Jackson Kaguri and the Nyaka AIDS Orphans Project

When Jackson Kaguri lost his big brother and sister to the AIDS epidemic in Uganda, he responded to the tragedy by creating opportunities for others. He took on the responsibility of helping to care for his nephews that had been left without parents. However, he soon realized that the many children in his village that had also been orphaned by the disease needed help as well. He opened a free, self-sufficient school in his village that quickly became very successful. His small project has since evolved into the Nyaka AIDS Orphans Project and is now running several schools in southern Uganda to help some of the 2.2 million children in the country who have lost parents to AIDS.

My classes were fortunate to host Mr. Jackson Kaguri (a 2012 CNN Hero) last week and hear his motivational story first hand. Students in middle in high school are often very compassionate and want to help others but struggle with turning their desires into action. Organizations such as last year’s Kony campaign often complicate matters and frustrate students who are told simply to raise awareness when they really want to get hands on. Mr. Kaguri provided an excellent example of the impact that an individual can have when they act locally on something that they are passionate about. Many students made it a point to tell me that he was the best guest speaker that we have ever had and I am hoping that we can continue to bring up his efforts in our future discourse and spin off some student-created action projects.

Mr. Kaguri’s schools rely on donors to operate and the cost to send a student to primary school (there is no public education in Uganda) for one year is $250. More about his organization and donating can be found here: http://www.nyakaschool.org/index.php

The True Power of Travel

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”

~Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad/Roughing It

“If you’ve never stared off into the distance, then your life is a shame.”

~Counting Crows, Mrs. Potters Lullaby

Last year I was interviewed as a finalist for a teaching award and one of the things that I said was that I believed many of the things that we do in schools are worthless and simply done to pass the time. While the person who won was certainly much more qualified than me to earn the recognition, if the looks that the interview panel gave me are any indication, I’m sure that quote did not help my chances. However, I stand by what I said and would gladly cite the untouchable traditions of standardized testing, grouping of students by age regardless of interest or ability, the unnatural emphasis on some subjects over others, bell schedules, and grades based arbitrarily on obedience and likeability as examples. I value the role of public education as a fundamental component of our society and realize that a massive system needs guiding standards (I am guilty of upholding many outdated traditions myself) but I also believe that we could be doing it better and that we should be offering more opportunities for non-traditional learning experiences to those who are hungry for it.

In that same interview I stated that the most important and powerful thing that I have been involved in as a teacher is student travel. The travel idea was given to me serendipitously (as most of my great opportunities have) as a second year teacher through a group of parents who wanted to plan something outside of the box for their students. They had heard of my own passion for travel and we immediately set to work planning a trip to the west coast. The trip we took in the spring of 2009 was truly a turning point for me and my thoughts about learning as I watched the students experience the national parks for the first time. Many students who were not considered successful in the traditional classroom came alive with questions and the speed brakes came off of the students who were already successful and wanted more. The surge of confidence that comes from the necessity of being self reliant and out of their comfort zones fuels a level of learning that far surpasses anything possible in the classroom.

Our school system has a tendency to objectify the need for learning. Students are told that good grades will allow them opportunities to get into additional school programs, that will get them into law and medical schools, and then eventually they will be able to obtain many material things if they are successful. This coupled with the exchange of real experiences for those obtained voyeuristically through video games and other electronic means results in a population that is generally pacified and detached. However, I have found that interesting people who make a difference collect experiences, not objects.

The true power of travel is that is stamps out the existence of our oversimplified visions of the “other” and renders trite explanations meaningless. Through our textbook based learning it has become easy to blow off ideas as those belonging to faceless people in far off places. We also pass the buck on things such as conservation and charity when we have not been covered in mud on a trail in one of our national parks or experienced a random act of kindness from a stranger far from home. Only through actual experience do we understand that all people are pretty much the same and that some things are worth fighting for.

Anyway, we traveled to the west for a national park tour again this year and it was the best group that I have yet gone with. We will be back out on the road in Puerto Rico in 2014. In the meantime I will be trying to wrap my head around ideas on how to expand these type of experiences.

