The Hoggatteer Experience - THE HOGGATTEER REVOLUTION

Dissection in Week One

8/31/2020

As long as we are discussing animal adaptations and our national bird, the eagle, we figured I figured we could also talk about the unique internal adaptations of raptors (namely, owls).

Each of the six foil wrapped packages pictured here (left) contains an owl pellet, ready for dissection. Students were really surprised to participate in such an engaging activity during the first week of school.

What a group! These kids dug right in, noticing lots of details as they used toothpicks to separate sections of rodent hair and real bones that the owls could not digest. The unique structure of the owl's digestive system collects the indigestible parts, and the owl coughs up them all in the form of a pellet.

This lesson was our first opportunity to impress Principal Bozarth with our style and manners, as well. When he entered the classroom, the first thing he saw was a classroom full of happy, busy fourth graders. The next thing he knew, he was being invited into each group so they could share the activity and their excitement. Each group offered the principal a place to sit as they involved him in conversation.

The owl pellet dissection concluded with sorting the bones by species and bone type, finally collecting a full set of vole (field mouse) bones and attaching them to a stick sheet. Color me as the impressed and proud teacher; watching my new students perform so admirably gives me hope for the upcoming school year, moving into material and projects like they have never seen.

It's a Witch Hunt

8/30/2020

Even though we will regularly learn about the ugliness of history, this year, this particular subject is particularly disturbing. The teacher will be careful to address this on a fourth grade level, and we will not dig too deeply into the details. We will, however, find an application that will be appropriate to our part of the world in the 21st century.

Art Appreciation

Analyze the painting shown below. Note the details.

What do you notice?
What do you think is happening?
What caused the scene in the painting?
What might happen after the scene shown?
What does this piece make you wonder?

Salem Today

Watch the video below to see how Salem, Massachusetts, appears today.

The Basics

Positive Behavior conversation

Here is a quick discussion-starter that is related to today's topic:

Voices

Music Appreciation

Follow along with this song as the words appear on the screen: Outcast.

While we're on the Subject

Learn more of the details:

When Were the
Salem Witch Trials?

To Make Us Think

We might wonder how an entire community could so easily take one person's accusation to heart. Not basing their judgments on facts and evidence, entire congregations of people prosecuted and executed innocent people as witches. Granted, their judgments were based in fear and misunderstanding, but as innocent as that sounds, we can learn from their fear and misunderstanding and avoid the same reactions in our own lives.

What follows is not meant to lessen the price paid by the innocent victims of the witch trials. Instead, this video should show us how long-held beliefs - combined with false accusations, ignorance, and lies - affect other people. Even though this video is intended for humor, we can use them to start a deeper conversation to conclude our lesson.

Some parents and other adults are wary of exposing their children to popular culture depicting witchcraft, wizardry, and fantasy. These genres, they believe, introduce children to dangerous concepts and could lead to trouble, even when the creators of these stories (in books, television shows, and books) only intend them to be for the purpose of entertainment. On which side of the issue do you stand? Can you bring yourself to respect the opposing view?

A Visit to Hutchinson Zoo

8/29/2020

Sometimes animals make great models for photographs, and sometimes they do not. The problem comes in the focusing speed of a camera, the random movements of the animals, and the lush landscaping of a zoo.

The quaint Hutchinson Zoo offers free admission, though there is a suggested donation. Even though it is a comparatively small facility, toured in about 45 minutes, the place is attractive and clean and operates through donations and not by a set admission price.

Most of my pictures are of the vegetation, and strangely, of birds. I do like how they turned out. My outdoor photos are much better than the ones I take indoors and underground. The pictures I took on the previous portions of our trip to Hutchinson were mostly inside, and many of them were of objects behind glass. I battled reflections and museum lighting during those times. It was refreshing to be able to take clear and sunny photos at the zoo.

