Gordon Gekko and 7.1 Students: Truly “The Odd Couple”

At the time of posting this blog, the final exam is within three weeks. It is an exciting time to be a 7.1 student, even if they fail to recognize it. I believe that this is such an exciting time because we are in this intense drive to gain more knowledge, foster more understanding, and delve deeper into the Constitution. Each day in class exposes some new aspect of this document, and similar to the rose that opens only to illuminate the world with more complexity and intricacy, we end each class with more understanding and wonderment about its broad applications into the real world. I think that students are beginning to sense more power in what they are learning and the byproduct of this empowerment is the ability to raise more questions and seek to understand more of the world around them. There are few topics in middle school that possess this combination of wonderment and empowerment like the Constitution.

Yet, like all challenging topics, there is much within the Constitution that cannot be afforded to be deferred or put aside. One need only read Langston Hughes to recognize what the consequence of such a poor decision is. I believe that 7.1 students have to be vigilant of the Final Exam, of which the Constitution is a significant part. I believe that vigilance should not be confused with paralysis. If students take an active role in doing the best they can to reckon with a formidable adversary, then I believe that they will stand a better chance in defeating it. Naturally, studying and reviewing each night the concepts associated with the Constitution would be one such avenue where students can demonstrate a level of intellectual maturity. Another venue would be the policy of “stockpiling” points towards their grades in Social Studies. This would allow them the opportunity to protect their grade in the event of a showing on the exam that falls short of their high standards. This can be done in a myriad of ways. Completing nightly assignments, completing extra credit tasks, utilizing the skills of advocacy to secure more points towards their grade, and even entering the classroom with a sense of focus are all potential avenues that can be marched down with a strong and purposeful cadence. I would say that the last avenue has been the most revealing. I have seen a strong tendency in the nature of our students to await instruction in the entering of the classroom. Rather than fritter away the first five or six minutes of class, I have seen students enter the room and pay attention to an instruction that yields extra credit opportunity and actively seek it. This has resulted in syllabi that have become quite weighty with points at the end of the week. I stand by this appropriation of points for if students can acquire the habit of seeing classtime as an exercise of focus and actively embrace it, they should be recognized for such a professional demeanor. We are reaching a point in the year where our students are closer to the end of their journeys than the beginnings of it. Students must be challenged to achieve more for there is more expected from them. They are no longer the young cherubs that they might have been at the start of the year. They are entering the domain of leadership, increased responsibility, and greater perils associated with maturity. In honoring the trait of professionalism in our students, we seek to honor the best in what it means to be a scholar.

An icon of the 1980s, Gordon Gekko seems to loom large in my mind when I sense how students should approach class in the next three weeks. Standing in front of a group of corporate shareholders who seek nothing more than an answer to the question of how he intends to make more money for the company (and, of course, himself) he takes the microphone in that jet black suit and white shirt and looks into the eyes of an auditorium as well as a nation as he says, “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good, Greed is right.” He continues to expound on this philosophy and in his explanation, I believe we find the 7.1 Social Studies student right now, at this point in their lives: “Greed in all its forms: Greed for love, greed for knowledge, greed for life, greed for understanding. Greed captures and clarifies the essence of humanity. Greed is what will fix not only this corporation, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the U.S. of A.” While the model of corporate irresponsibility is reprehensible, and as our President stated this past week, represents “the height of irresponsibility,” I hope our students embrace Gekko’s vision of a world where students pursue a greed for knowledge, for points, for understanding, for seeking to develop a better vision of the world and their place in it. I believe that this notion of “greed” will allow our students a better chance to grasp “the good, the true, and the beautiful.”

All best and happy hunting.
Mr. Kannan

“I can feel it in the air, I can feel it in the water:” The 7.1 Social Studies Final Exam

This week’s Inauguration of President Barack Obama provided a singularly powerful moment of convergence between American history and politics. This singular instant was “superhistorical,” something that exists in the moment and simultaneously transcends it. In discussing its relevancy in the following days, I felt that 7.1 students understood its powerful nature and grasped the idea that we, as participants in history, stand within it and possess the potential to stand outside of it. In this setting, we turn our attention to the study of the United States Constitution and the 7.1 Social Studies Final Exam.

