Some of us were not satisfied with the field trip to the Truman Presidential Museum, earlier this week.  For most of our fourth graders, we experienced a two-hour walking lecture, preceded and followed up with a 2 1/2- hour bus ride.  So when we returned, we revisited some of the things that we saw or heard at the museum.  Here are some supporting videos that I found online:

Here are the pictures I took with my phone when things were too dark for the regular camera without a flash.

Thanks to a generous grant and the also-generous support of our PTA, Cecil Floyd fourth graders traveled to Independence, Missouri, on Tuesday, to visit the Harry Truman Presidential Museum.  The museum is set to close for the year of 2019, only to reopen after that with a $22 million upgrade.  That's a much higher price tag than it took to build the initial library in the 1950s.  After some snow on the weekend, we were fortunate to see the current edition (The museum was closed for the weather on Monday, but roads were dry for us on Tuesday.).

Our tour guide, Mark, guided us around the snow-blanketed graves of Harry, Bess, and their only child, Margaret and we found President Truman's office.  This is the office he walked to from his house, just a few blocks away, after he returned to Independence from the presidency.  Some very important people sat in this office, including Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, as well as top-rated comedian and actor, Jack Benny.

We saw artillery pieces fired by the regiment that served under Truman's supervision in World War I, cars owned by the Trumans, campaign buttons, china plates, wedding shoes, the pistols from an attempted assassination of President Truman, the newspaper that Harry held up after defeating Dewey the 1948 election (even though the headline announced the opposite outcome), and of course, the replica of the oval office from Truman's time there. 

We learned about the gift of a Grecian mask that was given to the president by Greece - a mask that dates some 4-500 years before Christ. We also the Bible Harry placed his hand on to take the oath of office following President Roosevelt's death in 1945.  On this somber occasion, the only Bible that could be found was a Gideon Bible.

We learned about the Truman Doctrine to help rebuild Europe, and the daily drops of supplies requiring 5-600 planes to land there every day.  Our guide also shared the account of the man who became known as the Candy Bomber - a man who made handkerchief parachutes and used them to drop candy to children in West Germany.  Finally, we saw the only written documentation from the president to order the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.

Some of these items are pictured below.  I'll post some addition pictures from my phone, tomorrow.

Sometimes we stay in our own "bubbles".  We don't look past the nose on our own faces.

Take some time to watch this video:

Now for some questions:

• What acts of kindness does the man ignore, then perform in this video?
• What do pockets represent?
• What does the title, Mr. Indifferent, mean?
• How can we become more aware of serving others?
• What does being kind do for a person's character?  A person's personality?  A person's health?
• Where can you find people to be nice to, today?

​At times, it may seem that General George Washington acted on his own as the leader of the continental army. While Washington was the commander-in-chief, he often consulted a team of military leaders before making decisions.  Two of those generals are briefly introduced below.

​We hear, all the time, about how we should not stuff ourselves with food, whether junk food or just too much food in general.  It is often on Thanksgiving that we begin thinking about our New Year's resolutions.  We push ourselves away from the dinner table, and we stare at the empty dishes - coagulated bits of cranberry salad, sticky and charred marshmallow from the yams, turkey gristle - and we wonder if we could possibly be responsible for such carnage.

We ponder our places in the world, in the grand scheme, and we wonder if there is something we might do, something we might say or do - or be - that will make the world a better place.  Are we better people because we eat?  Are we better when we diet?  Are we healthier?  Do we pass plates of positive possibilities to our children?

If you really are what you eat, might I recommend a menu for this, and every, day?

Joseph Plumb Martin mentions the deaths he experienced during the Revolution with a little different tone than he does one particular experience toward the end of the war.  If I remember correctly from my reading in his memoirs, Joseph sat in his barracks with this particular soldier, a friend, when the soldier started hotdogging with his weapon, swinging it around and spinning it into the air.  A young man, perhaps he wasn't as careful as a more experienced soldier would have been.

The bayonet still fixed to the barrel of his rifle, this young soldier lost control of his shenanigans.  Rifle spun in the air, out of control, and came down, bayonet first, into his calf and coming back out near the ankle.  Joseph reacted quickly to get the soldier some help, but ultimately, as the headline suggests, the young man died from his injury. Just a little while longer and he would have seen the end of war, been able to return home, and had a good chance at a longer life.  I have no doubt that this death had a profound effect on Joseph's life, as he recounts it in detail in his memoirs.

Maxi's Secrets (or What You Can Learn from a Dog) is one of the best books I have read in a while.  I enjoy a well-crafted story, and Maxi's Secrets did not fail me in that.

Thankfully, Lynn Plourde spoils the ending by stating up front that the dog dies.  Because of this, the reader constantly anticipates the bad news.  Don't let that dampen your desire to read this great book:  there is plenty of great stuff in between the author's prophecy and the reality at the end.

In the three days it took to read this tale, I found myself really listening to this author's voice.  She kept me pushing forward in this story about a boy with social issues and his big white dog.  It was interesting to see the interaction between the main character and others, and to watch how even the positive interactions can be misinterpreted.

I hope Lynn Plourde's other works are as pleasant as this one.

Look at the house at Monticello (above left).  Then look at Jefferson's original drawing of the house (above right). How are they alike?  How are they different?

Let's take a look around.  Take this 360-degree tour of the Thomas Jefferson's house at Monticello.

Jefferson designed his house with style in mind.  Note that he "hid" the slave population from the general public. The the wings, the location of the kitchen, the all-weather passage, and the dumbwaiter in the dining room are all ways in which Jefferson demonstrates a kind of embarrassment for owning slaves.  The teacher can explain more.

