History Wars

It has been almost a year since my last post, a product of a very busy year that has left little time to write.  This past school year witnessed the launch of the new AP U.S. History curriculum, in my classroom and throughout the nation.  The newly designed framework has been met with much controversy and enough concern to warrant revisions for the upcoming school year.

Despite Vice President of AP Trevor Parker dismissing the criticisms in a recent letter to all "APUSH" teachers (link), I must respectfully disagree with his characterization of these criticisms as "egregious misrepresentations."  While this particular teacher welcomed the functional changes to the exam and especially its emphasis on the skills of a historian, the concept outline did present a perspective of United States history concerning to some, including me.  Those who subscribe to a Howard Zinn view of history will find nothing wrong in the framework; however, an overemphasis of some topics and a lack of inclusion of others is startling, at least in my opinion. Regardless of the "perspective" of the new curriculum, the new framework does allow for flexibility.  Therefore, it has been my goal over the past

Since writing this blog post while on vacation in
the Carolina Mountains, the College Board has just
released the "updated" version, shown here.
(Credit: 9news.com)

year to provide the appropriate balance of historical interpretation.  As I frequently mention in class, my job is not to teach what to think, but how to think. Simply because I disagree with the emphasis on negative elements of our history does not mean that I ignore those aspects or cover them with less attention.  I believe that our nation's history stands as one of the most remarkable in history and despite our faults, there is much to celebrate about a nation that just in recent decades rid the world of totalitarianism and has done more than any other to promote freedom and democracy around the globe.  However, in celebrating our past, we must come to terms with mistakes and failures.  Historian Paul Johnson (1998) said it best, "America is a great problem-creating country but also a great problem-solving country."  He offers this example: America "created chattel slavery on a scale never before experienced in the world, but it solved it after much time, blood, sweat and tears."  The effects of this are still a work in progress today, but at least we enjoy the freedom to debate and discern how to address problems and resolve controversy.  Not everyone in this world is as fortunate.

The reaction to the new framework also demonstrates the true nature of the field of history.  Our historical understanding is impacted by the context of present day and history is controversial.  The

Carving to Confederate Generals on
Stone Mountain, Georgia
(credit: WSB-TV)

recent debate regarding the Confederate flag illustrates this well.  History can also be reaffirming.  It can serve as a source of patriotism and identity, but also a source of scorn.  History can be personal and it is often when it becomes personal that ordinary people pay more attention.  I have witnessed some passionately defend their ancestry by vehemently arguing that southern secession and slavery were unrelated, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. 

Mural from the Nathan B. Forrest High School Cafeteria.
The school's name was changed to Westside High for the
2014-2015 school year. (Source: wjct.org)

This is what keeps my job exhilarating.  Students sometimes question why I remain so excited about teaching the "same story" over and over.  The reality is that each of the past eleven years has been different.  Each year offers some new perspective or some new interest based upon a recent book I have read or some new controversy in the news.  The integration of technology and the evolution of how we learn in the classroom also continues to evolve.  I continue to evolve in my own teaching as I release more of the responsibility for learning to the students themselves.  While this may cause concern for some in the profession (oh no, what if they get it wrong?), the results have been truly remarkable.  Just in the past year, I've watched students produce compelling and engaging presentations of historical material, address topics outside the normal curriculum and make learning personal by interviewing family members on their experience with past events and using what they learned to produce moving tributes to their past generation or even specifically to members of their family. 

The study of history deserves - rather, our youth deserve a genuine opportunity to learn history and in doing so, to make their own decisions regarding interpretation.  Gone are the days where students learned simply what a textbook author deemed important.  Students must have the freedom to evaluate the past, good and bad, as well as evaluate the implications of the past on their lives and our society.  I hope that the forthcoming revision to the "revised framework" will restore an appropriate balance to the historical narrative and will return some important topics noticeably absent in its current form.  Regardless of what the College Board decides, in my classroom, we will continue to consider all perspectives and all sides, while also allowing students to offer their own interpretations and interests.  We will engage the historical thinking skills that the new curriculum appropriately requires while challenging all perspectives of the past.

I close by offering a sampling of the AP curriculum controversy:

Historian Ralph Ketchum's full and thorough critique of the framework 

A shorter review of Ketchum's criticisms

Note: I have read several pieces by Ketchum, including his insightful biography of James Madison.