Roaring River State Park: River Trail

8/28/2020

I preached a couple of times in Washburn, Missouri, this month, just south of Cassville and our fabulous Roaring River State Park. During the day, between worship services, I was able to pick up some hiking along one of the old CCC-blazed trail. From the steps one gets a view of the trout hatching that is no longer in operation due to repairs of the system. Sadly, I couldn't get to the spring because of the closure.

Along the hike, I saw a couple of groundhogs. bright yellow birds, butterflies, some of the cataracts of the river on one side of me, and stone walls towering on the other side. If I get to come back enough times, I plan to hike all the trails in the system. In fact, this area is said to have been improvised as hideouts to Civil War guerillas, so I'll have to be on the lookout for evidence of such activity.

I've been to Roaring River a number of times in the last quarter-century, so I was disappointed to see the drained hatchery raceways have been drained for a revamping of the area. Even the Deer Leap Trail and the spring itself are blocked from view during the project, but there is still plenty to keep a family occupied for a few hours, even if no one in the group is fishing.

Coming home just before sunset was very pleasant on a cool-for-August evening, and I was also reminded of the beauty of our nation's farmlands.

Can You Follow Directions?

8/27/2020

In our first week of school, Joplin Eagles drew Joplin Eagles, learned about our national symbol, wrote paragraphs to accompany a tune entitled Spirit Animal: Eagle, read and sang along to music about eagles, and leaned about the adaptations of the eagle. Whew.

About the eagle drawings, students had to follow oral and visual instructions. We were all impressed with our finished products, and some students even experimented with creative highlights and shadows.

Virtual Field Trips Scheduled

8/26/2020

We will be connecting with the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in DC in September and with Thomas Jefferson's Monticello in Virginia in December in the Virtual Field Trips described below. We are privileged to have been accepted for these special live presentations hosted by historical scholars and experienced presenters. My hope is to enhance our regular studies with these special connections using Microsoft Teams. Plus, as a bonus, I have arranged for a good friend of mine to connect with us on September 11.

Telling the American Story

Our year begins with studies of the indigenous people and the encroaching American colonies. This presentation, taking place in mid-September from the National Museum of the American Indian, should shine some light on those times. We will look at three familiar accounts in American history and consider them from different points of view. Here is the official description of the session:

The American story has been profoundly shaped by American Indians, yet the stories told about Indians are often false and almost always incomplete. What do we gain by telling stories that may not be true? What do we lose? In this program, students examine three key events in American history—the first Thanksgiving, the life of Pocahontas, and the Battle of Little Bighorn—to uncover the hidden stories behind them.

Jefferson's Monticello

We have participated in this Virtual Field Trip for a couple of years now, and we have enjoyed the flexibility of the presenter. In this session, we will see Thomas Jefferson's house at Monticello, ponder the architecture, and explore some of the contents of the house. The session is described thusly:

Monticello was the home of Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence and 3rd president of the United States of America. The revolutionary ideas of this man of the Enlightenment were instrumental in the creation of the United States. His home in Charlottesville, Virginia, is an architectural icon, with its neoclassical design drafted by Jefferson himself. But Monticello was also a working plantation, and the home to hundreds of enslaved people. The Founding Father who wrote “all men are created equal” was also a lifelong slave owner.

Slavery at Monticello

A second hookup with Monticello will focus on slavery at Monticello. No study of Thomas Jefferson is complete without thinking about the internal struggle of the this man who, though advocating for every man as being equally-created and yet owning slaves. Students really have to think about the moral struggle in the third president's thinking and actions. Here is the description of the session:

How could the author of the Declaration of the Independence own slaves? How could twenty percent of the population of the new United States, founded on the principles of liberty and equality, live in bondage? What was life like for enslaved people in the early republic?

9/11

Finally, I've wanted to hear my friend's story since I learned he had a story. On the September 11 anniversary of the largest terrorist attacks in the United States, we will hear from him as we connect virtually in the classroom. As you can tell from his explanation below, his experiences extend beyond 9/11, but we will focus primarily on that infamous day in history.

