lunchbyteblog

Community is an important idea to many of us. We all live in communities of some kind and we interact within sub-communities of our community as a whole. Maybe you live in a city, have a church community that you belong to, and also have a work group that is also part of your community experience. We are social animals and we often seek interaction with others. These days our communities may be physical groups or virtual groups. You're reading this on a social media platform and that is also a way that you interact with others. Regardless, lately I've been reminded of the importance of community. As our world has changed over the past year or so each of us has reacted in different ways. Each of us has dealt with the pandemic based on our belief systems, our station in life, our family and friends, and other considerations. And for some of us, maybe all of us, there was no blueprint for how to move forward in this strange new world. I say all of this because, as we move closer t...

Tuesday night at the regularly scheduled meeting of the Newton, NC city council we had a presentation given to council by our Public Works director Dusty Wentz. Mr. Wentz outlined the operations of the Wastewater Treatment Plant(WTP). He had several maps and diagrams showing the ins and outs of the Wastewater Treatment Plant. He later made several other presentations that involved budget ordinance amendments and approvals of money for the WTP.  It was an interesting night that showed that many of our tax dollars go to places where the general public may not see evidence of the monies being spent. In the past 5 years the city has spent $959,352 on 17 projects at the WTP. We approved another half a million in dollars last night. All of this is to keep the WTP up and running and in compliance with both state and federal regulations.  There's nothing exciting about spending these dollars. They don't really cause people to exclaim in admiration about the great job the city is doing...

Wander the halls of Discovery High School at Newton Conover on any given day and you will immediately see that this is not a traditional high school. Students might be sitting in the hall working on laptops, or writing on a “chalk-talk” board where students respond to open-ended questions, or they might be filming videos for a class project. If you happen to venture outside, the students might be sitting and eating at outdoor tables, or working in the school greenhouse. You might have passed one or two students on your way in, blowing leaves or tidying up the memorial garden. Students might be in the media center, working on online classes, or in the creativity room painting, or filming in front of a green screen. These students do not fit the stereotype of a surly teenager, though they are certainly teenagers. They are polite. They answer questions from visitors. They continue about their business. Teachers move in and out of these places purposefully interacting with these student...

Just about every morning at Discovery High School I am in the hallway greeting students as they enter the building. Usually I refer to the day of the week and loudly proclaim something like "people of earth, I see you," or "people of the Discovery tribe, good morning!" I feel like it's important to let students know that we are happy that they are here. And I think that for some of them it helps to wake them up. I was thinking about this this morning because lately I have been considering the idea of community and what makes a strong community. As some people may know, I am currently in the middle of a campaign for city council. One of the things that people often ask me is "why did you decide to run?" It's a good question and it's one that I ask myself as well. "Why did I decide to run?" There are varying reasons that I will get into later and that might be better served in a different forum but for me the underlying idea is that ...

I've said in the past that I might use this blog for things other than technology or teaching. So here we go. One from the archives: a moment in march                                                   03/07/04       dabbed colors blur on the edge of vision and what cost is our sight worth? forgive me for the moment surrendering to the melancholy to fatigue, to often grim realities etched in stone for history.   this night is hopeful maybe because of lessons learned- sometimes it’s in the breathing, still others, when it abruptly stops...   do we perceive ourselves as those few lines in newsprint? or is this, “the stuff of life” greater than that?   are my dreams stil...

How often do you have to blog to be considered a blogger? If I haven't blogged in over a year am I still a blogger? Was I ever a blogger? A few friends have been after me to start writing again so I thought maybe we would take this old blog out for a ride. Knock the dirt off of the tires. See what happens. Today I want to talk about old habits. You know, they die hard. Just like our affinity for using the same old tools and the same old worksheets and the same old jokes. As humans we tend to gravitate toward the tried and true. But is it all so tried and true anymore? Just because something worked for students five years ago doesn't mean it's going to work today. Or maybe it will. I don't know. The point here is that we shouldn't be scared to try new things. New ways of delivering info, new ways of imparting knowledge. Just try it. You might like it. -Sam I am

Once of the things that I was trying to accomplish with my last post was to put forth the idea that, often, learning takes place outside the walls of the traditional classroom. In fact, I would argue that in the history of the world a very small percentage of learning has taken place inside a classroom.  Real knowledge comes from real experience and one of the things that we are horrible at manufacturing in schools is reality.  Most of the time, the things that students are supposed to be doing and learning have little obvious connection with the reality of the world outside the confines of the school.  Our reaction to this is the push for PBL. PBL seeks to make learning relevant.  Projects aren't treated as isolated bits of knowledge for students to learn. The projects should be integrated within the framework of the curriculum and should include as many real world experiences as possible. The audience should be bigger than the teacher and the project should includ...