​Here is a lot of information in one chart.  Study the chart carefully to make some inferences about the residents of Monticello.

Have you noticed the material Thomas Jefferson used in his house?  Unlike George Washington's Mount Vernon, Jefferson chose brick for the construction of Monticello.

​Colonial Williamsburg has a page about brickmaking. We will use that page to help us learn more about text structure.

Write a narration to go with the slides in this slideshow.

​Now let's go further:

• Lay out two bricks, end to end.  Calculate the exposed surface area and the volume of the total number of bricks.
• Find the same information for three bricks laid end to end.  Four bricks.  Five.
• Do you find any patterns?  If so, you may be able to predict the surface area and the volume for 10 bricks. Fifty.  One hundred.
• Do the calculations change if the bricks are laid side by side rather than end to end?  If so, why?

When I was in educational classes at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, I was introduced to the traditional lesson line.  In order to optimize time and allow for a variety of learning styles, that lesson line required a teacher to plan for every step of a lesson.  Each lesson, according to the line, must have a distinct anticipatory set and conclusion, each of which included a clear statement and review of the objectives for the lesson.  Even today, some principals and other administrators require teachers to post their objectives or goals on a board for students to read.

I absolutely followed that line.

However...

When I was ready for my principal to make his first sit-down observation in my classroom, I ticked every box on the lesson line.  Mr. Shelton was not impressed.  After the lesson, I sat in his office and the first thing I remember him telling me was, "That was not a lesson; that was an assignment."

I was shocked.

I had followed the lesson line.  I had told students what we would be doing.  At the end, I had told them what we just did.  In my opinion, every piece was there.  Still, Principal Shelton asked, "Hasn't anyone ever taught you how to put together a lesson?"

Uh oh.

"I guess not," I answered.  And the bearded man took me by the hand and guided me through what he expected to see.

At the next observation (He threw out the first.), Shelton saw me take every piece of his advice and actually teach the lesson.  My next office visit was quite different.  This time, he was the one who was shocked.  He was so impressed that I had mastered all of the skills he had given me, and he started to "tweak" me - my teaching, that is.  He taught me about scattering questions around the room.  He showed me how to make use of overt and covert questioning to include more students.  We worked until I knew more and more about asking higher-order questions.

Still early in the year, Mr. Shelton challenged me to "play with" the old lesson line.  "You're ready," he said.  "Now, you can move things around.  Don't always tell students what the objective is.  Sometimes it's better to let them find it for themselves."

So I started to play, move things around, mold lessons to fit my own teaching style.  And I found the magic.  Finally, I had permission to do things my way - to optimize everything to make it work, instead of forcing myself to follow somebody else's map.  I quickly relegated most of the textbooks to a shelf and called them reference material.  If we needed to consult them, they were available; otherwise, I would take students to another level and into unknown realms.  And they succeeded with the highest test scores and the best behaviors in the school.  All without modern technology, I should add.

I was reminded of that first year when as I listened to John Antonetti speak at last week's MSTA state convention. In a section of his speech, Antonetti talked about posting objectives at the beginning of a lesson.  He likened it to being pulled over by a police officer.

"Do you know why I pulled you over?"  The question every cop asks when he approaches the driver.  Personally, I don't answer that question; I don't want to give him any ideas - just in case I give an answer different from his original reason.  Obviously, Antonetti said, the speed limit is posted for us all to see, and yet, we often ignore is. That's the same concept as posting an objective on the board.

Yes, we have heard that posting objectives increases understanding, but "dig deeper in the research," he said.  "It only helps the Melissa Sues in your class."  He had already explained that Melissa Sue represented that prim and proper student in the classroom - the one student who is always there with every answer, every assignment, every point of extra credit.  Melissa Sue will always heed the objective and prepare herself for the tasks ahead.

But what works for Melissa Sue does not work for Bubba.  Bubba is the guy who needs to see something, grab ahold of it, squish it around for a while before learning about it.  Posting the objective does little to nothing for the students who sit on Bubba's end of the scale.

In fact, rigor, that elusive expectation, only happens when students bring their own meaning to a task or an object. Rigor is not when a teacher spews on and on about the material, but when students speculate, infer, and predict. This is not to say that a teacher should never post objectives, but there is something to consider about when and how to do so.

And I realized...Shelton and Antonetti agreed!  In fact, Shelton was ahead of his time.  He taught me about cognitive rigor and student engagement long before those terms were coined.  Much of what I have done for the years in between has been the development of those terms in my classroom.  It brings meaning to 29 years of my own professional development.  I may not be the best at what I do, but I've made it a point to keep searching for ways to play with my lessons.

Our school district allows us to take one traditional field trip, which we chose to take earlier in the year to Bluff Dwellers Cave.

In addition to that, the fourth grade teachers at Cecil Floyd Elementary have worked to arrange three more physical field trips during this school year.  The first, to the Truman Museum in Independence, will cost only $5 per student due to a grant I received after visiting the museum as a part of a George Washington event I attended earlier in the year.  If all goes as planned, two other field trips include one to be determined with the help of the Missouri Conservation Department and another to the Crystal Bridges facility in Arkansas.

I've also scheduled some special events just for our class.  We'll calling them Virtual Field Trips (in which we visit with someone live from locations over longer distances), and Reverse Field Trips (Trunks from special museums in New Hampshire and Oklahoma will be delivered to the school for our use.  We are the only classroom in Missouri to have received these trunks.).

As it stands, we have nine events on the schedule: