The week I got sick

This week I learned how incredibly inconvenient it is to be sick. Missing a day of teaching is not like missing a day of most jobs, and certainly not like missing a day of classes. I really NEED to be there.

Last week I started feeling crummy Tuesday after school. A nap didn't fix it and I continued to get worse throughout the week with congestion and sore throat joining my headache and bodyache. The weekend didn't prove to be very restful even though it had the potential to be. And so Monday morning came and I thought I was capable of teaching all day. I had the school nurse check my temperature before the students came because a fever would not have surprised me. After advice from the nurse and various others ("You don't have to work when you're sick. This is the United States of America." from one mentor teacher) I gave the morning a shot and eventually decided to go home at lunchtime. So now I have time to update all my trusty readers who I know are dying to hear more about the excitement of my teaching.

I began my unit on the American Colonies a few weeks ago and we are finishing up Lois Lowry's novel Number the Stars, which takes place during the Holocaust. The discussions that have taken place have been fascinating. One of my main goals in teaching these has been for my students to understand that history is problematic. It is not black and white and we cannnot easily tell who won and who lost, who was right and who was wrong. We held a small debate in our classroom when discussing the Spanish settlers and the Native people they enslaved. Before reading about what happened, I divided the class in half. To the ones reading from the perspective of Spanish settlers, I set them up with the mindset that they were on a mission from Spain. They have been sent to find new land, new treasure, and to spread their divine religion. They were given money by those back in Spain who were counting on them to succeed. This sounds like a pretty big adventure, and it seemed my students were up for it. To the Natives in my classroom, I told them they had been on this land for hundreds of years. This was the ground of their history, their religion, their ancestors. But they did not view it as something to be owned with a deed or paperwork. It was a gift and they were very careful about using it wisely.
I set them loose to read the section on the Spanish settlers forcing them to work, forcing Christianity on them, taking away their land, and taking away their rights. They wrote about their reactions, how they were appalled at the treatment or excited that they were now rich. They really took on these perspectives and defended their sides when we discussed it the next day. Some felt the Spanish settlers' treatment of the Natives was justified because they did not know the land was owned or they were just following their orders. A few students even made connections to what we were studying of the Holocaust and what happens when people blindly follow orders. Those speaking for the Native population were defending their rights, claiming that you could not force religion or work or debt on someone.
Needless to say, the heated discussion that resulted from this gave me an adrenaline rush. To see them so engaged and arguing the claims of their side was a reward. Some of them even connected it to their Latino heritage and what it meant that their lives had been affected by this piece of history.
We have continued to evaluate the conflicts that arose among American colonists and Native peoples and recognize that there are two sides to every story. One of the project choices they have for this unit requires that they write a letter to Natives proposing a solution. I can't wait to read them! We'll see some good conflict resolution in action.

I'll continue teaching Social Studies until we switch to Science in a few weeks. I am also teaching Vocabulary in the mornings and Reading, which is the novel Number the Stars. Today--had I stayed at school--I would have started teaching Math. That's almost the whole day! Everything but writing.

Next week is the ISAT--the ginormous standardized test that the students' and teachers' lives revolve around. It affects placement and jobs and funding and far more than perhaps is should affect. But I feel our students are prepared and I will be cheering them on next week.

Until then, I'll rest up. And keep checking in on their lunches, even if they are hot dogs and donuts. That student has at least added a banana and orange juice to his diet. And he wrote an essay on why his hero is Mother Nature.

Absolutely. Fascinating. Don't you think?