Mrs. Slaviero's Blog

  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 ...

National History Day is still going strong for a small team of students in my school and district! I'm so proud to say that four students in my school, two students in one of our sister middle schools, and one former student of mine that's now a High School Junior have qualified for the National History Day (virtual) finals competition! These students are showing great perseverance working on edits and additional research, all while navigating online learning and, in the case of my High School student, studying for Advance Placement exams! We have been meeting regularly to continue to provide guidance as these historians hone their work before submitting their documentary, website, and performance script. The students are studying fascinating topics (the Japanese Internment Camps during WWII, Rosie the Riveter, and the heroic Ida Lewis) and the open-ended nature of NHD work allows these young ladies to really stretch their thinking and move their research forward. ...

Teaching Language Support-History has been so rewarding this year. This class has brought me back to being a first year teacher--the highs, lows, uncertainty, and the rewards of working with students learning English, Social Studies content, and American school at the same time. It's also been, as I've previously stated, a perfect mix of my two content area strengths: History and foreign language instruction, even though the foreign language is English, not German. (I do have a German student, though! It's been nice to practice my German when I have clarified concepts with her.) I've had one more professional bucket list want that I can finally check off of my list--I am part of a teaching team this year. Our Language Support students are together for English, Science, and Social Studies classes every day. The three of us teachers, along with our amazing Parapro, have gained so much momentum this year creating cross-curricular units for our students. The online l...

We received word from the Governor of Michigan last Thursday that, due to the coronavirus, all Michigan school buildings would be closed for the rest of the school year. We will completely shift to online learning after Spring Break. So many feelings. I feel for my students and for my children, a High School Sophomore and an 8th Grader. We are still adjusting to this change, and probably will be for the foreseeable future. I am also adjusting to the idea of teaching school online for the next quarter. I know how to teach my students when we are in the classroom together. I know what they need--opportunities to work together, to learn from one another, to experience deep learning, to work with routines. I know I will figure it out but wrapping my head around this new situation now is daunting.  A silver lining in this situation has been the educational community. The sheer amount of resources made available to educators during this uncertain time is extraordinary. I am...

Surreal, to say the least. One week ago today school communities in Michigan found out that they would be closing for the foreseeable future due to the Coronavirus pandemic. This highly contagious disease would cause schools to shift to online learning for the next three weeks (that would coincide with our Spring Break so we will be out of school for four weeks). Families in the state are highly encouraged to stay at home, self-isolate, and stay 6 or more feet away from anyone not in our immediate households (known as social distancing). Our staff gathered last Friday to start the transition to online learning. The district technology teams and administration greatly helped us make this shift. We are adjusting to a new normal. This past week has been unprecedented. Thank goodness we've been a 1:1 iPad school for years now. The technology piece isn't completely new for us. Finding the balance between a typical lesson and online lessons from home is taking some getting us...