I love curating content and creating curriculum. Here are some units I’ve put together while in #quarantine:
My next projects include Greek Mythology with my Box of Destiny materials, and perhaps other units of study, such as Thesis Writing 101 and Thematic Discussions, and curated content about one or two big questions. Stay tuned!
PS Here’s another one https://sites.google.com/view/mrs-loves-logical-fallacies/home
How do we encourage and foster creativity in ourselves and others?
“I want to do a series of non-routine tasks, that require social intelligence, complex critical thinking, and creative problem-solving.”
well, well, well…how about we continue the conversation about ‘career and college ready?’ My mental pebble in my Sunday slippers is this concept of training students for ‘jobs that don’t exist yet.’ The jobs exist now. Right now. The problem is companies don’t want to pay for employees to ‘do a series of non-routine tasks.’ They don’t want to pay anyone at all. Wages have been stagnant for decades, and though the job market has grown and unemployment is low, skilled trade workers are hard to find.
My older son is sitting on a double major in Russian and German, with a minor in Math, and is thinking about becoming a teacher. My younger son is attending a community college and working weekends as a custodian for a local school district. I have no idea what the future holds for them because I have no idea what my and my husband’s future holds. It’s been…stressful. The social safety nets are ripped, and the Herculean task of moving toward healthcare uncoupling from jobs seems impossible, no matter what progressive politicians promise. Lobbies and corporate interests are monied monsters. In other words, I don’t know what my sons are going ‘to do’ with their degrees.
So how do I “sell” education’s value to a group of 13 and 14 year olds who are well aware climate change is real and dangerous conspiracy theories become factual lies? When we have a curriculum that teaches the test questions, and not a lot of ‘creative problem solving?’ I am thinking the answer is right in front of my nose: ask them. Just–ask them. Here is what we ‘have” to learn, now let’s seek out why, and how it helps us–and add what we ‘want’ to learn. John Oliver’s quote is going to be my mission statement for teaching and creativity.
I’ll share my 99 Problems document, and keep asking ‘What if?’ as if our lives and futures depend on it. (Because it does.)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ccdytPCXW3LoZ2GhJmExp-QWhmYfVcBa2zsFM4LOjzY/edit?usp=sharing
We teachers have full, wonderful lives outside of teaching. I think. Sure we do! YES! We most definitely do! And why let all the wonderful folks such as Barack Obama create a list!? Here’s my challenge, inspired by @jarredamato, the leader of #ProjectLit:
What if all leaders — politics, education, business, you name it — shared their own lists each year? https://t.co/6N9bkDI2aY
— Jarred Amato (@jarredamato) December 28, 2018
When a friend posted Obama’s list today, I immediately went to i-Tunes and grabbed some of the songs I liked. Dang, I used to be such an aficionado of new music! What happened?
Whatever.
Here are the list of movies, books, and music I added to my collection in 2018:
Books:
My Goodreads name is k love (I think) and I read 47/100 of my reading challenge books. *Shrug* https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/11069938
My favorites came out of the #ProjectLit collection:
Children of Blood and Bone
Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orisha)
Dread Nation (see link)
Dread Nation
Long Way Down: (see link)
Long Way Down
And:
Movies/Television:
What did we watch? Well, Black KKKlansman, Black Panther, Hereditary, A Quiet Place, Isle of Dogs, Bird Box, (read the book first, dang it!) Game Night (eye roll), Solo and whatever comes out on Netflix. Shows include Ozark, Sabrina, Black Mirror, Stranger Things, The Haunting of Hill House, Making a Murderer, Jessica Jones, Series of Unfortunate Events, Vikings, Game of Thrones, all of the American Horror Stories, Better Call Saul, Barry, and started Dark. (I feel like there are some missing, but oh well.)
Music
Some songs I added (not new to 2018 necessarily, but new to me):
And I highly recommend the Kill Bill soundtrack.
In addition to consuming media, I like to create media, too! I love to write and make collage images.
@cmclymer tweeted this fun thing – what would your two accessories be?
