Me: Um...I don't think I have a baggie.  What do you need it for?
Student holds up her hand and says: I just lost a tooth and I need to put it in something.

Ah yes...I am officially a middle school teacher.

perspective

This year I'm embarking on a new course--7th Grade Social Studies!  My main focus will be teaching world geography, so today we did a map activity.  I started out by having students draw a map of the world from their own memory.  After they had a little time to work I had them compare their maps to other students in the class.  We talked about how each of their maps were different and why there were differences.  We then compared their maps to these three maps below. 

Most related to this map: 

The students felt like this map was "backwards." 

And this one was "upside down." 

After coming up with descriptors for these different maps and their own  maps we discussed how each of these maps are right in their own way.  They aren't "backwards" or "weird" or "upside down." Rather they are just a different perspective than we are use to.   In the end I hope we all learned that: 

1. There is more than one way to see the world. 

2. Other perspectives can also be right.

3. We should try to see things (in this case, the world) from a new perspective so we can grow in our understanding.  

Overall the activity went really well.  For the most part students tracked with it and I even had a student come up to me after class and said, "I've never seen other maps like that before and thought about that stuff. That was really cool."  It made my day. 

New Beginnings

This is a time in my life where all things are new.  I moved my family across the world from South Korea to land in the midwest of the good ole' USA.  I have a new country, new city, new house, new (new to me at least) car, new school, and a new role as a middle school teacher (I use to teach high school).  I am ankle deep in newness.  And it is good.  It is different.  There is a lot of change. But it is good. 

In the middle of all these new things in my life I would be remiss if I didn't spend time thinking about all the new students I will get this year.  I wonder what they will be like:  How tall are American middle school students these days? What are they interested in?  What instructional strategies will work best for them?  And more than anything, what do I hope they learn from my class?  What do I hope that they can take away after one year of being in my class?

And as I spent time pondering, especially the last two questions, I began to dream big.  I hope that my students CARE.  Care for others.  Care for the less fortunate.  Care for people in other countries.  Care for the student sitting next to them.  Care to learn.  Care to serve.  Care for themselves.  I hope they are caring. 

I hope they INQUIRE.  I hope I do not stiffle their creative juices, but rather I hope to set them free to think about new things, to research, to investigate, to be an INQUIRER. 

I hope they LOVE well.  I hope they love in a way that respects, takes risks, is couragous, and is contagious.

And I hope they dream.  Dreaming is a beautiful thing.  Dreaming took me to Korea.  Dreaming helped make me a mom.  Dreaming allowed me to be a teacher.  Future students of mine, what do you dream about?  Who do you want to be?  A week from today let's start figuring out how to make dreams a reality. 

WWI in Current Events

I ran across this article about Florence Green, the last remaining veteran of WWI, that recently passed away.  The article is a nice tribute to Mrs. Green's long life (she lived to be 110 years old) and the role she played in World War I.

I'm teaching my students about WWI right now in my world history class, and it's always interesting to find new stories about the war in current events.  I'll for sure be sharing this one with my students tomorrow.

Letter From a Former Slave

A colleague of mine shared with me this letter from a former slave to his master.  Apparently the slave master was requesting for his former slave to come back and work for him after the Civil War.  The whole letter is fantastic, but this is probably one of my favorite parts:

"As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars... If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future."


Read more here or here.

finals week

It's finals week at our school, which made this hilarious blog post very relevant to my life:

The Five Stages of Grading

If you're a high school or above teacher I think you'll find it's spot on!

Manifest Destiny

I ran across this gem while reading through the US History Teachers Blog.  From 1:30 to 4:00 it talks about Manifest Destiny.  It's classic!