I have always felt that there is an intellectual holy triad of what students possess when they depart 7.1 Social Studies. The first component would be the study of American Revolution and Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. The last piece of this puzzle would be Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. The link between both would have to be the United States Constitution. It is the connective thread that brings together the hope of independence and the complexity of freedom. It bridges the chasm between, what now President Obama termed, “the promise of ideals” and “the reality of the times.” I feel it is in the study of the Constitution where we see our students mature in front of our eyes, emerging into the pantheon of scholarship as they grapple with the intent of the framers, constitutional penumbras, and a startling combination of absolutes and subjectivity. I look at teaching the Constitution as a highlight of not only the year, but an honor within my profession. In identifying the concepts that I feel define the essence of “education” and my sense of being as a “teacher,” the U.S. Constitution is within the top five. (I must admit that I felt that my students last year missed out on another moment when I did not close the year with my recitation of Whitman’s “O Captain, My Captain.”)

Our study of the Constitution is a challenging one. We move at a rather quick clip, knowing very well that what we touch can only start a journey and never end it. I have indicated to students that with this material, their lives will be forever changed. One way to reaffirm the significance of this content is with the Final Exam. Our exam is scheduled for the last week of February and will consist of about 200 multiple choice questions from chapters 5, 6, 7, and the Constitution. It will take five days to complete. It will be a challenge for the study of from where to where we have come is also a challenge. I have said that it is this final exam that will test the mettle of our students, and examine how committed to scholarship they are. I have also stated without equivocation that this exam will be the most difficult exam they will take this year, and possibly, in their Julian careers.

Naturally, the looks on student faces were priceless.

As we study the Constitution and its implications, we have our eyes fixed on both the present with a gaze that is situated towards what lies beyond. The exam is roughly a month away and steps are being taken to ensure that all students find success, and that no child is indeed left behind. The first measure that is being offered to all students is a greater opportunity to complete extra credit. All students should be working nightly on Social Studies work related to the Constitution. However, students have been reminded that within their conception of work, extra credit resides. For example, if an assignment calls for a student to compose 5 outcome sentences, this would be the minimum. A student can earn extra credit if they compose more than the minimum. This stresses the idea to students that work done can only be enhanced with it being done well and with attention paid to detail. In addition to this, signed syllabi are being weighed with premium value. For example, students who enter class and follow instructions posted with absolute focus and dedication might be told to add a certain number of points to their syllabi. Obtaining a signature and returning it signed would make that syllabus quite a lucrative venture. Students are being reminded at multiple turns to engage in extra credit opportunities that are featured on the blog, such as the wacky metaphoric analysis, establishing the speakers of quotes featured, and garnering 100 votes for the weekly poll. Finally, study sessions for the Final Exam are being offered every Tuesday morning at 8:00 and during Thursday’s 4th period lunch. Students who attend these study sessions will find it helpful to ask questions, seek clarification, and gain more insight into concepts that will be assessed in great detail on the Final Exam. For students who attend the Tuesday morning study session, an added benefit will be 10 extra credit points for each morning study session attended. I will extend this same offer to the Thursday fourth period study session for the first week, but after that, I am looking to see if students can make the necessary arrangements in showing the needed commitment to pursuing academic integrity and increasing their intellectual capacity.

Students will be pushed within the next five weeks to give more of their hearts and minds in the battle for intellectual and academic supremacy. I don’t know what it says when I have to quote President Lyndon Baines Johnson when I say that the price for victory in this war will require more cost, more sacrifice, and perhaps more loss. I am hoping that the outcome is certainly better for old LBJ, but the message still remains intact: The cost of academic victory in this setting will be measured by how much commitment students show to their learning and ensuring they are making the most of the time they have before this exam seeks to test the most they have within them.