A toy company makes a replica action figure of your likeness. What two accessories do they include?— Charlotte Clymer🏳️🌈 (@cmclymer) December 27, 2018
So thank you, Jarred and Charlotte, for some fun ideas. I’m not anyone important, but I am a teacher, and living my best, creative life helps me, my family, and my students. It is my personal oxygen mask.
Note: all or most of these are WIPs: I continually update as I find new resources. You are welcome to make a copy and then rename to make them your own.
Based on Kelly Gallagher’s and Penny Kittle’s work, 180 Days, Two Teachers and the Quest to Engage and Empower Adolescents, I’m furiously working on trying to organize the new district, school, two preps, and other expectations.
I purchase standard composition notebooks for all my students: these are the inserts I photocopy and have students place inside their notebooks. I’m trying the Table of Contents new this year, with numbered pages. My goals include blending what I know engages students with tweaks and tips from Gallagher/Kittle, as well as the amazing teachers and educators of my PLN.
Color DIALECTICAL JOURNAL IDEA SHEET
DOK For Students:
Group Project Norms: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Taj3QSvjh6Ue3XKnBoZ29ygO-4iSD752hEdMatAJbCM/edit?usp=sharing
Please contact me if you have any questions: my email is karen.kelly.love@gmail.com
PS Kris, this is for you:
Amy Rasmussen wrote a piece for Three Teachers Talk:
What if We Teach as if Teaching is a Story?
And this–
Last week I attended a professional development meeting with George Couros, author of the Innovator’s Mindset. I jotted tons of Couros’ quotes in my notebook, all important to the kind of teacher I keep striving to become:
“How do you cultivate questions of curiosity and not compliance?”
“Data driven is the stupidest term in education.”
“Your childhood is not their childhood. Nostalgia is what gets us stuck.”
“Relationships matter! Nobody in this room is as interesting as YouTube. If you are all about the content, you are already irrelevant.”
“You need to make the positives so loud that the negatives are hard to hear.”
“Would you want to spend the whole day learning in your own classroom?”
“Every day is where your legacy is created.”
Once I got over my fleeting envy at her having the opportunity to hear George Couros speak, the overwhelming sense of luck and joy that someone captured these thoughts and framed them in a way that speaks to me, and encourage me to be better–forgive myself of missteps and be better. Every day.
The only one I may disagree with is the nostalgia piece. It requires more nuance. A few years ago students started a Flashback Friday, where they asked me questions about my child-teenage hood, and I answered as honestly as possible. Agreeably, getting bogged down in nostalgia isn’t healthy for anyone. I’ve often said nostalgia is a heckuva drug. It’s the Mirror of Erised. But a relevant story in the context of a teachable moment is not the same as nostalgia. Just yesterday I explained why there are the terms “cc” and “bcc” on emails.
And yes, I do try to make my classroom one I want to be in. I heard the phrase ‘dogfooding” years ago, and took it to heart: basically, eat your own product. Yesterday I was frustrated with one class because they could not stop side talking. I told them what they were learning (about Outlook email–poor little future borgs, as my cohort member from WABS/STEM, told me) wasn’t the most exciting, but they had to listen and follow along step by step. That may be the hardest thing about computer instruction, and I’ve been very honest with them. Everyone in that class is all over the map, and sometimes we just have to keep in step.
Today I’ll take with me these words, and try to do better. And laugh to myself about the data-driven line.
Follow George Couros @gcouros
Follow Three Teachers Talk @3TeachersTalk
From 
[embeddoc url=”https://mrskellylove.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/response-to-literature-1cbx6qp-st2bew.pptx” download=”all” viewer=”microsoft” ]
Response to Literature
[embeddoc url=”https://mrskellylove.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/response-graphic-organizer-1l7pd3c-2i47qbb.docx” download=”all” viewer=”microsoft” ]
Aziz Ansari recently put himself on an internet diet, and maybe the rest of us should follow suit.
I bought the full-meal deal from Freedom a year ago, and it’s been buggy ever since, and the customer support is confusing, but I’ll keep trying. I’ve tried to limit myself: making jewelry again, just reading (though it is on an i-pad/Kindle), and doing other things…but it’s been tough. All I’ve succeeded in doing is making a mess. This next week I’ll focus on finishing up the computer technology curriculum and nailing down the first few weeks of ELA. My schedule next year will be a bit different, and I’m trying to be flexibly- proactive. (Whatever that means!) It was time I went through my own digital hoarding and pulled out some of the best articles/ideas.
