What Just Happened?

I saw a play Saturday night called The Dumb Waiter. In case you don't know what a dumbwaiter is, it's this small elevator thing that was used back in the day to transport food from a lower floor to a higher floor in a cafe or fancy house.

In this particular play, two hitmen were waiting on instructions about who they were supposed to kill. After a while, the dumbwaiter started delivering food orders, which confused both the hitmen as well as the audience, as there was no food or even a working stove in the room. I won't tell you how it ended in case you ever get a chance to see it, but trust me when I tell you that it has one of those endings that causes you to replay the entire play in your head to figure out the moment when the end makes sense.

Sometimes, things don't make sense until the end. We ended our first unit of AP World History last week. Over a period of a few weeks, we read and took notes at home over a few chapters and then used class time to try and make connections across these various parts of history. Many students may have wondered, much like many audience members in the play I attended, what the point was. Why do I have to take these notes at home? Can't the teacher just teach me? Why do I need to make this Venn diagram of explorers? There is more to history than the details. The details have their place, which is why you need to do reading assignments and take notes. Making the connections can be a little more difficult to do on your own, which is why we spend time in class with that part. But hopefully, at the end,  during the test - it all starts to make sense.

Some people may not have been over the moon when they saw their test grade. But I have a suspicion that the next end - the next test - will be better. Why? Because you've seen an ending now. You know what types of questions to expect. The mystery and anticipation are gone. Don't give up. One woman in the audience of The Dumb Waiter got up and walked out RIGHT BEFORE THE BEST PART. She decided that it would be better just to bail rather than waiting it out to see if it paid off. Don't walk out. Don't give up. The best part may be coming your way soon.

Check Me Out! (from a library)

I love to read. I always have. It may be your thing too, or it may not. If it's the latter you're probably not even reading this blog anyway, but I'll try to sway you to the literate side regardless. If you do love to read, then I will from time to time catch you up on books that you may want to check out. Have you read a book recently that peeps may want to read? Guest bloggers are welcome, so just ask!

Better Nate Than Ever by Tim Federle

Nate Foster is an almost 14-year old who knows he is meant for something bigger than the smallish Pennsylvania town he is stuck in.  He is outshone by his track star big brother, picked on at school, and misunderstood by...well, pretty much everyone. So when he finds out about open auditions for ET: The Musical on Broadway, he knows that this is his moment. With the help of his best friend, some elaborately rehearsed stories, a full bag of donuts, and a semi-charged Nokia cell phone, Nate sneaks out of town on a bus headed for the Big Apple. This hilarious and heartwarming book follows Nate through his adventures navigating New York City for the first time on his mission to be discovered as Broadway's next child star.

I have not unabashedly loved a book like this in a long time. Nate is truly a one-of-a-kind character whose voice is so distinctly written that he seemed like me, lots of my childhood friends, and many of my students all rolled into one. If you are a theatre kid, are related to one, or are lucky enough to have one as a friend, then this book is seriously a must-read.

If you have a few minutes, here's Tim Federle talking about his inspirations for the book...

History of the World, Part I

History is hard.

I mean, right? Living it is one thing, but then re-living it over and over? Sounds pretty terrible, but making connections among themes throughout world history is one of those things that sharpen those critical thinking tools that people (hopefully) use their whole lives.

There is A LOT of history in the world. I mean A LOT. In Humanities, we teach the AP World History course over a period of 2 years. That system has some advantages and some disadvantages. The biggest advantage is that we get to linger in some periods of time if we want or need to because we don't feel the rush to scramble from the dawn of civilization to the present in time to study for the big AP test in May. One of the main disadvantages, however, is that every couple of years, a new batch of Freshmen has to start in the middle of history. This is one of those years. 

Classes this week were divided into groups with the task of summarizing periods of history in order to review the Sophomores who learned about this stuff last year and to catch the Freshmen up on what they missed (and have to look forward to next year). Basically, everything from Mesopotamia to the Mongols. This brings me back to my two recurring notions (in case you missed them):

1. There is A LOT of history in the world.

2. History is hard.

Now, I do have to say that that second statement is a little misleading. History itself isn't hard; however, what we saw this week is that summarizing it can be a challenge. For many people, summarizing an episode of The Walking Dead can turn into a thirty-minute monologue. Try summarizing the roughly 500 years of China's Tang and Song dynasties. Geez. Students had just 6 minutes to do just that, and they were successful in completing that daunting task. Sure, they may have mangled an interpretation of The Weeknd's I Can't Feel My Face in doing so, but their point was made (see original video below for pop culture reference). But what about the rest of the class in the audience?

Observers were asked to make a note of TWO things from each presentation that they saw as the most important. TWO. You mean I can only write down TWO things about the history of Africa from the beginning of time through 1450??? Yes. TWO. If you thought the first summary was a challenge, then this one is like finishing one of those giant plates of food where you get a free t-shirt if successful.

Summarizing is difficult, but it is important. Not only important, but crucial. It's a skill that we will continue to work on throughout the year. Sometimes (and not just in school), we get bogged down in the details without looking for the big picture. Details have their time and place, but they tend to become irrelevant without bigger ideas guiding them. 

What's the big idea?

Um, we're working on that. Big ideas aren't big enough if they're simply handed down from a teacher to a student. Let's discover some big ideas together, shall we?