Students who are aware of their history will know that throughout intellectual currents there has been a sense of understanding about the magnitude of certain events. It can be seen in literature, as in when standing in the presence of the ring of power; one certainly feels its aura. It can be seen in poetry, as in when one reads Langston Hughes or a Shakespearean monologue. It can also be seen in history. For example, those who stood at the Inauguration last week knew they were standing in the moment of history, while those of us watching it knew immediately that we were basking in the glow of historical development. When confronted with the reality of significance, of purpose, and of meaning, one feels it all around them. It is felt in the air, it is felt in the water, it is felt in the heart. At the same time, the sentiments of battle rear itself for in this moment, we feel compelled to ward off the feelings of doubt that downplay this moment, that tell us this moment is nothing more than a moment. When trapped in a moment of purpose, of meaning, of relevancy, one must cast off the shackles of doubt and accept it for what it is: A moment in time, perhaps never to be repeated, while completely impossible to forget. I feel that in the experiences of our 7.1 emerging scholars, this time, this instant is one such moment in time.

To not give it the proper respect it deserves could be catastrophic and would indeed rise to the level of tragic condition. My deepest hope is regardless of outcome, students pay homage to such a moment that will test them. Similar to the Inauguration, this type of moment of convergence may never come again.

All best and happy hunting.
Mr. Kannan

P.S. Updated progress reports will be sent home with students on Tuesday, 1/27. They can be signed and returned for extra credit on Friday, 1/30, the same day that Preamble Recitations will be assessed. Is this fun or what?

The State of 7- 1 Academic Union Address

This is a fairly big week for important speeches and addresses. In this same vein, I thought I would use this week’s blog entry as a type of “State of the Union Address” for 7-1 stakeholders. This address would be a barometer indicating where we are, from where we have come, and where we need to be in order to reach our goal. (One can imagine the audience members’ applause/ derision or not.)

We assemble here today at the half way point of our journey. From this point on, each step we take brings us closer to the end than the starting point. We are realizing that time is no longer on our sides. Some say that the best time for reflection is at the end of a journey, but I am of the mindset that reflection is best served at every possible moment before the conclusion of any endeavor because more can be remembered, greater amounts of precious details in their exactitudes can be recalled, and more meaning can be gained. I feel we are at such a point right now, at this time, in this moment. With second trimester midterm progress reports sent home on Friday, we are officially past the half way point and could be a good moment to ruminate, reflect, and in some case, recalibrate our efforts in the hopes of achieving the academic “good, true, and beautiful.”