Let’s get our brains back:
https://embed.ted.com/talks/lang/en/adam_alter_why_our_screens_make_us_less_happy
I wish I could tell you about my students.
The one who brings home books to her brothers from my classroom library.
The one who desperately tries to ignore the loud ones.
The one who understood completely when I said how many students let others dictate their love of learning.
And the one who did the memoir project, both the written and the podcast version, and asked me not to share.
To me, it was This American Life, Invisibilia, and StoryCorp level amazing. Perhaps, even more amazing because she didn’t have producers, writers, engineers, or Ira Glass prompting her on. Just me, telling her (and everyone) “just tell your story.”
It is enough.
More than enough.
I’ve used my goodwill on all-staff emails. There is no time, nor is it on the agenda, to share in a PLC. I know, and I can tell her thank you. I won’t think about the smell of blackberries or the lack of smell of sunflowers again.
//giphy.com/embed/4cfV5bkDSYUx2
One of my teammates Nate had a fantastic idea for argumentative work:
Zombies.
With the help of my teammates Nate, Sabrina, and the Notice & Note social media site, especially Beth Crawford, we unleashed zombies. Trying to put together a unit without common planning or time to meet (each of us is in different phases in life: I could work on units all weekend, and I did over mid-winter break, but it’s better to collaborate with trustworthy, competent folks). We did the best we could, and it needs tweaking and refinement, but out of the box—not too shabby!
I put the call out to Notice and Note and received many great ideas. Beth Crawford followed up with Google docs resources, etc. Some things had to be left behind, and some were added without assessment concepts nailed down. But then again, when you’re dealing with flesh-melting concepts, it’s hard to nail anything down.
//cdn.thinglink.me/jse/embed.js
8. Zombie Partner Shared PowerPoint: The partner created a shared PowerPoint with many of these pieces. One aspect was the “film” slide: add any multimedia possible that goes along with survival or zombies, or film themselves. Some kids used their webcams and shot pics/videos, others found videos on YouTube, etc.
9. Article Links samples:
Here are some articles, etc. I gathered so students could choose for their annotated bibliography:
There were more, most I posted in ActivelyLearn and Canvas.
Sigh.
Maybe next time.
What we will do: next week before spring break, I am giving them a choice of three writing prompts that are directly connected to SBA Brief Writes:
Mrs Love Zombie Presentation Final Survival
[embeddoc url=”https://mrskellylove.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/final-survival-py46ze.pptx” viewer=”microsoft”]
Please let me know if you have questions, or want to add to this awesomesauce.
In addition to short films, commercials can be another valuable asset. Many commercials live on multiple places on Bloom’s Taxonomy, and certainly any argumentative reading and writing unit worth its salt contains at least one or two commercials to support a conversation about pathos, ethos, and logos.
I just found this site this morning. This first ad can bring up so many relatable conversation points. To quote John Spencer,
“What’s so odd is that people have been creating art, writing letters, and talking about their food for years. Museums are filled with foodies and selfie shots. We just call them “still lifes” and “self-portraits.” The whole, “don’t miss the moment” mindset fails to recognize that it’s a deeply human need to capture and create precisely because we don’t want to forget it.”
http://www.advert.ge/en/commercials/embed/1800
So perhaps a contrast discussion — show a selfie and a self portrait, and ask students to discuss the possible purposes of the artist, or artistic intent. A conversation about pace, too — the speed of creation and its perceived value (in the moment and over time). I can honestly say that my photo albums are my life. One project this summer is to scan everything and save it to multiple places. (But I still have time…right?!)
This is one of my all-time favorites:
And this:
And this is PG-13, but amazing:
http://www.advert.ge/en/commercials/embed/7
And speaking to our hearts, to differences, and most of all our humanity, you may want to share these:
http://www.advert.ge/en/commercials/embed/1301
http://www.advert.ge/en/commercials/embed/1733
A word of caution: advertisements intended for European markets do not have the same ratings codes as in the States. Seriously — watch everything first if you think it looks like something you want to use in the classroom.
