Photo Hunt

This week was a struggle teaching a Computer class without access to our Chromebooks. Classroom rules, team building, etc... can only engage students for so long. In lieu of that, I decided to introduce my "Photo Hunt" which is designed to last approximately 7 weeks. This activity works well at this time of the school year because you don't have to have a Chromebook to get started and it is something that students can complete at any time over the next 7 weeks. I won't build specific time into the weekly schedule to work on this but there will be extra time in class that they can use to complete this. I really look forward to seeing what the students will be able to create over the next 7 weeks! I will post the outline below.

We are going to start working on a Photo Hunt. You will be responsible for taking a photo each week and post it on your blog. This can be done at school or at home. The themes for each week are as follows:

• Week 1: Recreate a famous pose in a creative place
• Week  2: Do something nice for a stranger
• Week 3: Figurine doing something human
• Week 4: A Visual Representation of a famous song or book title
• Week 5: Redneck Repair
• Week 6: Recreate a childhood photo
• Week 7: Illusion photo 

I will do my best to post some of the pictures over the next couple of weeks on my twitter page @diemerpatrick

The Empty Desk

     As our Pennfield family deals with the death of two students, I am reminded of students that we have lost in years past. The best way to handle the pain is to rely on those around you. Students, teachers, administrators all helping, praying, comforting and loving each other as they go through their day. The death of a student was never talked about in any of my college courses. I was blessed to not experience the death of a classmate while I was in school so I did find myself ill-equipped to handle this as a teacher. Luckily, I work in a tight-knit community with great students and staff members. We have a tight bond that strengthens during times like these and have had great co-workers and family to lean on and learn from.
     One of the long term issues that I had struggled with after a student death was the empty desk. After the pain and shock wears off, the empty desk remains there for the rest of the year. I still remember where Dominic sat 9 years ago and I remember seeing that empty desk for the remainder of the school year. After moving school buildings, rooms, and grade levels, Dominic's desk is still empty in my mind.
     The best way for me to work through the pain is to remember the great times with the students, past and present. I can remember seeing Dominic's huge smile; talking to him about wrestling and music. I also remember walking with him out of the room on the day he died, not knowing the extent of the torment the kid was going through.
     I resolve to use this as a reminder why we do what we do and the impact these kids, our kids, have on us. And I will continue to use the empty desk as a reminder to continue to try and connect with my students, my kids, as best as I possibly can so that students know the positive impact that they have on teachers, peers and the world around them.

RTI Training 10/3/13

In case you want to go back to my Presentation here it is:



Here is the Google Form to fill out to review my performance

Who writes history and why does that matter?

I am supposed to start class with a daily warm up activity (never have done that in the past) so I have been trying to tie the questions to current events or using them as a way to start to get students to think critically. I asked them the following questions to get their brains going:

1. What does ‘discover’ mean?
2. Who discovered North America?
3. Who writes about history?

I had the students post them on their blog and then we had a class discussion about it (going to share/pair first). Some of my students understood the questioning sequence that I used and were able to figure out what I was trying to get them to think about. After the whole group discussion, most of my kids were able to leave class better prepared to think critically about history and historical context. I came up with this questioning sequence after I stumbled across the Stanford's Beyond the Bubble site and that  got me thinking about what I want my students to remember from this class. I will start to incorporate Stanford's Beyond the Bubble historically assessments as the year goes on to supplement my mandated multiple choice tests.

Why am I learning this!!!

Today I am showing my kids the following video from Bill Maher's "Real Time" about Civic Education:

   The question originally dealt with police brutality after Hurricane Katrina. Guest Tom Morello, guitarist for Rage Against The Machine, answered the question from a micro standpoint and Richard Dreyfus ,actor, looked at the question from a macro standpoint. I think that Dreyfus does a great job explaining why Civic education is imperative.
    I was taking this video and tying it to why my students are in this class and what I hope them to understand when they leave. History needs to be taught as an 'action' instead of 'theory'. Too often kids don't learn why they have their 3rd amendment right, they only learn what that right is. That is doing a disservice to them and also to the Constitution.
     The second point that I wanted them to take from the video would be that we need to never stop asking 'why':

• Why do we keep sticking our nose into other countries business?
• Why do we have a system of checks and balances?
• Why did George Washington warn the public about political parties? 
• Why didn't we listen to that advice? 

    I was lucky to have some great social studies teachers while in high school, they did a great job tieing the history of the US into current events. I hope to follow in my former teachers footsteps and create some interest and relevance in my US History class.  

Open House

Welcome to my blog, I will be updating information on this page throughout the year. I try to offer many options for keeping parents and students up to date about what is going on in class. Here are a couple more ways to get in touch with me!

Email: diemerp@pennfield.net
Class Phone: 269-441-9817
Text message: 269-425-1493 (include name in text)

Here is my class syllabus for the 2013/2014 school year: US History Syllabus 2013/2014

This is the start of my 8th year teaching at Pennfield. I am originally from Grosse Ile, about 20 miles south of Detroit, and moved over here for this job. I taught Technology for the last two years at the middle school. The previous 6 years I taught an Introduction to Social Studies class, a World History class, and a Civics/Economics class in the high school.