I served in DESERT SHIELD and STORM (lost two jets in one day and another one a few days later), 9/11 at US Strategic Command with President Bush, was dropped into Croatia to pickup a downed F-16 with its parts at the bottom of the Adriatic, and generated and maintained the B-2 bombers at Whiteman AFB for their combat debut in the Balkans.

Digging In on our First Day

8/25/2020

There we were - young archaeologists - not too sure of this new place, this new foreman, and this new assignment. Normally, there would be more instruction - more rules, more procedures, and more introductions - before we would travel to a "work site", especially one of scientific and historic importance. The Hoggatt site might yield some interesting results, and we were there from the beginning.

The supervisor had prepared the sites ahead of time, making note of three layers of time, marked by three different soils and storied artifacts embedded into each layer. On the bottom layer of each "site" was a layer of sand. The middle layer revealed darker, aromatic soil (sprayed with air freshener). The top level was a mixture of aquarium gravel, potting soil, and sand.

All were contained in a marked grid on a square table, and each team of archaeologists would excavate a single portion of the grid. For ease of excavation, each block of soil was contained in a clear, plastic shoebox, sitting on a plastic blue tray to aid in minor spills during the operation.

Our tools for the activity included the following:

Tongue depressors, our alternative to flat trowels (our main digging implement)
Toothpicks (to assist in cleaning artifacts of soil debris)
A paint brush for gently dusting artifacts
A magnifying lens for taking a closer look
A yellow ruler to take measurements
Three plastic bags (to save artifacts separately for each level)
A recording sheet on a clipboard (to preserve the results of our dig)
Pencils for recording findings

With this, the scene was set for our first day of lively learning in the Hoggatteer classroom. Students were ready to dig into something besides rules and procedures.

Click to enlarge each picture.

The task was ready when we entered the site.

The sites were prepared for young archaeologists.

Three layers were assigned for excavation.

These are about all the tools we would need.

We could already see something in the top layer.

The first letter was ready to yield results.

Students were ready to dig in. That's not a bad thing, but it does bring up a problem: students are ready to really dig in, without the patience of an archaeologist. They needed to go slow and uncover a single layer at a time and not plow through like bulldozers. Any teacher attempting this activity must be ready to stop and restart the class many times with added instruction along the way.

This first lesson of the year takes a lot of energy and attention to detail. It is intended to cause students to notice all of the artifacts, recording which was found in each layer to they can "interpret" the progression of those layers in order to tell a story. For us, all of the interpretation had to take place on a second day.

Bulletin Board: Experience

8/24/2020

I used some old calendar pictures for our large bulletin board in the hallway, this year. I started by sorting them into categories: people, places, events, and ideas, and then kept them separated on the board.

I printed some titles and put them near the set of images that they describe. Then I added two more titles: vision and legacy.

The Experience title on the right side of the board is made of plastic letters from our previous board. To fit the whole word on the board vertically, I staggered the letters.

The board is colorful and bright, and it sets the stage for where our class will go in the coming year.

35th Anniversary: Did You Know...? (4 of 4)

8/23/2020

Cecil Floyd Elementary was dedicated on August 25, 1985.
Today, this school is better than ever.

A Visit to Cosmosphere: The USA in Space

8/22/2020

The USA wins the race to space and finally fulfills President John Kennedy's promise to put a man on the moon in "this decade" (the 1960s). Kennedy, of course, was assassinated before John Glenn and Buzz Aldrin put their prints in the lunar sand in 1969. It is one of my first memories.

My love of history attracted me to the object pictured below (bottom left). Is is a section of the Wright Brother's first airplane. The astronauts carried this symbol of their achievement to the moon and back, demonstrating an obvious appreciation for the history that got them where they were.

Wally Schirra Space Suit

Michael Collins Space Suit (Apollo 11)

Authentic, Flown Apollo 13 Capsule

Jim Lovell Space Suit (Apollo 13)

Another shocking display is the Apollo 13 capsule, Jim Lovell's space suit from the same flight, and other objects from the flight that brought two phrases into popular culture: "Houston, we have a problem," and "Failure is not an option" (more on this in a future writing).