June 2015 Washington Post article regarding the controversy, as well as a letter signed by a list of historians - many notable and respected in the field - condemning the negative slant of the framework

Letter from Trevor Packer, College Board Vice President of AP

James McPherson's defense of the framework

Note: McPherson is one of the most respected historians in the field today

Politico story covering the controversy and opposing sides of the debate

An Open Letter from the Authors of the AP U.S. History Curriculum Framework

Creation, Curation and Collaboration: The iPad and the History Classroom

Student presenting a Google Map from his
iPad using AirServer

This year, Bishop Kenny High School embarked on a bold 1:1 iPad initiative with 1,200 mobile devices now in the hands of teachers and students.  This initiative aimed to fundamentally transform teaching and learning at Bishop Kenny by providing the means for developing a digital skill set where both teachers and students could easily "create, curate and collaborate" in the learning environment.  Of course, launching devices on such a large scale did present some challenges with bandwidth, resources and student use of the device.  However, from my perspective as a teacher, this inaugural year has been an overwhelming success.  Sure, the iPad can be a device of distraction, but the potential of having a device readily available for each student far outweighs the temporary distractions.  It also affords students an opportunity to learn not only a digital skill set, but also some self-control and discipline.  Devices are becoming much more prevalent in our society and in the workplace - everyone, young people and adults, must develop the digital etiquette of knowing when to power up and when to power down.

Looking back at this school year, I've noticed that students are much more engaged in their learning than ever before.  I'm not sure all students fully realize how far they have come since August, but as a teacher, it is amazing to see how launching the iPad really has transformed the way we learn at BK.  It is gratifying to watch students helping other students and students helping teachers learn new skills and develop new ways of interacting with academic subjects.  I would like to share some examples from my own classroom this year and of course, take the opportunity to brag about the incredible 126 juniors that I had the distinct honor and privilege to teach and to learn from this year.  Below are a few examples of activities we conducted using the iPad:

Bringing documents to life using DocsTeach from the National Archives:

Reading primary sources is an essential skill for historians and can be a challenge, especially when the documents are handwritten.  Prior to the iPad, I had to book a computer lab to examine original documents or just rely on text translations of the documents photocopied for classroom use.  This year, we were able to carefully examine original manuscripts and artifacts using the DocsTeach app.  Reading original, handwritten documents was challenging for students, but it did help them focus on every word.  It is also very neat to inspect the real artifacts!

Getting away from "PowerPoint" and finding new ways to collaborate and present historical information:

RWT Timeline App

This year, students collaborated on various topics in history using a variety of apps and tools, rather than just making (boring) PowerPoint slides.  When I first began assigning presentations years ago, I would have to book a lab and spend 15-20 minutes explaining to students exactly how to complete the assignment.  Now with an interactive device in the hands of every student, they have taught me new ways of curating materials and how to create compelling presentations of history.  Linked below are some examples with the names of the apps used:

• RWT Timeline App: Vietnam War Timeline
• ThingLink App: Slavery in the Early 1800s
• Prezi App: Prohibition (1920s)



Using Pinterest to present the Vietnam Era

• Pinterest Board for the Vietnam War

Playing trivia games with QuizUp:

For years, I gave a "Presidents Quiz" where students created a chart of all the Presidents and then used that chart on a skills quiz.  While the grades on this quiz were always okay, this year, my students inspired me to try something different.  Students taught me how to play QuizUp and the game has a category for the Presidents.  Instead of the traditional paper chart and quiz, students earned a quiz grade by reaching Level 10 in QuizUp.  The assignment is linked here for teachers interested in trying this activity.  I loved when students played me in the app and it was really gratifying when a student beat me in a history trivia game!  I think he was surprised that I was so excited about losing to a student.

Collaborating to create history movies:

Two years ago, I started an annual project where students would create a video on an event, topic or person in U.S. history.  This year's project exceeded my highest expectations.  While most groups used Windows Movie Maker on laptops, they also used their iPads to gather music, images and write captions.  A couple groups decided to experiment with iMovie for iPad instead of using the laptops.  The final products were absolutely remarkable and completed in only four class days!  By this point in the year, students were pros at how to quickly create, curate and collaborate using their devices - certainly a skill that will pay dividends in the future.

I encourage you to check out these videos!  Every one is amazing and compelling, covering a wide range of diverse topics (and chosen by the students):

• Disney and History (created with iMovie for iPad)
• Evolution of the Television
• Woodstock
• Music of the Decades
• 2000s Pop Music with connections to technology (created with iMovie for iPad)
• 20 People that made America great
• Slavery
• The Roaring 1920s
• Project Space (History of NASA)
• Pearl Harbor
• Titanic
• Manhattan Project and Nuclear Arms Race
• Kennedy Assassination
• Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Evolution of Women's Attire
• War on Terror

Communication and Collaboration via Schoology, Google Drive and E-mail:

One of the advantages of moving to digital learning is that now students have many different ways to communicate with me and with each other.  We collaborated on study guides throughout each unit using Google Drive and extended our class discussion online through Schoology.  Students were able to stay up-to-date with class assignments, activities and due dates using Schoology.  Also, when I left to attend conferences in St. Louis and Orlando this year, I could still keep in touch with the class and answer questions from virtually anywhere!

