Sometimes, when we go to the movies or as we watch a show on TV, we are transported into the plot.  Directors understand that their selection of background music can change and enhance a scene.

Now it is time to turn it around.  This time, the music comes first.  Do not watch the video; instead, let the music lead your imagination.  As it plays, allow it to transport you into a scene that has yet to be written.  Then, write the scene.  Use all the visual imagery you can muster in your writing.  At the end, you will share your writing.  Will it stand on its own, without the music in the background?

We learned about the rambunctious Boston Tea Party of December 16, 1773, last week.  There was even some discussion about the appropriateness of such a rebellion:  breaking onto a private ship, stealing boxes of tea (to protest the tea tax levied by King George III), and destroying the tea by throwing it into the harbor (some $1.7 million in damage in today's dollars), making a modern comparison with the protests and riots of 2020.

Afterward, we wanted to have a tea party of our own.  Not that we wanted to riot and destroy, but we did think throwing things overboard might be kind of fun.  I decided to turn this activity into a counseling-style lesson and turn it positive, so we wrote down things that make us angry, sad, and anxious.  We glued all of those little labels to boxes, and just like the Sons of Liberty, we took the things that frustrate us and tossed them into the harbor.  OK, we really just threw them over the rail on our back porch, and we promptly retrieved our mess before returning to class.  Enjoy some fun videos:

The classroom is just a mess after all of the cut-and-glue work we've been doing, concerning the adaptations of more animals that enjoy the benefits of cave life - namely, fish, and of course, bats.

Last Wednesday, our class flew to Virginia for a visit to George Washington's Mount Vernon mansion and plantation...virtually, that is.  Students took a good look at various rooms in the mansion and locations at the plantation.  Our guide took us on a 90-minute tour and answered specific questions we had about what we were seeing.

We heard about the copper-green paint in the dining room that would cost $500 a gallon if bought today.  We heard about Washington's "fan-chair", located in his office space.  We looked at his war chest - an object that moved everywhere with the commander-in-chief throughout the Revolutionary War.  We saw the bed where he died in the room where he died.  We looked at the Bastille key, sent to George Washington by his good friend, the Marquis de Lafayette.

This year, I've had to become a champion for certain kids.  I've had to be more positive with some kids than I am used to.  They just don't get a good feeling from peers, from teachers, from adults, from parents, from people.

From life.

They just don't get it from school, from home...

You get the idea.  By their own admission, "nobody" shows them love.

Any love.

They don't win awards.  They don't earn rewards.  They don't get complimented by other teachers.

So where does a teacher begin?  Not  by sending them into the hallway.  Not by writing office referrals.  Not by putting them in the corner and ignoring them.  Where does a teacher begin?  That's an internal question.  It's one I have to ask myself this year, when I have a class that puts me to the test.

Don't get me wrong:  every class is a challenge...and every class in recent years seems to have a distinct shortcoming and personality.  A couple of years ago, I had a class of kids who were easily offended:  it was not a group that an adult could tease and play with as openly as others.  Another year, it was a group who thought they were entitled to something extra:  there were kids at every level of economic backgrounds in that group, some who thought society owed them a break, and others who felt like they had earned respect simply because of their status.

This year is full of some very sweet and lovable children, but unfortunately a few do not think they deserve to feel good about school, their families, or themselves.  For thirty years, I have seen these children consistently beat themselves up.  They give me comments like, "My life is awful," "I'm not having a good day," or "Nobody cares about me."  I have found myself emptying my heart to them to assure them they are loved - if not by anyone else, at least by me.  I have found myself being the only positive adult role model for them to look to for support. Sometimes I feel like they don't hear "I love you" from anyone else.

I realize that's not all true, because I know these kids.  Perhaps their attitudes and their outlooks on life are blatantly negative because they have been conditioned to expect nothing but negativity in their lives.  They have positioned themselves in front of the cannon of depression for a few years now, and their perception of life is an open wound.

That said, it's high time someone convinced them otherwise.  Too many teachers fail to see this.  Too many fall into the trap of adding to their funk instead.  They are too quick to multiply the negativity in students lives.  They zone in on these "trouble" children and expect them to be trouble. 

Our principal shared this (below) with me, last week, and it went perfectly with what I had already written in this article.  I really like the thoughts here, as it includes the honesty of frustration at the end.

​We get upset when our students aren't perfect.  We take it personally when students don't respond in just the expected manner.  We want to throw our hands up and walk out.  But there is a particular satisfaction when I positively affect that one student who needs a positive role model.  It's almost a sacred mission.  Teacher becomes mentor, coach, and superhero to a real life human being, and maybe - just maybe - teacher affects the future as well.