I think that one truth that has emerged from the first half of our journey is that we have seen scholarship emerging, maturation being evident. For the most part, students’ fears and insecurities that have opened the year have become replaced with a sense of confidence and belief that while challenge is present, the desire to find success must be the tool used to meet such arduous and probing work. I believe that most of our students have become accustomed to the idea that difficulty will accompany them each step on this journey. There will be very little that can be discarded as “not important” and even less that will be seen as “easy.” Whereas at the start of the year this was frowned upon and even seeing tears shed because of it, students are now developing a sense of mental toughness or, what the scholar A.C. Bradley would call, “intestinal fortitude,” about what needs to be done in order to find success and the demands being placed upon their broad shoulders. For the most part, I believe we are seeing students rise to the challenge of scholarship asked of them at the start of the year. This evolution has to continue in these students and must take place in all of our students by the ending of the year if we are to have any hope of calling this year of teaching and learning “a success.” I believe that this is one of the benchmarks that we have to use and one that we can use each and every day when students are immersed in the process of teaching and learning. Each student can gauge this for themselves. At the end of each class, each student should ask of themselves the following question” “Have I utilized my time effectively as a scholar would?” If this question can be honestly answered in the unequivocal affirmative, I believe that students can sense their own evolution and grasp their own maturation.
I believe that this hopeful vision of student evolution and maturation will be put to its penultimate test in the next five weeks. On Wednesday, we start the lesson on the Constitution. This unit will be the last one before our final exam. This exam will cover chapters 5, 6, 7, and the Constitution. It will take five days to complete and will demand much of the students. It might be the toughest exam students have taken and will take in their time at Julian. In order for success to be evident on this exam, students must grasp the notion that every battle is won before it is ever fought (Thank you, Sun Tzu). It is inconceivable (Thank you, Princess Bride!) for students to do well on this exam if they have not committed every ounce of their energies and resources to doing well now. I do not believe that this exam can be met effectively if students do not understand that the emerging scholars they embody before the exam will be the quality producers as they complete it. I think that there are some steps to which each and every student on 7.1 can either recommit themselves or begin to process of commitment. The first step would be for students to keep up the nightly work that is assigned in Social Studies. This might consist of reading in the textbook, answering questions, composing outcome sentences, or even reflecting on what is being asked of them from a particular class. I believe that if we are to see our students discover greater and more varied notions of academic success, and then we must see them give more to their studies outside of class. What I strive for in this suggestion is for students to naturally complete work that is assigned, but in a larger sense, engage in some type of meaningful reflection about what is being taught, why it is being taught, how it can be relevant, and how it can have meaning in their lives. I think that if students can develop some type of intellectual imprint on their work through internal reflection, there will be a greater sense of satisfaction in their education and meaning to and in their work. This might be where we must start in seeing our students commit themselves to an education that has meaning, and to a school life with purpose.
Once this purpose has been established, I think that students have to confront themselves with another question: “What is out there that I can utilize in order to find success on the demon like assessments that lie in wait for me?” Throughout literature, mythology, and history, the greatest of leaders and heroes have been insightful enough to sense that tools that lie in front of them can be utilized in order to defeat challenging adversaries and snatch victory from the jaws what would have been likely defeat. In hearkening back to the protagonists of both old and new, I sense that our students are much the same. I think that there are some rather obvious tools students can use to help them on their quest. Embracing the policy of revising work that is unsatisfactory or less than what students are capable of producing would be an excellent place to begin. After this, students might have to ensure that the pedestrian extra credit is something that is integrated into their weekly modus operandi. Obtaining signed syllabi for extra credit, completing extra credit made available on the blog, or completing extra credit outcome sentences could be avenues that will open up greater opportunities for students and ensure that they are in the best position possible before embarking on an exam that will require a great level of sacrifice, of cost, and personal strength. I think that students can probably spend more time in their week examining the blog and its contents as well as downloading items from “Recent Powerpoint Lessons” and “Upcoming Tasks/ Assessments.” Simply put, each hero has something that lies in front of their eyes and proves to be invaluable in their quests of success and feats of glory. Revisions, extra credit, and the Social Studies blog might operate in such a way for our students.
