The second day of my unit on civil liberties focuses on the second clause of the First Amendment which states that Congress cannot prohibit the free exercise of religion. Here is the Google Slideshow for anyone who wants to use it intact or adapt it. As always, my philosophy is to share my resources in …
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School Closings
On my mind, for no particular reason, is the idea of unexpected school closings. Hillsborough has, of course, had school closings because of inclement weather (typically snow or icy roads). Hurricanes and flooding have caused quite a few closings. Roads in parts of our town are susceptible to flooding. The aftermath of Hurricane Sandy was …
Athletic Immortality… and Academic Anonymity?
Since 2003 at Hillsborough High School, there has been an Athletic Hall of Fame. Eight inductees that year were recognized, including a building principal, one coach, and five athletes. In every subsequent from four to nine more individuals were recognized for their accomplishments and achievements in and on behalf of the school’s athletic program. Each …
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Tuesday Talk… with Rick Lavoie
I met Rick at a National Endowment for the Humanities program on Reconstruction (which we talk about briefly in the interview). We lived together for three weeks and struck up a friendship despite being on opposite sides of the greatest sports rivalry in history. We got along so well we could actually watch games between …
AP Gov: The Establishment Clause
I kick off my Civil Liberties and Civil Rights unit with a walk through the First Amendment in chronological fashion. It begins “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion…” which is commonly referred to as the establishment clause. My entire class covers this ten-word sentence. Here’s the Google Slides presentation for anyone …
Gaming Continued: The Arcade
When I was a pre-teen, I would sometimes be allowed to go to the video game arcade. There was one just outside of town in Pine Brook called Game Town, which was housed in a remodeled Methodist Church. I remember the first time I went into the old building. It felt a little like being …
Week in Review (March 1 – March 7)
Sunday – Last day of PhilMUN with nine of our students winning awards and the team winning Best Large Delegation. To top it off, we got home earlier than expected, so I was able to unwind a little bit before having to deal with the specter of returning to work without a responsibility-free weekend to …
Philadelphia Model United Nations 2020
Since the mid-1990s, we have been attending conferences sponsored by the Institute for Domestic and International Affairs. They ran both the Rutgers Model Congress and the Rutgers University Model United Nations (RUMUN). Around 2005, IDIA announced that they would be running a third conference, a Model UN in Philadelphia aimed largely at getting schools from …
Year 1: Principal Observation
As I’ve detailed before, I had no training in methods beyond my student teaching, but I learned on the fly. I’m a quick study and also had a pretty good recall of what worked and didn’t work for me as a student in the classroom. One of my favorite things from high school was when …
Is Black History Month the best we can do?
Now that February’s over, I think it’s time to address the topic of Black History Month. Beyond the oft-made observation that February is the shortest month, I’ve always had an issue with the designation. It stems from a good place, an effort to push back against the under-representation in U.S. history course about the history …
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Fenster on Education 