Future Teacher, Forever Student

“Good morning, Vietnam!” While there are a million different ways to offer someone a greeting, the only one that feels sufficient for our modern crisis is reminiscent of Robin Williams’s cheer and the turmoil of the 1960s. COVID-19 has changed the world as we know it, if not temporarily, and my last semester at Saint Michael’s College has suffered a similar fate to those of other universities across the United States. As educators, we encourage our students to persevere through academic and social challenges. As humans and community leaders, we must continue to do the same. In light of the changes taking place within my licensure program, the next few weeks will be filled with independent study of education-based topics from the safety of my own home. Together with my program supervisor, I have selected a few goals to work on remotely as a way to improve my teaching skills while practicing CDC guidelines and keeping out of a physical classroom. This week’s goal is a continuation of...

Hello! After a long February break followed by a short three day return to EMS, Team Nova is back into the full swing of things with our “We The People” debates. Today, students practiced debating their fellow classmates in a similar format to what our debates will look like on Thursday, presenting and fine-tuning their arguments as the ideas of rebuttal and crossfire were introduced. Two practice debates were held simultaneously, with myself and Mr. J. each moderating one set of pro/con groups per class section. In my debates, we proceeded through the protocols slowly, reviewing each person’s arguments, appropriate rebuttals, and proper debate etiquette individually. While some groups will really need to hunker down and edit their arguments before debate day, today’s practice provided helpful insight for both students and teachers: the actual case material seems clear, but the concepts of forming and refuting arguments in a respectful but strong debate have room to grow. With...

February break is on the horizon here at EMS, where Team Nova is actively preparing for an eighth grade wide debate day to be held in mid-March. Appropriately titled “We The People,” the debate unit focuses on First Amendment rights based on the U.S. Constitution and the subsequent Supreme Court cases related to students’ rights in schools. “We The People” is designed to function as an easily differentiated unit of study, featuring tiered research and debate groups, varied debate topics, and grounding lessons that detail three major court cases all students are expected to use when forming their arguments and counterarguments. As our introductory week comes to a close, students are wrapping up their research on our foundational SCOTUS cases: Tinker v. Des Moines (1969), Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier (1988), and Bethel School District v. Fraser (1986). Each of these cases asked the Supreme Court to better define the rights of students attending public schools, particularly those rig...

Happy Wednesday! As Team Nova wades knee-deep in our new “We The People” first amendment debate unit, students are still thinking about westward expansion in the United States, likely because the closure that a graded summative assessment brings to a unit did not arrive until today. After nearly six weeks of readings, discussions, and a screening of James Cameron’s Avatar , Team Nova spent last Thursday taking their first (and probably only) major test of the year. Now, here’s a disclaimer: Mr. J. is not a fan of assessing student learning by an individual’s performance on traditionally styled tests (like those including multiple-choice questions, short essay responses, matching sections, true or false, etc.). I myself prefer to assess student progress and learning via writing prompts, performance assessments, personal communications, and any other forms of assessment that do not require highly accurate recall on top of reading, writing, and comprehension skills. However, with EMS eig...

In an attempt to combat the sometimes active, other times dormant waves of hatred that possess an unknown number of students on campus, Saint Michael’s College suspended “business as usual” for all students this Tuesday, February 18th; exchanging classes, meetings, clubs, internships, and work-study shifts for a community-wide day of “learning and reflection” about racism. While I am still navigating my own feelings about today’s events in relationship to my role as a student of the college, I would like to take a moment to reflect on the stress and discomfort many of my peers and I felt today, and how I believe that discomfort is entirely necessary if one’s true intentions are to learn and grow in search of Truth. Quite a few of my past posts— particularly those related to lessons I designed about the Native American experience during U.S. westward expansion— highlight my belief in the importance of diverse and equitable representation within a humanities curriculum. Throughout th...