Mrs. Slaviero's Blog

This morning I learned I renewed my National Board certification.  Achieving initial certification is rigorous--a detailed portfolio, videos featuring whole-group and small-group instruction with written analysis and reflection on both, and six exams in a professional exam setting, the same setting used by medical and law students, among others. For all of the challenges, I am so happy to have undertaken this endeavor. My students have benefitted from my progress and accomplishment. The renewal process was still daunting, made even more so because of the struggles of the pandemic. In retrospect, I was wise to start renewal as soon as I could, this allowed me to defer renewal during the start of the pandemic to the 2020-21 school year. I needed to focus on my immediate student needs before I could focus on this work. My renewal portfolio had to be created during the shift from in-person to dynamic virtual and hybrid learning, though. This was daunting, to be sure. I knew I could mee...

My Language Support Historians have been very busy in class these past few weeks. The start of the school year (especially this year) is all about assimilating to a new country, state, city, and school. We are building community and are now ready to roll! Last week and this week was spent diving into the five themes of geography and focusing on different regions of the United States. Groups selected two states from a particular region to study through the 5 themes lens.  I  introduced students to Noodle Tools, helped them create a project, showed them how to link their project to my teacher inbox, search our Media databases and e-books, select sources, cite those sources in Noodle Tools, and use those sources for research! It is affirming for all of us to see the momentum build as we dive deeply into 21st Century learning! The next step in our project is to practice speaking skills. I am learning how to even better support and scaffold work for these students and I created a c...

This photo depicts some of our best learning so far this year. The student in the foreground of this photo is clearly deep in thought, analyzing her group's progress. The boy across from her is checking his list, preparing to talk to his group about his progress. Students are focused on learning together, practicing social norms while building confidence and learning history deeply. What is this jack-of-all-trades activity they are participating in? The Ultimate US History Tournament: American Revolution Edition. I created a March Madness-style bracket activity to culminate our years' learning a few years ago, and it was a success. I decided to utilize it again for the American Revolution this year and it's been going well. Students need to generate their own lists of the most important people, places, events, and ideas first (one list per year of the war). Students at tables of 5 compare their lists, searching for commonalities (a good way to reinforce community among stud...

    We are making the most of these first few weeks of school. All of my classes completed hexagons about themselves, and used them to literally find connections between classmates. I modeled this practice by making my own, it was nice to put my hexagon in the mix and have students find commonalities with me. We will use the hexagon concept throughout this year with historical topics, it was important to practice this with topics they know well. My Language Support Historians learned about this Preamble this Constitution Day. One expert group learned the six goals of the Preamble in modern language, a second group learned about the goals in original language (with additional support). Reformed groups compared learning and matched original language with modern language. These students did an excellent job with very challenging material.  Our teachers have made a point of taking students outside for mask breaks. My 8th Grade colleagues made an informal schedule to make sure...

  Tuesday is the first day of school. It's always a fresh start and this year will be the biggest shift imaginable. Some of our students haven't been in a school building regularly since March 2020.  I will greet many 8th Graders that haven't been in school since they were in 6th, many 6th Graders since they were in 4th. The typical newness and excitement will be multidimensional. More than likely, so will the possibility for anxiety and stress. A colleague reminded me that many kids stayed in bed during remote learning, so procedures and schedules are going to be completely redefined.  I would be kidding myself if I thought this would be easy for any of us. Instead of looking at this as a monumental challenge I view it as a new beginning--a complete restart. Let's take the best of school in 2019-2020 and make it work for us in 2021 and beyond. Let's also take the best of school in the 2020-2021 school year and make it work for us in 2021 and beyond. The bulletin bo...

  Stretching the thinking in History education sometimes happens spontaneously. A few years ago I found a resource from the incredible iCivics site related to the role presidents play in government, featuring examples from the early years of the nation, and the first four presidents. It became a great review of the big picture events of these presidents, their roles in building a strong nation, as well as a review of the Three Branches of Government. Students read the scenarios and decided if the examples represented Stable Finances, Peaceful Politics, or Self-Defense. I decided to extend the learning on the moment and took a poll as to which of the three students felt was most important. The next task was to calculate the percentages and create a pie chart with the poll data. The result was a strong opportunity to strengthen students' learning in a different way. This year teaching hybrid (teaching students synchronously in-seat and virtually simultaneously) makes planning more ...

