Reflections of an Educator

On Friday morning, I decided to have a cultural experience and visit the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. I had hoped to see the Edward Hopper exhibit, who painted famous paintings such as The Lighthouse at Two Lights, painted in 1929 and Night-Hawk, painted in 1942. But sadly, this traveling exhibit left a few days before I got there! Instead, I toured around the MFA...a beautiful building itself and there was so much to see. It was truly overwhelming and I will have to take another trip there to continue exploring. The MFA has many collections, which are listed on their website . I was able to take a look at many things will be studying this coming year, particularly in the second half of the school year. The following is just a few topics that I found interesting: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Himalayan Art Islamic Art Japanese Painting Ancient Near East Art Egyptian Art Explore the MFA a bit...perhaps we can organize a field trip in the spring while studying these topics!

Wow - what a weekend! I took a tour of Northwestern Massachusetts, and headed "out west" with some friends to go hiking and camping. I learned more about the geography of Massachusetts on this trip, heading west on the Mass Pike, and north on I-91, passing Northampton and Amherst, and just north of Deerfield (the first town burned in the King Philip's War - remember?!), headed west on Route 2 , which runs east-west from the New York border into downtown Boston, where it becomes Commonwealth Avenue eventually. Our first stop was North Adams, where we went to Mount Greylock , the tallest mountain in Massachusetts, placed right in the northwestern corner of the state. There are many trails to the summit, and we took Thunderbolt Trail, which is one of the steepest to the top. We were running a little late, so we couldn't take the longer, less steep, and more leisurely route. It was a great workout and an absoultely gorgeous hike. The views were just spectacular from both ...

The Adirondack Mountains, part of the Appalachian Mountain Range, was the site of my annual camping trip to Floodwood Creek and Rollins Pond, in upstate New York, just north of Tupper Lake, NY . Here, we stay on an island in the middle of the pond, so we canoe our supplies and gear out to the island, where I read my books, fished, canoed, played cards, went for some runs, and generally just relaxed. One memorable run led me down what I thought was a paved road...but eventually became dirt, and eventually I saw a state sign, "Floodwood Mountain, 1.0 miles." Being a bit ambitious, I decided to run (yes, run) up the trail. At first, I thought, "Hey, not too bad!" until the moutnain trail really became, well, a mountain trail. Nonetheless, I continued on running, despite my pace becoming a near-crawl. The vista was gorgeous , though, and worth the run/hike to the top: mountain tops scattered among lakes. Lesson learned? 1. A hike is definitely worth the patienc...

Thanks to the Gilder Lehrman Institute , a private history institute that is dedicated to increasing awareness of American History, I applied for and won a grant to study history in the digital age (today) in New York City for a week. During the week, we stayed in the Iroquois Hotel , located on West 44th Street in Midtown Manahattan, adjacent to the New York City's Theater District, and three blocks from the NY Public Library Main Branch. It was here that we did most of our work. There were thirty teachers, who traveled from literally all over the country to attend the session: Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, Orlando, New Orleans, St. Louis, Chicago, Wichita KS, Los Angeles, Seattle, Juneau...just to name a few places! One neat thing about the conference was that I got to meet people from all around the country. We had great discussions about teaching and about history, as well as what their hometowns are like. There are huge differences, I found, between what topics teachers may...

A key component of your eighth grade experience is the novels you will read in English class and your ability to make connections to the world today and other classes. Since you will have to read several books throughout the school year, I figure I should be well-versed in the books as well, right? Therefore, I decided to brush up on some books that I know is part of the Eighth Grade curriculum. I started with To Kill A Mockingbird , by Harper Lee. Unbelievable! This book is incredible for several reasons. The characters are so ambitious and struggle with race and class issues that still exist today, despite the book taking place decades ago. Atticus Finch, one of the main characters wants to do what is best for his entire town and his kids; his selfless attitude is truly something that we all should strive to attain. Next up? Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and then The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Besides some school reading, I've caught up on Barack Obama's first book ...

