I am so behind in my unit that I wrote for this course. I started it on Wednesday last week, today was to be the fifth day, and end. As it is, I am on day three. Waugh! Is it better to stick to the schedule, or make sure the learning is taking place? I thought that I was designing something that allowed me to teach each lesson each day, after all, I have been at this for almost a whole school year. To be, or not to be? Aye that IS the question, no?

Here's the rub, with social studies, you never know what kind of response or questions you are going to get. You never know if they are going to be totally bored with it, or full of questions, really good ones. I know that other folks experience teachable moments, but I tend to think that as a social studies teacher I get more of them. My curriculum touches every other subject in some way, shape, form, or fashion. I like it when my kids see something in the film, or in the text that sparks an interest, or debate. THAT is where the real learning takes place. To Hades with learning the exact layout of all the countries in Europe, I would rather them be able to articulate why a democratic society is better than the society built up under Stalin, or I would rather have them understand that losing 20,000,000+ people in WWII compared to our 300,000 or so makes the cultures of both the former U.S.S.R. and the U.S. very different. That is what my subject is about.

I am also trying something new, "The Squeeze", as a reading comprehension tool. Some of the kids in my last class were not getting it as well as I would have liked today, and I had them write their results on the board. I then went, and with their permission, "edited" their findings to try and show them where they might have done it better. This seemed to work. Did it put me farther behind? Yes, but isn't the point their learning? I keep thinking about something said in my Core Content Literacy PD that attended this year: Is learning more important than grades?