I think that one of these elements that lie within so many of our students is their commitment. I believe that our students want to do well. When they see their progress reports, and witness a bevy of “A”’s and “B”’s, I notice a great deal of pride that is beaming. It should be noted that most middle school students are very coy about showing pride about academic work (But, strangely are much more demonstrative about how many people said “Hi” to them in the hallways.) Despite their concealment, I sense that there is a sense of pride in accomplishment. We must tap into that. We must find way to extract this and allow our students to be demonstrative about how strong in academics they are or the level of pride that is inherent in the amount of focus a student shows is in class. I think that tapping into this might be something that parents and teachers can encourage, but our students will have to do the heavy lifting on this task themselves. To this end, I believe that taking advantage of Social Studies study sessions might help. Starting from January 27, I will be offering Tuesday morning study sessions. Students who attend these study sessions and demonstrate focus and compliance will earn five points extra credit in Social Studies. I will also offer study sessions during lunch on Thursdays. These will not be extra credit, but material will be covered as well as reteaching options and greater explanation presented. I think that these sessions will be essential in helping students understand that taking pride in their work and redoubling commitment to the class can translate into success.
Sports psychologists often work with athletes in focusing on the outcome and not the result. For example, a basketball player steps to the free throw line with a chance to win the game. The positive result will be that they will be mobbed in glee by their teammates and that they will be declared the “MVP”. Conversely, a negative result will be that they will be shunned for their failures and the team will lose face. The sports psychologist would plea to the athlete that they should focus on the correct form in shooting a free throw, ensuring their body is aligned in their shot, and that they maintain the same routine that allowed them to shoot over 100 free throws in yesterday’s practice. By placing emphasis on the outcome and not the result, the athlete ends up being successful because distractions are placed out with only success as the focus. In much the same way, I think we need to do a better job of stressing to our students that the outcome is more important than the result. If students have taken care of each and every element prior to the exam, then the result of the exam will be of a lesser concern. I find that the students who endure the most amount of stress about this exam do so because they have not taken the needed steps to ensure success prior to it. This sense of drama and misplaced angst becomes self inflicted because students have not placed emphasis on the outcome. Attending study sessions, revising work, taking advantage of extra credit, and providing focus during instruction is the best way for our students to proceed into a pantheon of outcomes as opposed to a cave filled with insecure results.
The challenge we all have in front of us at this point in the year is a frighteningly clear one. What can we do to ensure that our students establish and maintain a pattern of academic success and growth? While students will be doing most of the work, parents can play a vital role by simply opening up the dialogue with their children about how this process is transpiring. Parents can serve as the managing directors of their child’s progress. If a student cannot discuss how they made steps in that day’s class towards doing well on the final exam, then this becomes a cause for concern. If a student cannot articulate what feature of the Constitution was revealed in classroom discussion, then this becomes a cause for concern. If a student cannot explain an outcome sentence they composed or cannot show a sample of an outcome sentence, then this becomes a cause for concern. In simply talking openly with students about their Social Studies experience, I think parents can play a vital role in the transformative experience in which their child is immersed. We stand on the precipice of an exciting, yet challenging time. The excitement lies in the fact that our students will be the intellectual warriors who will do something new, fun, real, and meaningful within their study of the Constitution and beyond. The challenge is that those experiences that prove to be the ones that resonate in memory usually exact a price and require a commitment. There can be no navigation beyond the intellectual beasts and demons that lie in front of our students. However, there can be great opportunity to rise to the better angels of our nature (Thank you, Lincoln!) and do something that has not been done before and might not be done after. It is in this definition where greatness lies and it is in this definition where I see all of our students.