After this visit to Cosmosphere, we have many hours of movies and documentaries to rewatch, if not for any other reason except to shout out when we see images of the artifacts we saw in the museum.

How I Spent My Summer

8/21/2020

Someone is going to ask. Teachers in the lounge. Principals in the office. Parents. Kids. Someone is going to ask me what I did over the summer of 2020. Well, let me tell you, it may not have been the most exciting or eventful of summers, and I certainly wish it had gone without a hitch, but it did come and go. Here is what I did to pass the time:

Preaching

There was a period of time when meeting to worship in a church building was ill-advised. During that time, my family still worshipped at home around the dining room table, but when the restrictions were lifted, I started getting calls to return to my fill-in preaching for congregations within driving range. I prepared sermons and preached at five congregations: Columbus and Fort Scott, Kansas, Joplin and Washburn, Missouri, and Grove, Oklahoma. I've done this kind of work, filling the pulpits of churches when the regular preachers take a vacation or when the churches do not presently employ a full-time preacher. It is a very satisfying, almost weekly, work that I take very seriously, and it provides me with an added income to supplement my teaching salary. I always try to prepare extra Bible class lessons and sermons to keep the work going through the school year, as well, so I've spent many hours in study and writing.

Traveling

Originally, I was supposed to spend some days at the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute for a few days. As a lover of United States colonial and revolutionary history, I was disappointed to receive word that it was being postponed until next summer. With CVD-19's attempt to take over everyone's life in 2020, along with limited cash on hand, we still fought our way out of the house for a couple of trips abroad. A quick trip to Kansas City doubled as a doctor's appointment with my daughter's neurologist. On that trip, my son and I spent some time walking around the outside of the Liberty Memorial World War I Memorial. On the way, we stopped at the Apple Cider Mill in Louisburg, Kansas, and on the way back, they dragged me to IKEA. In another trip, we packed the car and drove to Hutchinson, Kansas, where we toured Strataca, the salt mine, and the Cosmosphere space museum. It was just a short trip, but at least it gave us a chance to get away and learn something.

Lumberjacking

Our house lies on a property in the middle of the woods. In fact, behind the house there is nothing else in view, but trees and all the accoutrements of a forest. While our immediate yards have been cleared of the densest features of forestry, there are still trees. The trouble is that the light doesn't always reach the grass, and the grass doesn't always grow very thick. This summer, with extra time on my hands, I decided to take my reciprocating saw in hand, climb a ladder, and trim those trees as far off the ground as I could. I lost count of how many pickuploads of limbs I hauled away. It was hot, sweaty, hard work, but it was also very satisfying, and I feel like I accomplished something worthwhile.

TV Viewing

If I have a bad habit, it must be sitting on my backside and binge watching classic TV shows. I don't want to admit how many episodes I've watched over the past few months, from Green Acres to I Dream of Jeannie, from the original Mission: Impossible (which I've never watched) to The Partridge Family, Perfect Strangers, The Addams Family, Bewitched and Happy Days. But it doesn't stop there: I also caught up on all the episodes of Alias and spent time watching the British archaeology program, Time Team. Disney+ provided classic movies for me, and I viewed some old movies on Amazon Prime. The number of hours wasted watching television is disgraceful, though to be fair, I also worked on the computer at the same time the programs were playing (That makes it OK, right?).

"Websiting"

As always, I curated lesson materials, constructed lesson sets, wrote commentary articles, and kept this website updated. For years, I have maintained the site with a new entry every day, even during the summer. I am always amazed that I can keep ahead of the game with the website as I try to make it relevant as well as useful for my teaching, my classroom, my students, and for other teachers who might be interested in using the material. This summer, in the hope that students would continue to make up for the loss of instructional time, I also continued to update our HOGGATTEERS@HOME site with useful presentations that students could access from home.