Sometimes, when we go to the movies or as we watch a show on TV, we are transported into the plot.  Directors understand that their selection of background music can change and enhance a scene.

Now it is time to turn it around.  This time, the music comes first.  Do not watch the video; instead, let the music lead your imagination.  As it plays, allow it to transport you into a scene that has yet to be written.  Then, write the scene.  Use all the visual imagery you can muster in your writing.  At the end, you will share your writing.  Will it stand on its own, without the music in the background?

Yes, Hoggatt Cave is beginning to teem with critters.  These little guys (the crickets, not the kids) are pretty complicated to figure out (OK, maybe that includes the kids, too).

We recently found ourselves entering the founding era in United States history, so we took some time to look at George Washington's Mount Vernon.  The General enjoyed symmetry, but didn't quite achieve it with his mansion in Virginia.  Our projects here also demonstrated a few imperfections in symmetry.

I saw when you jumped up to pick up someone else's spill.
I saw when you plugged in someone else's computer.
I saw when you picked up a stray piece of trash.

I noticed when you apologized for being in the way.
I noticed when you complimented your friend.
I noticed when you thanked a peer for their kindness.

I loved watching your creative mind at work.
I loved seeing you struggle through and conquer a difficult math problem.
I loved it when you entered the classroom and smiled.

I appreciated your comments about someone else's idea.
I appreciated your response to someone else's feelings. 
I appreciated your ability to reach out to someone in need.

Regarding this year's students,
For your kindness,
For your love,
For your feelings,
For your drive,
For your initiative,
For your respect,
For your appreciation,
For your dreams,
For your abilities,
For your care,
For your empathy,
For your support,
For your manners,
For your grit,
For your success,
For your laughter,
​For your presence,
I am thankful.

I have finally finished curating, creating, and organizing nearly 100 lesson sets for our United States history page.  Beginning with the early colonization on the east coast and ending with Westward Expansion, our American history lessons are somewhat chronological and allow teachers to pick and choose which parts they wish to use.  If you are an educator with specific standards and objectives to cover, you may freely use this collection, omit what you want for your own program, supplement with your own materials and thoughts, or leave it right where it is.

Cultivating America is something that exemplifies my ​teaching style.  Some might think the materials are vague. That is by design.  I will never be that master teacher who claims to have all the answers, and I will not be the guy who writes you a script to follow with your students.  While many are deficient in the content, I knew I needed to provide some guidance, but I will not tell you how to teach it. Each educator must add her own personality to the lessons.

There is acknowledgment about American history here - the acknowledgment of mistakes and unfulfilled promises, backroom politics, racist legislation, and the instigation of violence.

There is a focus on looking for the details, looking at the forest and the trees - appreciating the grandeur and the beauty of a vista while then investigating the components that make it work.  This is an excellent start to teaching students how to write an organized paragraph.

There are chances to tell the real stories - more compelling than the latest juvenile fiction and more disgusting than recent horror movies.  Here are characters who are full of depth, flaw, vision, and heritage.  Here are plots with sharp edges and hairpin twists.  Here is the chance to teach figurative language, inference, theme, and finding main idea and details.

There is organization to it.  Here is your chance to teach cause and effect, chronology, problems and solutions, and more.  You need to teach text structure?  Here you go.

Here you find economy, politics, geography, and history, but there is also mathematics, reading, science, writing, listening, and speaking.  For good measure, I threw in music, physical activity, and visual art.

There is simple observation and data collection to high-order thinking skills with all kinds of analysis, evaluation, synthesis, and development.

There are opportunities to ask questions, starting with What do you notice? and ending with What do you wonder? My students learn quickly to start with what they already know (which could be very little) and put the rest together.  Sometimes the lessons leave them with more curiosity than they entered the classroom with.

There is variety, sometimes giving teams a chance to work together and wrestle with the material.  Also here are entertaining content delivery, sometimes heavy with drama, but many times with an infusion of humor.

There is an intentional focus on character and citizenship.  Actions have consequences.  Actions have equal and opposite reactions.  Reactions can take a relationship in multiple directions.  In our class, we do not shy away from meeting the needs of children on a daily basis, stopping any academics that may be expected to deal with issues that arise.  We know that behavior and relationships must be in place before the "three Rs".  At the same time, we can also infuse these U.S. history lessons with proactive messages to quell the problems before they arise.