All best and happy hunting.
Mr. Kannan

The bustle of change: 7-1 Students and the Anticipatory Emotions that accompany both them and their nation

The arrival back to school heralded with it the reality that “things are picking up” in 7.1 Social Studies. Indeed, students approached the week back from school with a sense of understanding about where we are, where we are going, and where we need to be. I was struck by how students perceived that there were standing on a precipice. It seemed as if many of them connected with the idea that the unit on the Constitution would be tough, that this Final Exam will be a challenge in how much it covers, and that there would be more asked from them by placing more on their broad shoulders. Students did not express resistance as much as they did a sense of wonderment about their capabilities and capacity for endurance. I believe that this level of toughness is a sign of maturation and something that we might not have seen a mere month ago.

I remember standing in front of many of our stakeholders on the first day of school and at Curriculum Night and declaring that I will do my best to create 7.1 students as “Scholars.” I feel that this maturation that I have seen in many of our students, your children, is helping to bring this goal into reality.

However, such a noble and enlightened goal will require work from all of us. I believe we will all need to commit ourselves to this cause, one that is within our reach. It will require us to demand more of ourselves and endure more challenge, more difficulty, and perhaps suffer more in order to reach our ultimate goal of being welcomed with open arms into the pantheon of scholarship. We have made progress, yet there is much more to be made, many more steps to be taken.

As there is a certain buzzing activity that seems to be evident in America right now with the impending arrival of the next President, we can see that same activity in the hearts and minds of our 7.1 students. I hope that all stakeholders will join me in embracing such activity, such challenge, and such maturation.

I hope parents/ guardians can assist in this journey towards scholarship. This can take on many forms. I think one level of assistance could be for parents to continually remind their students that revising work is a very good thing. If a student has not scored well on a particular assignment or task, the student can revise it (redoing the assignment integrating specific changes that I indicate to them) and receive half of the credit lost. For example, an assignment where a student scored 400 out of 600 could be revised accurately and correctly to receive a new score of 500 out of 600. Another reason why revisions would be a good opportunity for students would be that revising work teaches students that success is something that requires multiple attempts. I think it is artificial to emphasize to students to not stress that we are what we repeatedly do and that the attempt at success could be something that must be revisited. However, it should be noted that revisions will be phased out by the third trimester, making it an opportunity that will soon pass. Another aspect of advocacy that parents/ guardians can assume would be to encourage students to take advantage of all extra credit opportunities. Signing syllabi, completing and exceeding the number of outcome sentences on student logs, as well as taking advantage of all extra credit as featured on the weekly blog could yield significant points to be added to student grades.
Yet, the business of learning is one of discourse. It is not about points. It is not about a percentage. It is not about a letter grade. Rather, it is about the conversation, the new patterns of recognition that emerge, and the dialogue that results from learning. I have always been a staunch defender of parents simply “talking” to their children about the concepts being covered in their Social Studies classes. The topic we are preparing to study is the Constitution. If parents could find time to simply ask students about anything in the news and its connection to the Constitution, I think this is where real learning, real partnership, real scholarship will be evident. The upcoming inauguration, policies advocated by the incoming administration, confirmation of executive cabinet members, as well as the civic drama known as American political life could provide excellent conversation and set the stage for understanding about the concepts being addressed in Social Studies. When individuals outside the classroom setting talk to students about what they are experiencing within it, I think there is a truer sense of relevancy established. The conversations with should be student driven with parents/ guardians asking leading questions such as how a particular news event might represent an amendment from the Constitution, or how a specific news action is important to the Constitution. The topic area we address now has so much relevancy to the time in which we find ourselves right now.