Planning

Finally, my mind continuously rolls into teaching mode when I have time off. When I go places or see things, I always apply the same question: how can I fit this into my classroom? The 2020-extended-spring-break-slash-summer-vacation that we've been experiencing has given me extra time to do so, but not many extra things to see and places to go, which may or may not have done something permanent to my brain (but we're not here to discuss that). Still, I am happy to announce that I finally completed the entire year of lesson sets for our American history coverage. It has been more than a two-year, daunting quest that I took on as a passion, and there were some sets that challenged me, but while I hope to add or alter lessons as needed, for now it is done. During this time, I have curated material from the interweb while at the same time attempting to meld it with my own ideas, crossing curricular boundaries and making it accessible to nine- and ten-year-olds. While every lesson set has not been posted on the page yet, I have included links, videos, and files that should help any American history educator get started with teaching a year-long unit on colonial, revolutionary, and post-revolutionary eras.

How About You?

Many teachers give the assignment, at the beginning of the school year, to write down or verbally present a report entitled What I Did during Summer Vacation. Some students have more summer opportunities than others, but we still like to hear about your adventures. While I do not make such an assignment, I still welcome your informal reports if you are willing to share. our American history coverage

Three Noteworthy Milestones & a Glimpse into the ClassRoom

8/20/2020

AUGUST 25, 2020, MARKS A FEW MILESTONES:

It is the second day of fourth grade for the new Hoggatteers.
It is the anniversary of Mr. Hoggatt's birth ("Two score and fifteen years ago...").
It is officially Cecil Floyd Elementary's 35th birthday, and the first day of her 36th year (Our building was dedicated on August 25, 1985.).

Since we will not have our usual Open House, this year, here is your first glimpse into our classroom.
We're going to do more than just cover rules and procedures in the first week!

Back to School: Daily Schedule

8/19/2020

It looks like we have a pretty agreeable daily schedule for the upcoming school year. Since I like to cross the streams (a Ghostbusters reference) of curricula, teach outside the box, and engage my students, my schedule looks a bit different than normal. You won't find defined lines of reading (stop), writing (stop), and arithmetic (stop) here. Instead, I have built in times to allow for flexibility. Keep in mind that students often are working on multiple subjects simultaneously. Ours is a one-of-a-kind experience, tweaked a little bit (sometimes a lot) every year.

7:15   Ennui

7:30   Magical Mayhem

7:45   Conversations to Inspire Superior Thinking and Exemplary Citizenship

8:25   Music, Fitness, Art, and Media on a Four-Day Rotating Schedule

9:15   M05+LY M4+HEM4+1C5

10:15 Deeper Eclectic Learning Activities

11:10 Chuckwagon

11:30 Recess!

11:45 Effective Communication Skills for the Citizens of Tomorrow

1:10   Recess!

1:25   Deeper Eclectic Learning Activities

2:45   Countdown to Launch

2:55   Dismissal

This year, out restroom breaks are scheduled for every two hours. It is strongly suggested that students use these times and not skip them. They may also fill their water bottles during this time. In spite of our new health cautions, we're going to make this a memorable year for other, positive, reasons.

May We Teach

8/18/2020

For the new school year
For the smells of new pencils and new shoes
For the laughter of children
For crisp smiles and laughter

For peers who want the best for our future
For parents and grandparents
For administrators, teachers
For support from many sources

For art and science
For history and numbers
For a love of reading and writing
For music and movement

For peace, perseverance, and passion
For nurture
For patience and cooperation
For responsibility and respect

For challenge
For tears
For empathy
For compassion
For unity
For vision
For legacy
For a universe of dreams and untethered possibilities
For these and more, we are thankful

May we fill the hungry
May we heal the injured
May we comfort the cold
May we regard the neglected
May we inspire the complacent
May we calm the distressed
May we energize the tired
May we love the unloved
May we teach

First Day of School

8/17/2020

Faster than a speed reader;
More powerful than a persuasive paragraph;
Able to learn difficult mathematical concepts in a single bound!

Look!
On the calendar!
It's a Monday!
It's the 24th!
It's super, man!

And it'll be here before we know it!

The first day of fourth grade
begins this Monday morning at 7:45,
with breakfast in the classroom.

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