Wow. It's been almost a year since I last posted on this site. Seems like school begins to happen and I lose track of time and space. Every year it happens and then I turn around and I have gone months and months without posting. I won't vow to change that this year. I've been around the block long enough to know all the cliches that go with resolutions and vows. I won't beat a... oh, never mind. I do have something on my mind though. It's been bugging me for a few days and being that I do have a soap box of sorts, I think I'll stand on it for a minute. Last Friday, our school took the whole school on a field trip to the park. Yep, the entire school. To the park. And? It was awesome. Easily the best day of the year so far. Why the park? Why the entire school? What did we hope to accomplish? Let me try and explain. Our school is what is known as a redesigned high school in NC. The General Assembly of NC refers to us as a Cooperative and Innovative high ...

This morning I found this article in my reader: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/10/why-kids-should-grade-teachers/309088/3/?single_page=true I agree with the article.  I have publicly espoused this view for many years.  I said as much more than 20 years ago, almost 25 now, when I interviewed for the NC Teaching Fellows Scholarship as a young and naive high school senior.  If you want to know what's happening in a classroom, ask the students.  They know. Students are captive audiences day in and day out.  They know the inner workings of a school or a classroom intimately.  We should ask for, and value, their feedback. We haven't quite hit on a good way to evaluate teachers.  States want to use test scores to say how effective teachers are.  This is a cheap way to evaluate teachers which is why state legislatures often like this method.  However, a test score will never show how a teacher changes a student's life.  A...

I had this brief moment of reflection just a bit ago.  I was thinking about the things that I had asked my students to do today and I realized that most of the things they were doing couldn't have been done in school even just a few years ago.  Things are changing quickly and I hope I am able to stay on top of the wave of educational technological changes. As I write this, it's 10:20 in the morning and I'm in the middle of my freshman level World History class.  There are students who are finishing yesterday's assignment: a video from PBS where Bill Moyers interviews Salman Rushdie.  These students are thinking about radical religious views and how fringe elements in religions change the public perception of those religions.  This follows up a #PBL project that we just finished where I asked students how religion causes people to hate. Other students have finished the video and are working through 2 assignments on the Sas Curriculum Pathways site.  They a...

     Today, my Honors US History students finished their 2nd true #PBL project.  Their task was to design a museum exhibit around the idea of the "Great American Road Trip."  In other words, they were to look at times that Americans had taken to the road.  I gave them 15 topics to choose from and they spent about a week researching these topics, taking notes, writing quiz questions, and putting together museum exhibits about the topics of their choosing.  They set up their exhibits today and I had people from the community, district office, parents, and other students come by and look at the exhibits and rate them with a rubric.  Tomorrow the students will take student generated quizzes on the information that they deemed the most important about their projects.      My takeaways from my 2nd #PBL project: Involvement of "outsiders" is a must.  Students have to know that it isn't just me looking at their projects.  Thi...

     I would say to teachers, don’t be afraid.  Don’t be afraid to think differently, don’t be afraid to try new things, don’t be afraid to fail; miserably.  Pick yourself up and go at it again.  It won’t always work the way we believe it will when we are planning it out.  Our students have to know that as well.  We learn from our mistakes.     I wonder if we interviewed the teachers that taught us, would they say that they were worried about the future?  Would they say that things were changing fast?  That they were worried about the ability of schools to keep up with a changing society?  Would they say that they were worried about us taking care of them in their old age?     And yet, here we are.  In spite of ourselves.  Giving it a go.  We have become productive citizens.  I believe that our students, today’s students will too.  We have to believe in them. ...

I've been doing some writing as of late, so I figure I might as well post some of my musings here.  Feel free to agree or disagree.  Comments are always welcome. I tend to think of teachers in the same way that I think of doctors.  Doctors treat patients who may or may not follow the advice of the doctors.  Teachers are like that, we have very little control over our student’s lives while they are away from us.       Most people remember their teachers, both the good and the bad.  We all had good teachers that molded us as human beings and made us want to be better.  We all also had “bad” teachers.  The difference is that we can go to other doctors for second opinions if we do not believe our doctors.  Or we can switch doctors entirely.  Students often do not get a choice as to what teacher they get.  That’s why it’s imperative to have good teachers.  Most people respect teachers, but also recall the ba...

