fun in aunt margie's pool.

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water boats @ celebration station. Ok City

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go karts @ Celebra[ion Station in Ok City. aunt cindy & aidan

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with cousin brian.

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having fun w cousins

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roadtrip!

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Happy B'Day Mary Kate

Happy Birthday Mary Kate. We are so glad we had a chance to spend time with you this summer. I think that's what Aidan was trying to say.

Hope you had a great birthday. Pretty soon you'll be driving... and driving your Mom crazy (yeah!).

In production - The 2009 Rules Video

I worked on my classroom rules video for the year a little today. I purchased a new software editing program to create videos called Pinnacle. It came with a green screen to be able to do some advanced editing. So I decided to put the green screen up and see what we could do.

Here's the video so far...

Mr Duez Rules Video 09 - Preview from Mr. Duez on Vimeo.

The 3 Rules. Aidan gets into "Character" to tell my classes about our three rules:
Be Prompt
Be Prepared
and
Be Polite.

Awesome job Aidan.

I think it's going pretty well. I'll use this portion for the part about the 3 rules. I also have a bunch of other ideas planned for it. Hopefully it will serve as my first day Teacher Babble about rules and procedures. Three years ago I finally cracked and said "No More!" of the first day endless talking. I would stand up in front of the class and it was me talking for 45 minutes - 5 times that day. I'd come home with a sore throat and exhausted.

The kids get tired of hearing teacher babble by 3rd period. So this video serves me very well. We do a little quiz at the end of the first week. It's 95% from Chapter 1 and there is 5% of the rules video that I assess. Of course, we go over rules and procedures a few times, but I post the video on the website and show it a couple of times during the week as a reminder.

Aidan did an awesome job. He loved getting into his costumes. We might do some more with the green screen tomorrow.

Summer is Ending

It is "that time of year." I have a little queezy feeling in my stomach. I know that it will soon be 'Back to School' time.

I have a lot of plans for this year. Most surround my AVID class. My juniors will be focusing on their AP classes and Duel Credit classes. We will be working on learning how to do a research project during our AVID class time. I'm pretty fired up about it. The first part is to study and create a research paper on Martin Luther King, Jr. Then we'll do it in groups. Then during their senior year the kids will write one about a leader in history that has inspired them.

My sophomore AVID class is going to be a challenge. I will probably only have about 15 of them to start the year. It will be a big deal to find at least 10 more kids. The most I have ever added in a school year has been 3. So it'll (hopefully) be "all hand's on deck" to help find sophomore AVID students.

Luckily myself and the other sophomore AVID teacher also teach sophomores in our other classes. So we can be on the lookout in our History and English classes. That will certainly help.

The Sophomores are going to be working on curriculum from "Road Trip Nation." I'm very fired up about this. But, I haven't gotten any details on it at all lately. Hoping that comes together. Road Trip Nation is a series on PBS, but it has morphed into a community and a movement. From their website:

It all started with four friends and one dilemma: "what do I want to do with my life?" Fresh out of college and unsure about the career paths in front of them, they were determined to expose themselves to more than just the traditional life roads. They hopped in an old RV, painted it green, and hit the road to talk with inspiring people from all walks of life to find out how they came to do what they love for a living.

Today, Roadtrip Nation has evolved into a PBS series, three books, an online community, and a student movement. We send people on the road who are interested in exploring the world outside their comfort zone, talking with individuals who chose to define their own road in life, and sharing their experiences with our generation.

I am very excited about using RTN to motivate students. We'll see how it goes. I may end up using materials from the site, even if I don't have complete buy in from our AVID director.

For my World History Pre-AP classes, I want to continue to refine and improve things. One of my biggest goals is to get all the kids onto the laptops and get their emails into my system. I also want to get them all signed up for our online paper turn in program called Turn it in dot Com. This would be a valuable resource for me, in terms of giving feedback to students about their work.

I also want to continue my World History Blog, but with more student involvement this year. We'll see how it goes.

This will be the first year since I have been in my district that I will be in the same room two years in a row. In fact, I have had 6 rooms in 5 years (the first year I moved 1/2 way through the year). That is going to be cool. I'm very big into visualization and it's easy to see what my classroom will look like - since it's the very same one as last year. I have a lot of new ideas for classroom setup and organization (moving my desk further back in the room to give the kids more desk space - my room is tiny).

When we get back from our short trip to Oklahoma (never been there before!), I plan on creating my Classroom Rules video for the year. Here are the ones from the last two years:

2008-2009 Classroom Expectations Video
2007-2008 Classroom Expectations Video

What do you think needs to be done to improve them?

I definitely will be featuring Aidan this year. He is able to follow directions, speak and be heard clearly, and hopefully it'll be cool. I might have him dress up in his super hero costumes... that would be awesome!

Cornell Notes & Philosophical Chairs

Today and tomorrow I am a presenter in my district for AVID Path Training in Social Studies. Basically it's two days of time with middle and high school teachers to present 'best teaching practices' to them. The great thing about the training is that we actually 'do' and model the work.

Today we focused on topics like Using Poetry, Cornell Notes, Jigsawing, Quick Writes, and Philosophical Chairs. Two things jump out to me and seemed to be significant. First, teachers really appreciate well-prepared and on task professional development. A teacher stopped me and my partner about an hour in and announced how excited he was that this training was going so well. He has been through three professional development experiences this summer and was stunned that we were on the ball. It was great to see how appreciative he and others were.

The other thing that stood out was how two techniques went over well with the teachers. The first was Cornell Notes. It may have been the best and most clearly designed Cornell Notes lesson that I have taught. (I might finally be getting the hang of this thing) Here is the power point that I used to introduce C Notes:
AVID HISTORY PATH: Cornell Notes

At the end of the power point, I distributed a sample of US History Cnotes with a grading rubric on the flip side. Then I had each of the participants grade it for themselves. Then we did "4 Corners" and had the teachers go to an A, B, and C corner (There were no Ds). After discussing it in their corner group, one person presented the faults they had with the notes.

This was a wonderful way of emphasizing with the teachers what good note taking is and how they could do this with their students to impart just how to take notes and what the teacher is looking for. I think it went over very well.

Also we did a wonderful Philosophical Chairs debate. The teachers got into it. The first thing I did was show my power point on PChairs to introduce the rules:
AVID HISTORY PATH: Philosophical Chairs PPT
Then we modeled Philosophical Chairs with this question:
Should the "Cash for Clunkers" program be continued by Congress?
The debate was split in 1/2 and was very lively, but well mannered. I think the teachers got a great feel for just how they can use it.

I am looking forward to presenting Engaging the Text, Document-Based Questions, Free Response Questions and Socratic Seminar tomorrow. This has been a wonderful group to work with. I can't believe that school starts in less than 2 weeks!

Two weeks to go!

Texans vs. Chiefs... first exhibition game in exactly 2 weeks. I can't wait.

The Texans inked their first round pick today: Brian Cushing. Now all picks are signed and in camp. Awesome.

I have never been as excited about a Texans season because there is real hope for a playoff run. It is going to be so much fun to watch this year.