May 2011 Blog Posts (4)

Free Friday

After reading Daniel Pink’s book Drive I began to think about the idea behind companies that allow workers to direct their own work on specific days, pursuing whatever projects interest them. Couple those insights about the power of autonomy with the persistent, nagging acknowledgment that there is simply too much history that I want to include in my limited course time. The result was what I called “Free Friday.”

I gave students a class period to research anything in history…

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Added by Molly Smith on May 23, 2011 at 6:05am — 5 Comments

Rethinking Summer Work

I've been contemplating changes to my summer assignment for AP US but I'm not sure if it's a good idea. I typically focus on content coverage, having the students read the early chapters of the textbook and an outside book(s) such as Mayflower and/or…

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Added by Eddie Evans on May 20, 2011 at 5:54pm — 4 Comments

Teach to the End

The last few weeks I have felt all of the typical end of the year stresses. It is harder to get out of bed. It is much more tempting to just go home after school. But this year I have manages to prevent myself from succumbing to these tempatations. In fact I feel like the momentum I have is increasing because rather than holding on until the end of the year. I have been…

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Added by Shawn McCusker on May 19, 2011 at 12:00am — 4 Comments