So, is it wrong that it's summertime and I don't want to post anything about school?  To me, summer is a time to get away from all things school.  It is a time to recharge our batteries, experience life on our own terms.  It is a time to quit thinking about school and start thinking about our friends, and our families.  It's a time to explore, to be the people we dream ourselves to be. I decided all of this while I was sitting here at my desk in the basement of the house.  The last 3 days have been record setting days of the heat variety.  I have done my best to avoid the hot parts of the day and have embraced water in whatever version it happens to present itself.  Last night we even had some rain and I have to tell you that I danced in it for just a bit.  All the gardens in our neck of the woods needed some rain.  My spirit needed some rain.  Hopefully there will be more rain this afternoon. But thinking of the rain and the local gar...

Today, we had day 1 of our PBL training.  It was the kind of staff development that makes you think. And that's a good thing.  I won't get into much of it here today because I'm waiting to see what the next two days will bring before I talk too much about it.  I also won't get into much because my colleague @sraspanglish has beaten me to the proverbial punch with her great post on day 1 of our Buck Institute ( @biepbl) training.  You can read her post here:  http://sraspanglish.blogspot.com/2012/06/buck-institute-day-1-deliverable.html She did a great job showing the cool kinds of #pbl training that we are receiving and the thinking processes involved. I won't post my project here because, to be honest with you, it pales in comparison to the exciting project she has described. Also, because I can't seem to wrap my head around what I want the students to do. I'm going to let this one stew for another night while I collect my thoughts.  But a qu...

Now that summer is here, I've been thinking about this blog more and more. I've been unhappy with it and its scope for quite sometime. So, I've decided to do something about it. The tweaks are in the works. The blog will still be mostly about education, technology, and the happenings around our school. But, I will also post about other things from time to time. All work and no play makes me a dull boy. And might also make for a dull blog. So, I'm going to try and post more often and it might not always be about education or technology. I hope though, that it does make sense and causes people to think. Check back with us when you have the time.

My twitter stream has been filled most of the morning with the hashtag #beyondthetextbook and it has been an interesting conversation. I thought while I was thinking about it I would write a couple of short notes about the conversation. #1. I am all for losing the traditional textbook. As it stands now, most of my classes don't use the textbook very often. I don't think that US History has used their text at all this year. World History has done some work out of their book here and there. AP US has nightly reading assignments from their book but I could just as easily give them readings from somewhere else. But there are problems. Internet access is absolutely critical to losing the text. In the classes that I teach that use the computer lab, I almost never refer to the book. But in the classes without access, the students use their book more. It would either be a text of some kind or internet access. If I ran off all the things that I wanted my students to read then...

As you may or may not know by now, our district has an ipad pilot program going on and my classroom (as well as several others) is a part of this program. The district began this pilot by asking teachers to apply for a classroom set of ipads. Several teachers at our school decided to apply together and we were chosen as one of three classrooms to receive a set of ipads. Now, after a few months of using the ipads, I feel like I might have a bit of insight into the nuts and bolts of ipads in the classroom. So here are a quick few thoughts on the good, the bad, and the ugly of using ipads in a high school social studies classroom. We'll go in reverse order to end on a high note. The Ugly: Ever had one of those days where nothing goes right? If you are planning on using ipads in the classroom then prepare for several of those days early on. There will just be times where the technology doesn't work the way that you think it is going to work. We had days where only half of the...

One of my colleagues asked me about this blog a day or so ago. He wanted to know if I had moved it to another place. My response was "no, I've just been busy and haven't thought about it very much." Time flies these days. It's hard for me to fathom that three months have passed since I last updated this blog. But I promise, posts are on the way. I've much to talk about but first I have to finish reading senior papers. That should be done soon and then I'll be back. I promise. Until then, keep on rocking in the free world...

today, our APUSH students began blogging for the first time. i admit, their first blog post was a little constraining. i was asking them to answer an APUSH essay question. but i feel as if this situation was controlled enough to give them guidelines. we went over some general thoughts about blogging and then i turned them loose. so for 35 minutes they wrote about the political views of jefferson and hamilton and they tried to prove a point. then i stopped them. we moved on. but i told them that they could revise as many times as they liked. i am going to "grade" the essay on what exists when i visit their blog. so they can go back and edit it all they want. i am also giving them "points" for having a peer and an adult comment on the essay. i figure they've got to develop an audience so why not begin to build that in with their first post? i know that they won't be able to type their ap essays. i also know that they won't be able to revise over t...