Expanding on Western Expansion

Guest blogging for the Choices Program: Expanding on Western Expansion

Featured Teacher on Edmodo

As one of my students said, "The title says it all..."
 History Teacher Brian Schum's Students Stay up Late With Edmodo

Evaluating Social Media Response in the Wake of Tragedy

For better or for worse social media plays an increasing role in the way that information is disseminated and is a major factor in shaping student perceptions of current events. I often find that ideas that are discussed and passed along are based on wildly inaccurate information but are taken as factual simply because they were posted online. Students lack the skills to properly evaluate the information that they come across and it is becoming more imperative that those skills be taught in schools.

The long simmering gun control debate has rightfully been stoked to an inferno in wake of Friday's events and will hopefully be a major talking point for the foreseeable future. Finding the appropriate angle to approach such subjects in class in a meaningful way is always a difficult task but it is necessary for students to be given the opportunity to explore contentious issues in order to grow. I personally feel an almost overwhelming burden to teach about such things and do what I can to prompt constructive  thought on the topic.

Evaluating Social Media Response in the Wake of Tragedy is an activity developed to help students examine some of the responses being posted on social media from a more critical point of view. It is based on the seven faulty logic errors in reasoning that Marzano identifies in the A Handbook for the Art and Science of Teaching; contradiction, accident, false cause, begging the question, evading the issue, arguing from ignorance, and composition and division.  I selected a handful of posts to focus on (many from my own network) that caused me to pause because I  either reacted especially positively or negatively to them. Students will be completing this activity this week after previous practice analyzing errors in arguments that were not as relevant.

Further Resources for Exploring the Gun Control Debate in the Classroom
Bill of Rights Institute A lesson plan and resources created after this summer's Aurora shootings. It contains summaries of recent landmark Second Amendment cases DC v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago. 

PBS- NOW Gun Debate A nice chart that breaks down some of the pro and con arguments of gun control along with links to other sources.

NYT Opinionator The New York Times will this week be publishing a series a responses from contemporary philosophers looking at the ramifications of gun ownership and regulation.

Making the Revolution Relevant

Powdered wigs, breeches, and tea are not not exactly the most exciting topics to anyone. While the road to the American Revolution is one of my favorite topics to teach, it can sometimes be a struggle to make it relevant to students. Below are five video clips I use to make the time period more tangible.

1. Tarring and Feathering

Classic chicken suit picture.

When I was in school the only concept I had of tarring and feathering was the lame picture that is in every history text book that looks like a group of school boys are harassing a guy in a chicken suit outside the local wing stop. When the HBO mini-series John Adams came out in 2008, I couldn't wait to use this scene in class to illustrate the brutality of the act. It is hands down my favorite clip to show now. 

2. The Town Meeting

The Patriot is about as historically accurate as Disney's Pocahontas but I usually use a few choice scenes from it. We do a town meeting simulation and I use this one to set up the debate between loyalists and colonists. Mel Gibson's quote about tyranny at the end is a great discussion piece. 

3. Too Late to Apologize

This video is a close second to the tarring and feathering on my list of favorites. I teach the Declaration of Independence as a break up letter between the colonists and the king and this one fits in perfectly. It is also a great example of parody to use when I encourage students to use it in their projects. 

4. Signing the Declaration

This is another clip from the John Adams series. One of the misconceptions that people have is that the founders immediately broke out the fireworks, hot dogs, and watermelon when they signed the Declaration of Independence. This scene is brilliant in showing a more realistic version of the emotions of the signers.

5. Gentleman's War

This one is just straight up fun.

Beyond the Bubble

"An absence of creativity characterizes the testing industry. At one end of the spectrum are multiple-choice tests that rip facts out of context and penalize students for not knowing things they can instantly Google."

Beyond the Bubble is an interesting looking site I stumbled upon that focuses on assessing historical analysis. It is put together by the history education folks at Stanford and has some high quality DBQ style activities that focus on different aspects of historical analysis. The number of assessments is somewhat limited at this point but each one is accompanied by resources including rubrics, examples of student responses, and supplementary videos.