  One of the bright spots this year is the opportunity to offer individualized help to students in a different format on a regular basis. It's called Student Support and runs four days a week after school. This is the chance for students to ask questions and for me to reteach concepts in a small group or individual setting on Zoom. I will regularly check for missing work or low grades on assignments, then either individually chat students that are virtual or email in-seat students to encourage them to attend (so as not to call students out in front of their peers). I have a decent amount attending most days.  Students will sometimes attend because they say it's a good place to still feel like they're in school and work, even if it's in a breakout room. I encourage them to turn off other devices and set aside time for them to take care of school responsibilities. (Devices and other distractions are a huge issue, as you can imagine.) I feel it's important for me to ke...

Keeping virtual students connected is tougher than it seems. For a multitude of reasons it's an ongoing endeavor this year. While I will once again teach my LEGACY reflection this spring, my 8th Grade US colleague thought to connect LEGACY to George Washington's Farewell Address and, if today is any indication, it's now a powerful and authentic way to kick off this reflection. My students tend to communicate in breakout rooms better when we are in hybrid mode (when students are in class and some are virtual). I don't know why this is but it might have something to do with school feeling more "real" when some students are in school. Regardless, it's on me to encourage and motivate students to talk to one another in breakout rooms every time.  In a normal year communicating with peers in class happens fairly effortlessly, in breakout rooms it's so challenging. I continually move from breakout room to room, assigning leaders to introduce a topic (again, ...

We moved on from our National History Day work and started to discuss the new nation and the first President. We also are continually spending time on Black History Month activities. Students created a "Snapchat story" with 4 story components on the life of a notable historic figure. While these activities were well received and students worked well I've noticed a slower pace for students. I'm not sure if it's due to the winter blahs or not but the need for a four day weekend became evident at the end of the week. The need for rest and renewal is strong. Next week we will use some of my favorite materials and explore one (edited) song from the musical "Hamilton". "Cabinet Battle #1" is fun, but helps me explain critical, but traditionally less-exciting topics in our study: the foundations of a two-party system (Hamilton and Jefferson) and Hamilton's financial plan--the compromise between the Northern states and Southern states that leads to...

We wrapped up our National History Day projects this week and had our last in-class work days. I continually met with students, whether virtually in breakouts or talking to in-seat students to check in and see if they needed any assistance.  This year, more than any other, we truly worked on this project one piece at a time. I am so proud of this because my Historians needed a clear-cut approach more than ever.  As I introduced the main project I reminded students they already had completed all of the requirements, it was just a matter of putting it together, whether they create a documentary, website, or exhibit. (In a normal year I, truth be told, dissuade my students from completing an exhibit, unless they work in a group. The rules have changed and NHD this year is allowing digital exhibits, which essentially is a Powerpoint/Keynote. I have encouraged the vast majority of my classes to complete an exhibit this year.) Early in Second Quarter students developed a Context Org...

 After a few months of virtual classes we are now back to hybrid learning (teaching both in-seat and virtual students simultaneously). It is once again going to be an adjustment. One bright spot is that, even with another schedule change my students know that we are working on our National History Day projects. This consistency amidst change has been helpful.  Projects are due next week. That has the potential to cause stress in students, at least until I clarify how close they are to a completed project, before they feel they've started. We have worked on their final project for weeks now, my students just haven't yet realized it. The assignments at the end of first quarter focused on the context of their project. Students had to research and use the engineering design process to learn and explain the context of their historical event. This piece of the project took a few class days to complete.  The second assignment was this year's National History Day graphic organiz...

 My students' National History Day projects are coming along, better than expected, if I'm honest. There are a few factors that are definitely helping--these students created projects last year in their Ancient Civilizations class. How fortunate that our 7th Grade teachers saw the value in these projects last year! It makes this undertaking less daunting for these now 8th Graders. It's just as challenging a project, but my students know what to expect and that makes a huge difference. The wealth of incredible resources from the National History Day and state History Day organizations make my role run so much more smoothly. These historians help teachers focus on guiding our students through their studies and I couldn’t do it without their help. Another factor is that the foundation has been set and my students understand I am there to support them. The student-centered classroom I strive for every year has been replicated as much as possible in the virtual environment. I am...