American literature and american history seem to be swaying further apart, and hence make it harder to draw connections to. However, since the metacognitive blog gives some leash when it comes to blog topics, I would like to go on a tangent today. I was wondering if the new quarter should bring new practices or methods of teaching in both classes. Previous methods have been fairly effective, but I think the beginning of a semester allows for teachers and students to experiment with me things they doubt. One question I'd like to propose to the readers is if new methods of teaching would help you, or is it just me who feels this way? Also, I'd love to vent out some steam related to the excessive amount of projects we're getting, not only in american history, in literature and other classes as well. Including the metacognitive blog, national history day, and timeline, we have three relatively large and quite consuming projects in a single class alone. Though these projects are properly spaced out, it still is a huge load of stress on many of the students. With a new quarter under way, all of us are attempting to improve and expand on what we've accomplished the previous quarter. With the increased workload and decreased days at school, do you think it'll be possible without stressing too much? I for one am fearful of what might happen to myself if I hustle through these projects, knowing that quality work comes over quantity. Sorry for not audio blogging this week, my drive wouldn't support any more audio files. I hope to be back to audio blogs by the next entry. It would be great for me, Mr.Hoffman, and the rest of the readers if you guys could answer the simple questions I proposed in my blog. Thank you and Good Morning.
Hmm.... I'm not sure I should be the first person to comment here, but I can provide some rationale for the projects I assign. I'm not a huge fan of homework– then again, the classroom time we have is not enough to get everything done I'd like to get done. I have to assign work outside the classroom sometimes. My goal is to make as much of that outside-of-class-time focus around student interests. I can't, of course, give everyone free rein; we have to cover certain time periods and topics, and while I try to make it engaging, not everyone will be fascinated by the Reconstruction. But if I can give you homework that asks you to make connections as you see fit, I feel we are getting closer to the goal of making the lessons of the Reconstruction relevant to as many as possible.
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