My Classroom - It'll be fun tomorrow

[originally posted on my personal blog on 8/23/09]

This is going to be a great year.

This is my classroom for the new year. Tomorrow these seats will be filled (38 in my 6th period will do that!).  I am so excited about seeing the new students that I will meet for the first time. And I am even more excited about seeing my former students and how much they have grown.

A look as you walk through the door. I am lucky to be back in the corner. Most people leave me alone. If you come through my door, well... you meant to do it. :)

I moved my desk to the back this year. I had it along that window there last year. It was hard to see the computer monitor and this gets more kids in the front of the class. I think that's a psych ploy by me to make them think they are better students. :)

Closer look at my desk. :)

A look at the front of the room. I am going to do more work with me teaching from the board this year. I know, old school. But, the kids get tired of power points and projections. We are going to add a little more light this year. :)

You can see my "Target Board" on the left side. It's where I post our learning targets, agenda, and notes to my 3 preps. Above the board are college pennants, hopefully reminding them of why we are learning what we are learning. This year I added a cut out of the Geiko "Money you would be saving if you switched to Geiko."  I'll call it, "Money you could be saving if you prepare for a college education."

Our beautiful school. We are so lucky to call it home. Go Eagles!

Wishing a good first day to all the teachers and students out there.

Welcome Back - 1st Day of Instruction

[originally posted on my personal blog at the beginning of 09/10 school year]

The sun rises on a brand new year. This is the video that I will show on Monday to my World History Pre-AP classes. It started as a "Rules Video" a few years ago. This gives me an opportunity to show the kids some of my expectations for the year w/o talking like Charlie Brown's teacher for 50 minutes.

We had a lot of fun with Aidan and the green screen towards the end of the video. There are some neat outtakes at the end.

2009_10_1stDayVideo_WH from Mr. Duez on Vimeo.

2009_10_1stDayVideo_WH from Mr. Duez on Vimeo.
Our first day video for World History Pre-AP.  What will class be like?  What will we study?  What are our rules?

The video isn't perfect, but I think it sets a tone for a hopefully GREAT school year. Welcome back.

Cornell Notes & Philosophical Chairs

Today and tomorrow I am a presenter in my district for AVID Path Training in Social Studies.  Basically it's two days of time with middle and high school teachers to present 'best teaching practices' to them.  The great thing about the training is that we actually 'do' and model the work.

Today we focused on topics like Using Poetry, Cornell Notes, Jigsawing, Quick Writes, and Philosophical Chairs.  Two things jump out to me and seemed to be significant.  First, teachers really appreciate well-prepared and on task professional development.  A teacher stopped me and my partner about an hour in and announced how excited he was that this training was going so well.  He has been through three professional development experiences this summer and was stunned that we were on the ball.  It was great to see how appreciative he and others were.

The other thing that stood out was how two techniques went over well with the teachers.  The first was Cornell Notes.  It may have been the best and most clearly designed Cornell Notes lesson that I have taught.  (I might finally be getting the hang of this thing)  Here is the power point that I used to introduce C Notes:
AVID HISTORY PATH:  Cornell Notes

At the end of the power point, I distributed a sample of US History Cnotes with a grading rubric on the flip side.  Then I had each of the participants grade it for themselves.  Then we did "4 Corners" and had the teachers go to an A, B, and C corner (There were no Ds).  After discussing it in their corner group, one person presented the faults they had with the notes.

This was a wonderful way of emphasizing with the teachers what good note taking is and how they could do this with their students to impart just how to take notes and what the teacher is looking for.  I think it went over very well.

Also we did a wonderful Philosophical Chairs debate.  The teachers got into it.  The first thing I did was show my power point on PChairs to introduce the rules:
AVID HISTORY PATH:  Philosophical Chairs PPT
Then we modeled Philosophical Chairs with this question:
Should the "Cash for Clunkers" program be continued by Congress?
The debate was split in 1/2 and was very lively, but well mannered.  I think the teachers got a great feel for just how they can use it.

I am looking forward to presenting Engaging the Text, Document-Based Questions, Free Response Questions and Socratic Seminar tomorrow.  This has been a wonderful group to work with.  I can't believe that school starts in less than 2 weeks!

School Pride

Today it was really great to meet up with Egypt again from MissTeacha. She has been in town this week for an AP World History institute at Rice. Norma has been there all week as well for Economics AP. We had a chance to have dinner with her earlier in the week, but today she came up to Kingwood to see the house, our school and have some chinese food with us.

Aidan just loved being with her. She is so kind, nice and warm. He just really loved having her at the house.




We had a chance to drive down to the high school and it was open because of summer school, but all the kids had left. So we walked through it to show her the school. My classroom was open, so she had a chance to check it out.

I know the school is special. It's beautiful. But, you take it for granted when you work there and you see it every day. But, the look on Egypt's face and the "Wow," that kept coming out of her mouth reminded me... I need to remember how lucky I am to teach at this school. Both Norma and I have to count our blessings. We've taught in many different schools and AHS is by far the best.

So tonight I'm feeling fortunate. Fortunate to have had a chance to meet and spend some time with Egypt. Very fortunate to have this wonderful life that I have. I must have someone looking out for me!

Pictures from our very first year at the school:

AHS Open Nest

A brief video that shows some of our AHS pride/culture:

1_Introduction: AHS 2007-2008 Video Intro from Mr. Duez on Vimeo.
This is the introduction I used for the year end videos in my World History Classes.

2007-2008! It was great.


Our Alma Mater video that I created:

AHS Alma Mater 2007 from Mr. Duez on Vimeo.

Reflections on the 2008 - 2009 School Year

[item originally posted on my personal blog on 6/20/09]

I asked my World History classes to reflect on their school year.  Here is what they answered to the first question:

Mr. Duez's World History Pre-AP Class - End of the Year Reflection
What were the best activities or assignments of the year? Why?  (Things you enjoyed doing)                          
[examples:  projects - rock art, religion pstrs, castles, human rights posters, video project, career project; or cnn student news, philosophical chairs, socratic seminar, trench warfare.]

Video Project = 40
Castle Project = 33
Philosophical Chairs = 15
Rock Art Project = 13
CNN Student News = 12
Trench Warfare = 12
SOCRATIC SEMINAR = 11
CAREER PROJECT = 10
Human Rights Poster = 8
RELIGION PROJECT = 2

It's very interesting looking at these numbers.  Obviously our Video Project ( see the Video Project Blog here ) had a huge impact.  It is great to see that the kids enjoyed it.

The Castle Project was a pretty close second.  This can be a massive project.  But, the students put a lot of creativity into it.  Many students commented negatively about this project as well (I'll run those numbers later).  And I may continue to tweak it to make it better and a situation where students might be able to learn more.

I only used Philosophical Chairs during the fall semester and Socratic Seminar during the spring.  I am going to change that up next year and mix them up more.  And I am going to use both more.  I think the numbers would have been higher if we would have done them more often.  It is just hard to turn things over to the class sometimes as a teacher.  The benefit is that they learn from each other in their own language and it is a powerful way to get ideas across.  I just have to plan and work harder to get these activities into the class better.

Trench Warfare was fun (as it always is).  We take two sheets of notebook paper, make balls out of them, divide the class into two teams - East and West (Germans and French) and have them fight it out in trenches.  The trenches are created by using the rows in the classroom.  It is fun and it does give the students a bit of a feeling of what it must have been like to hide, attack and maneuver through the trenches.

Here is the form I used for the survey (adapted from one that MissTeacha inspired me to use):
Year End Reflection-WH