I've embarked on a year-long experiment I wanted to tell you about. Dr. Gortych, WPS's director of guidance and assessment, and I were discussing how to help juniors and seniors access our anti-bullying curriculum, since our advisory program is only running for ninth and tenth grade students. What we landed on were a series of class meetings I would lead. Roughly once a month, I meet the entire junior or senior class in the auditorium for half an hour, for a class meeting where we'll explore what it means to be a citizen at Watertown High School.
For our first meeting, I've chosen a TED Talk to show to students. Ron Gutman, an entrepreneur in the field of public health, explores the hidden power of smiles. Watch the video and see if you find it as fun and intriguing as I did.
We can't give students two thousand chocolate bars each day. (I can just picture Ms. Johnson, our food and nutrition teacher wincing!) We do want them to have long, satisfying, influential lives. Perhaps learning to smile a little more is a start.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Sunday, September 11, 2011
9/11 at Watertown High School
Thanks to the imagination and commitment curriculum coordinator Kraig Gustafson and the social studies department, Watertown High had the opportunity to remember the tragic events of September 11, 2001 on Thursday and Friday.
On the morning of September 11th, I remember standing in a classroom in Boston's Chinatown. It was a free period in my day, and a colleague - I remember his name and tone of voice - told me to turn on the television because New York City was under attack. I couldn't believe him. I turned on the TV, stunned at what I was seeing, and started to think of family working in Manhattan and a close friend who had been due to fly out of Logan that morning. If you are an adult, you no doubt also remember where you were, who was with you, and how you felt when the shocking news hit you that late summer morning.
Most of our high school students have much fainter memories of that day, and soon WHS will be filled with students who can't remember it at all. Yet the events of that day are perhaps the centerpiece of 21st century history thus far; their impact still looms large in our world.
So at Watertown High, we remembered. I read an announcement on Thursday morning. We hung flags with the names of rescue workers who died. Social studies classes presented facts, perspectives, and background on the events of the day and the implications since. In my own English class, we read parts of Galway Kinnell's haunting poem, "When the Towers Fell," and wondered just what it means that "each light, each life, put out, lives within us."
Our history does indeed live within us. We hope we help our students make meaning of it, and find their place in our fractured world.
On the morning of September 11th, I remember standing in a classroom in Boston's Chinatown. It was a free period in my day, and a colleague - I remember his name and tone of voice - told me to turn on the television because New York City was under attack. I couldn't believe him. I turned on the TV, stunned at what I was seeing, and started to think of family working in Manhattan and a close friend who had been due to fly out of Logan that morning. If you are an adult, you no doubt also remember where you were, who was with you, and how you felt when the shocking news hit you that late summer morning.
Most of our high school students have much fainter memories of that day, and soon WHS will be filled with students who can't remember it at all. Yet the events of that day are perhaps the centerpiece of 21st century history thus far; their impact still looms large in our world.
So at Watertown High, we remembered. I read an announcement on Thursday morning. We hung flags with the names of rescue workers who died. Social studies classes presented facts, perspectives, and background on the events of the day and the implications since. In my own English class, we read parts of Galway Kinnell's haunting poem, "When the Towers Fell," and wondered just what it means that "each light, each life, put out, lives within us."
Our history does indeed live within us. We hope we help our students make meaning of it, and find their place in our fractured world.
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