Hello students! I have failed you in my updating of my website, but I'm back on the ball now...I promise! I spent a week in Wisconsin with my parents just after school ended. I got sidelined on the runway Logan Airport because of thunderstorms, but finally got in to General Mitchell Airport, which is Milwaukee's regional airport. It's quite beautiful, and they have pretty neat stores - the Harley Davidson Store, the Wisconsin Cheese Store. It reflects the industry of the area, just like when you go into Logan Airport in Boston, you find stores like Legal Seafood and stores with historical souvenirs, which reflects Boston's industry. While there, I got to celebrate my Mom's birthday with a surprise party. The rest of the week was spent exploring downtown Milwaukee, where I got to visit the Milwaukee Art Museum , and the Milwaukee Public Museum , which is kind of like our Museum of Science in Boston. It was great to explore the culture of the city a little more. I wa...

As you enter 7th grade Social Studies class, you will find that we will be doing a lot of thinking, including assignments where you are asked to compare and contrast...in fact, you may have to complete a Venn Diagram. One topic we will study is the Boston Massacre, which took place on March 5, 1770. In the Boston Massacre, British soldiers, who were patroling American colonists in Boston because tension was rising, mistakenly fired into a crowd. Rocks were thrown, both sides were aggressive, and in the end five American colonists were killed by the British. On August 21, 2006, another Boston Massacre occurred. During this Boston Massacre, the New York Yankees swept the Boston Red Sox at home at Fenway Park in a 5-game series. The Red Sox gave a valiant effort, but in the end, the Yankees' bullpen and hitting were too much for the Red Sox. If you would like to get a head start on practicing comparing and contrasting, then consider - what similarities and differences exist between th...

I've been wicked busy, lately (yes, I'm almost a New Englander because I used "wicked," I know, I know...)...almost a month ago, I finished my last class in a program I was doing to become certified by the state to move into administration in schools. It was a year-long program, and I completed it with a "cohort" of people - meaning a small group of people who took classes together. My friends and I ended our year together with a celebration of a golfing expedition (I did not do as well as I had hoped....), and promised to get togethe r soon. I'm certainly going to miss my friends! It's probably like missing your friends from summer camp, except all these people are teachers - your worst nightmare! The very next week, I took a class with some other teachers (there were 32 of us) in Brookline, at an organization called Facing History and Ourselves ("FHAO"). The organization helps teachers understand more about human atrocities around the wo...

Friday, July 7, 2006 Whoa, what a week it's been! This past week I spent my time in beautiful upstate New York. My sister, brother-in-law, mom, and dad all rendez-vous-ed in Saratoga Springs, NY. There, we relaxed, talked, went out to dinner, and played 54 holes of golf. It certainly was a lot of golf. When I get the pictures, I'll throw one up of me playing golf. I hadn't swung a golf club in 11 months, so I expected it to be pretty bad - but I actually did alright. And, the more I played, the better I got. By the end of the third day, I was hitting the ball well, outdriving my dad and brother-in-law (once in a while). I learned through this experience, that practice makes perfect (or at least better)...and that if you expect to improve at something, you have to keep working at it. From Saratoga, I drove with my sister to Ithaca, New York, where she and my brother-in-law live. Ithaca is home to two universities: Ithaca College and Cornell University. While out for some run...

While I was on the Cross Sound Ferry going to New York and back to New England, I had lots of time to read my book. It is called The Tipping Point , written by Malcolm Gladwell. It is simply an excellent book. It talks all about how certain things in society can become really popular (like an "epidemic"). For example, the TV show Sesame Street was not always popular. The author discusses the different factors that lead to an event, person, or fad becoming really popular...think about today's society. Ipods were not always so popular. It took certain factors for these products to become popular: cool people using them, lots of people using them, usefulness, convenience, etc. Once these factors occurred, Ipods became a "fad," where today so many people use them. In this book, I have learned that so many things around us in daily life - everything from DVD players to Ipods to Crocs (plastic shoes...maybe I will make them popular?) may or may not become very popul...