I encourage as many of our stakeholders as possible to join me on the path of scholarship, the road the intellectual wellness, and a journey of significance and meaning.

All best and happy hunting.
Mr. Kannan

“Both Sides Now” of a “Mystic River”: Judy Collins, Clint Eastwood, and the Constitutional Convention

The first blog entry of the new year greets the stakeholders of 7.1 Social Studies with a type of anticipation and immensity that might have waited for the Framers at the conclusion of the American Revolution. After having striven so far, endured so much, battled through so many adversaries, we are left with the ruins of our freedom; Now, what do we do? How do we start an immense task? How do we reconfigure what we once were into what we are, and more importantly, into what we will be?

The Framers and I seem to share some similarities… It might be only time that I share something with those folks on the dollar bills.

We have emerged from the Winter Recess as a new nation, as a new people, and as newly emerging scholars. The Chapter 6 Writing Assessments will be returned on Monday, 1/5. At the time of this blog’s posting, the grades are not yet tabulated. Revisions of the chapter 6 Writing Tasks will be due on Monday, 1/12, with Social Studies Progress Reports given to students on Friday, 1/9.
However, this serves as nothing more than window dressing for what we will be commencing upon our return. We will be engaging in a study of the Constitutional Convention and the issues emerging from it. Our method of study will begin with a Sensory Feeling introduction, whereby students envision questions they might have after being faced with a variety of situations that bear some thread of the tapestry woven by the framers at the conclusion of the American Revolution. This anticipatory set of questions will help to immerse students into the context of where we are in the dialectic of American historic consciousness. Following this, we will begin to attempt to grasp the vocabulary of the time period. In human history, the emergence of power has been accompanied by the control of language. This lesson will be demonstrated in this setting as students engage in a vocabulary exercise where they will seek to “fit” together terms and meaning. After gauging the dynamic between freedom and control, and how the two concepts can be mutually exclusive at certain points of human progression, we will attempt to piece together an understanding of the Constitutional Convention through the Jigsaw Teaching methodology. This format of instruction involves students delving into a portion of the text and becoming a “leading expert” in that section, and then taking that section to teach to other students, who in turn serve as other “leading experts.”
I have always taught the Constitutional Convention through a direct lecture/ instruction format. Traditionally, I have dominated the use of the LCD projector (despite the gifted clamoring of others) and engaged in a lecture style methodology of both the Constitutional Convention and the actual document that followed. I was completely prepared to follow this method this year, full with my notes about how the Federalists and Anti Federalists clashed, how the Virginia Plan rivaled the New Jersey Plan, and how the Compromise over Slavery continued the practice and reduced people of color to 3/5 of a person. Yet, something held me back from my full commitment to another year of straight lecture. I felt it to be a presence that I could not articulate. I was reminded of the ever present image of Eastwood’s film, “Mystic River”- a body of water where something lies dormant, yet omnipresent. Its waters run still and deep. Its shimmering surface belies a body of truth, pain, beauty, and droplets of redemption. Its brooding cannot be put into language of description, but rather has to be fully comprehended through the lexicon of experience. Indeed, as something lay in that river of ideas- the intellectual current that serves as the lifeline of scholarship, of my teaching and their learning- I realized that the lesson might hold more power and serve more compelling purposes if I began the process of asking the students to start the process of assuming ownership of the dialectic of teaching and learning. The jigsaw method of instruction allows students to engage in the reciprocally reflexive exercise of teaching and learning. At the same time, I began to understand that the method of instruction should reflect the content itself. The traditional view of the Constitutional Convention is one of proud and ardent strides towards self determination, articulate conceptions of freedom, and pure justice. It is depicted as a moment where the realization of struggle is embodied. The “winners” actually proved to be triumphant. It is a moment that “established a republic that has thrived for more than 200 years.” (last page of chapter 7, section 3.) In reading these lines out of the textbook, I understood that such a moment in American History could be depicted through the methodology of direct instruction and straight lecture. Yet, the “Mystic River” metaphor crept into my mind. Beneath this exterior of justice and triumphant glory reflects indepth complexities that belie the easy platitudes offered by the textbook. The formal and embedded establishment of a nation’s “original sin,” the constant battle between freedom and control, as well as the dialectic of how to include other voices in a tapestry which begs for it became the legacies of this river- this body of water that might have washed over one set of conditions, but left many more in its deluge. The “Mystic River” did not only run in South Boston, but seems to have pervaded the Constitutional Convention, an event whose memories seem to provide the legacy with which all of us as members of this great, yet sometimes sad democracy have to wrestle.
As we seek to make sense of this legacy, we find that there are no easy answers. There can be nothing that provides immediate salvation. We seek it, we strive for it, and sometimes we even cry for it, knowing we will never grasp it. There is no “font of knowledge,” no centerpiece to allow for absolute understanding of such a powerful and yet sad event. When Dave says to Jimmy, “It should have been you in that car,” he speaks the absolute truth of someone who realizes that there is no absolution. Confronted with such a terrifyingly abysmal like view of American History, we seem to endure by assembling the jigsaw puzzle of meaning. A piece is found in one place, and its complement is found later. Perhaps, we become animated with the discovery of a “corner piece.” It made sense to me that the jigsaw method of teaching can bring a meaningful understanding to the content of the lesson for the topic itself is a jigsaw puzzle, with some of the pieces not having been included in the original packaging. At the same time, the jigsaw teaching approach also helps to create a more meaningful understanding of what education ought to be. Rather than endure an exercise where we, as teacher and students, see the textbook or a sole entity as representing the proverbial “font of knowledge,” jigsaw teaching captures the essence of scholarship. It emphasizes that if there is a concept as pure teaching and learning, it comes from a variety of sources. Our purpose as learned individuals is to assemble this understanding, as one would assemble a jigsaw puzzle. When this is done, the river of ideas that shrouds us and washes over us is mystic, yet strangely beautiful.
Eastwood’s “Mystic River” seemed to blend into the idea of how time passes. The river which runs through our ideas and our souls continues onward, and we look at the body of water in many different ways at many different times in our lives. 7-1 Students will examine it in one way starting on our return from break. Years from now, they will see it differently for they will be different. All scholars endure this transformation. All people endure this, as well in our own lives. We seem to see one thing in one way at one point in time. At that moment, our view is replete with absolute certainty. Yet, this image serves as only a prelude, as we endure change and repudiate it later as an illusion. In thinking about how Eastwood’s image occupied so much importance in articulating how I progressed from lecture to jigsaw in my approach to teaching chapter 7, I was reminded of one of my favorite songs by Judy Collins. When she sings of how clouds, tears, love, and life were seen in one way, and then another way in her etude to dreamers and pain, “Both Sides Now,” it hit me that teaching is much the same. Both learners and teachers sense intellectual concepts in one particular vein for a while, but songs of innocence become meshed with tunes of experience. The result that sight and illusions yield is that we “really don’t know life at all.” In such challenging situations, it seems that the only things we can do is piece together what we know having seen our own intellectual and personal “Mystic Rivers” through “both sides now.” At this point of convergence and examination might be where truth and understanding might reside. It certainly should be where teaching and learning should attempt to strike.

Man, is this going to be a fun year, or what??

On tap: Chapter 7, Returning of Chapter 6 Writing Tasks, and Social Studies Progress Reports being sent home on Friday, 1/9.

All best and happy hunting!
Mr. Kannan