What's exciting is that this is only the beginning!  I can't wait to see what students will teach me next year!

Using Socrative to review for the AP Exam

Boston

Attached here are the pictures from my trip to Boston last weekend.  I had the opportunity to attend a Group Leader orientation with EF Smithsonian Student Travel and get to experience Boston and the surrounding areas.  This was such an enjoyable trip and I was so impressed by EF Smithsonian!  They have such a remarkable staff and every part of the weekend was well planned, well executed and quite fun.  I am very excited for taking my first group of students on tour to Washington in April with this great company.

For more on the trip to Washington in April 2014, click here.

Boston

Video Tributes

Last week, I embarked on an experimental project-based learning activity with my standard and honors classes.  As mentioned in my previous post, the students amazed me with their creativity, collaboration and their willingness to work through challenges to create video presentations.

Below are the videos they created.  Overall, the results are remarkable!  Some of these videos are very powerful, some are entertaining and all are fascinating.  The videos are ordered as follows:

• September 11th - very powerful!
• Cold War: Nuclear Disasters, Cold War Intelligence and the Space Race
• Protest and Rebellion: Civil Rights, Woodstock, Hippies
• War: World War II and Vietnam
• The Sixties: Tribute to JFK and 1960s Overview
• The Twenties: Roaring 1920s and Women of the 1920s
• Local History: Jacksonville

#eduwinning - A Great Week to be a Teacher!

This has been an extremely busy, yet very rewarding week as a teacher!  I am extremely fortunate to be doing a job I love and to be able to work at an outstanding Catholic, college-preparatory school (of course, I'm biased because Bishop Kenny is my alma mater).  But, this week in particular has been quite fun in and out of the classroom.  Let me re-cap...

For my AP U.S. History students, we began the week by finishing our review for Wednesday's AP exam.
In addition to review time in class, many students stayed after school on Monday for an additional (and optional) hour and a half review session.  Despite being a long day, they were energetic, knowledgeable and they impressed me with their understanding of history.

When they came out of the exam on Wednesday, the consensus was that they were well prepared.  I'm hopeful that nine months of hard work and analysis will pay off with good results on this exam.

Students entering the Castillo de San Marcos

We finished the week with a trip to St. Augustine.  This is a great time to visit St. Augustine as the oldest city
prepares to celebrate its 450th anniversary in 2015 and Florida continues its 500th anniversary celebration.  We had a very ambitious schedule, yet we accomplished all of our objectives and had a great time.  The students did everything I had hoped: they represented themselves well, they learned from the historic sites and artifacts, they asked questions and explored the city.  Even more, they seemed to really enjoy themselves!

In the coming week, I will blog more specifically about the trip with pictures from our various stops.

For my standard and honors U.S. History students, the week was also just as exciting.  On Monday, we wrapped up our last units of material and spent the rest of the week in our school's wireless computer lab working on a video creation project.  This project was an experiment for me.  Last year, I directed a project with my honors classes where each class produced a video "tribute" to a generation.  The project resulted in two videos, one dedicated to the "Greatest Generation" and the other to the "Baby Boom Generation."  In completing these videos, I directly managed the design and production.  This year, I decided to let the students have full control of the project from start to finish.

On the first day in the lab, each class was divided into three or four teams.  Each team had to pick a topic, choose a team leader and begin work.  I was amazed at how quickly students became engaged in their work.  Each group demonstrated creativity, collaboration and patience as we experienced several technical issues in the lab.  Despite the challenges, most groups finished by the end of the week - even while I was away on Friday.  We still have a couple groups that will upload Monday and Tuesday due to some technical issues in the lab.  Once all videos are uploaded, I will make a separate blog post to showcase all of their videos along with more details about the mechanics of the project.

While all of this was going on, I continued to grade oral history papers from my standard and honors students.  This is an annual paper assignment where I ask students to interview someone who experienced a historical event first-hand and then write about that experience, the event and the historical significance.  While it takes me a few weeks to grade these papers, I thoroughly enjoy reading the stories.  Already, I have read some fascinating stories from war veterans and average citizens who experienced life-changing events.  This is one of my favorite assignments because it allows me to learn new information and new perspectives.  I also hope that the conversation with an older family member, friend, teacher or acquaintance is a meaningful experience for each student.

Overall, I walked out of the classroom Friday evening with a big smile on my face and a longing to get back to work on Monday.  I am grateful to my students for being so willing to learn and making each day exciting.

I can certainly mark this week as an #eduwin !  If you don't know what that means, check it out as a hashtag on Twitter or see this site: http://www.whatisyoureduwin.com/