Saturday, October 15, 2011

Once upon a time . . .

It’s a blustery fall day in Wisconsin, and folks in the hallways after school are talking about fish fry, football and pumpkin beers. The next big thing on the instructional calendar is state standardized assessment, and the challenge of the moment is how to avoid exposing young adolescents to high stakes testing when their brains are under the influence of Halloween candy.

Mexico seems geographically, chronologically, and emotionally very far away!


"We were there!" This mural in the hallway at school has the wheels of
a Mayan calendar and an image from Pakal's tomb at Palenque.

This school year has brought changes for both Nichole and me; she’s in a new position as a multi-grade, bilingual language arts instructor for ELL students, and I’m a teacher leader (not in the classroom) at a neighboring middle school. We’re both loving the new challenges—although there are certainly many, many moments we miss the fantastic team-teaching roles (and students and team-mate) we had last year.

 A part of our grant project was creating a curricular unit based on our travels, and after many late nights and multi-tasking weekends, we sent the final product off in the mail last month. The unit is called Cabezas Colosales, and it’s a three-week (ish) introduction to ancient civilizations based on our first-hand experiences learning about the Olmec. The big questions of the unit have to do with how we learn about people who lived so long ago, and the lessons themselves focus on critical thinking skills and collaborative inquiry. We designed it as if we were teaching it in a middle school classroom that integrated content areas, so it has strands of science, math and language art woven into what is primarily a social studies framework.

Earlier this week, Nichole had the chance to talk to other teachers who are eligible for the Fund for Teachers grant, and a colleague came back from her presentation with a shiny brochure featuring a picture of us with a giant head. I was feeling mixed emotions about the day—proud of my new school that won School of Promise recognition, frustrated with the NCLB system that seems to miss so much of what is great about our public education system, wistful about the students who were part of our first classroom lessons about the Olmec, excited about colleagues interested in using Cabezas Colosales in their classrooms.

That evening, I decided to listen to the local Spanish-speaking radio station in the car—and for about 10 minutes I listened to an animated call-in show about soccer and realized I understood much of the gist of the discussion. Before the grant, before our trip, I’m sure I would have just changed the channel. I know it’s ridiculously cheesy to say that in that moment, driving down the road, I knew that big pieces of our Mexico trip will always be with me—but sometimes (here in Wisconsin) even the cheesiest things really can be true!

--Kris

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