#totallyrossome Week 4: Building a Utopia

image credit: http://shewalkssoftly.com/category/astronomy/page/2/

There has been some interesting doings in Missouri in the last two weeks. Following the officer-involved fatal shooting of a young man. This is the over simplified way of looking at what actually happened. If you don’t know, the town of Ferguson has 53 police officers, 3 of whom are black. The town happens to be ⅔ black. The officer involved in the shooting is white. The young man was Mike Brown, an African American teenager. It also turns out that Brown was shot 6 times, including twice in the head. The series of protests set off by the event have spurred violence in the streets, with police militarization, tear gas canisters being fired into crowds of civilians, police officers arresting journalists and holding them without charge, and the list goes on as the days continue. Across the country, protests of solidarity are springing up. Citizens in New York City have been arrested in protests. Los Angeles saw gatherings with t-shirts emblazoned with “Hands up, don’t shoot”.

So how did we get here? And for us as educators, how do we handle this? As educators who may or may not be far away from the actual situation, how do we engage our students in conversations about society that will enable them to grow into thinkers who fight to be a part of a better society? Ultimately, what does a better society look like? Where are we failing ourselves?

This week’s #totallyrossome is focused on not only what is happening in Ferguson, MO right now, but also the issues that prevail in our country that allow situations like this to occur. We like to talk about going all in for whatever it is we’re doing at the time, and this will be no different. Our conversation is going to focus on creating the perfect world. Bring your opinions and bring your respect. We’ve got a lot to do.  

How differently the situation is being reported or commented on:

Fox News (a 12 minute video looking at the situation from a variety of standpoints) -

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/18/on-vacation-break-obama-discusses-iraq-missouri/

USA Today (video and text about support for alleged shooter) -

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/19/officer-supporters-ferguson-shooting/14259993/

Sunil Dutta in the Washington Post -

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/08/19/im-a-cop-if-you-dont-want-to-get-hurt-dont-challenge-me/

News One for Black America (video) -

http://newsone.com/3044563/how-do-you-feel-about-the-police/

Mail Online -

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2726609/Stores-looted-including-one-slain-teen-Michael-Brown-allegedly-stole-cigars-sixth-night-confrontation-Ferguson-St-Louis-police-ordered-stand-Highway-Patrol.html

via Slate: John Oliver on Last Week Tonight “So you’re taking a group of people tired of being treated like criminals and locking them up in their homes for a night.” (some foul language) -  

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/08/18/john_oliver_on_ferguson_missouri_and_police_militarization_video.html

Teaching Tolerance -

www.tolerance.org/blog/dontshoot

20 Minutes to Collaboration

Thanks for joining me!

By the time we leave here, you're going to be able to leverage the Google Drive to collaborate with your students or colleagues.

The following links are for samples to show you just how easy the collaborative process can be.

Document

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hdeJyLihCLE0ZeVlKQjfjNg8JzBSOk3J_9j4Ll5SKVk/edit?usp=sharing

Presentation

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1HqkKNCH3HH6trqgOOMKkLRT5kPVFvbm8CBsYP_neqkc/edit?usp=sharing

#totallyrossome is Ready to Engage!

I planned. I worked. I researched. I had resources.

They were going to love it.

It was time travel and free will. It was technology based. It was Clueless meets Nietzsche. It was scholarly texts and Groundhog Day. It was pop culture and 1984.  Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt, and Bill Murray. It was the best lesson I ever came up with.

Wait - was that a yawn?

What the - ?

How on earth is anyone bored by this? It's amazing!

But I needed this. I needed the snap back to reality. It's important to look at the evidence. Teachers don't ever think that they're the weak link. We are good at what we do. Even reflective teachers who look for ways to connect, collaborate, and develop themselves professionally think that they're doing a good job.

So how do we find those clues that our students give us? Are we getting it?

#totallyrossome is all about getting our students engaged, and I'm eager to hear what you think.

Some thoughts:

Assessing what students thought of the lesson via the Teaching Channel

High School Reading 2011 (A look at getting HS students to read)

Student Engagement Instrument (Through University of Minnesota)

How Do We Know When Students are Engaged? (by Ben Johnson via Edutopia)

Opening Days: #totallyrossome Heads Back to School

Image credit: http://www.bellyitchblog.com/2013/08/13-back-to-school-comics-to-make-you.html

This week at #totallyrossome, we're looking at the most important time of the school year - the opening days. You get one chance to make a first impression, and the opening days of the school year are your chance to set your tone.

When I started teaching, Mrs. Jenkins, who may or may not have had stories about little Walter Disney was like as a tyke, told me I was not to smile before Christmas. "They need to know that you're in charge." I'm not so good with the not smiling, but I learned quickly that what was not set early in the year would become battles later in the year.

Just a few thoughts and resources on the beginning of the school year:

• Jose Vilson's Cheat Sheet for the First Days of School
• Doug Robertson devotes some time to setting the tone for your class in his book He's the Weird Teacher (Link is to Amazon's book page, and I received nothing for my endorsement of the book.)
• Planning for Your First Day at School by Linda Starr (Heads up: Education World is FULL of ads.)
• Pinterest has numerous Back to School Activities from numerous users (This link is from WeAreTeachers.)

How do you get the year started? What do you always do? What have you found you will never do again?

Join us Tuesday, August 5 at 10 PM EST as we get totally into the beginning of the school year.