History and Social Science – Page 2

Celebrations, Grandparents, History and Social Science, Math, Parents and children, Teaching and Learning

Our Boston Marathon

April 15, 2015by Kathy2 Comments

Our Boston Marathon is a glorious celebration every Patriot’s Day in Massachusetts.

Four time Boston winner and famed American runner Bill Rodgers (K. Nollet, 2014)

Although I’m not a runner, the Boston Marathon has always been a rite of spring. In childhood, my father and I watched runners on Rt. 135, across the street from Tasty Treat in Ashland. I played the national anthem at the start as a member of the Hopkinton High School marching band. My family has hosted runners. Last year my father, a 90-year-old World War II vet, was honored at the starting line.

The Boston Marathon offers a spectacular teaching and learning opportunity for every teacher. You can practically invent a unit on the spot, both high interest and Common Core compliant.

The Boston Marathon includes every runner. (K.Nollet, 2014)

Length, time, world and course records are just the beginning of the mathematics embedded in it. Runners’ compelling stories make excellent writing topics; an entire section of The Boston Globe pulls a unit together with reading articles, graphs, maps, and charts.

Runners arrive from all over the world, an excellent geography lesson. The Marathon’s history is rich in tradition, both Olympic and Boston. However, when we teach history to students, the darker stories are part of an honest picture.

What makes people cheat? In 1980, Rosie Ruiz jumped in near the finish and was initially claimed the winner.

Why were women excluded from Boston Marathon until 1972? Jock Semple tried to physically push Katherine Switzer out of the race.

Elite runners have a separate start. (K. Nollet, 2014)

Why did the Tsarnaev brothers plant two bombs that killed 3 and injured over 260? This event still feels acutely fresh to us Bostonians, who have been watching the current trial.

A moment of silence occurs at 2:49 p.m. today, “One Boston Day,” observing the second anniversary of that event.

Grandparents, History and Social Science, Parents and children, Teaching and Learning

On Globes: Get The Whole World in Their Hands

March 30, 2015by KathyLeave a Comment

When held in the hands of a student, globes are terrific teaching tools. That’s because globes are meant to be touched, turned, examined, read, and best of all, played with.

If you gave a student a globe to hold for fifteen minutes and asked him to write a list of ten new things he learned about the globe while playing with it, he’d learn more than you ever dreamed.

That’s why if I were in charge of high school graduation, I’d give out diplomas in exchange for a student-made globe. Here’s why.

When I taught at a community college, I discovered a huge gap in my students’ knowledge. In the middle of a discussion about Jean Piaget (the Swiss developmental psychologist about whom every teacher learns) a hand went up and a student asked, “Where is Switzerland?”

“Who can find it?” I asked, pointing to a globe. No one could. The closest anyone came was Norway.

Upon further questioning, I discovered it’s not that my students had forgotten where Switzerland was, it was that they’d never learned.

There was no way I could let my students, on my watch, go on with this scary lack of knowledge. Their final exam that semester included a world map:

Label the 7 continents, the 5 oceans, North Pole, South Pole, Arctic Circle, Antarctic Circle, Tropic of Cancer, Equator, and the Tropic of Capricorn

Try this with anyone in middle school on up. Grab an orange and a black marker. Ask them to draw the continents on the orange as if it were the globe and label as much as possible from the list above.

Each of us is responsible for making sure that every student understands fundamental knowledge. Whether you’re a mechanic, a physical education teacher, or a retiree, the world is in your hands.