Wow, I'm very impressed with my colleagues insight and excitement for this project. I have to say, I was somewhat skeptical when Katie first approached me about participating. It's not that I don't like working collaboratively, but most of the time I feel so overwhelmed with trying to keep up with my classes and all the new technology, that I feel like if I take on anything else I might spontaneously combust. After our first working session, I immediately felt at ease though.
Over my teaching career, I have worked in lots of groups. Like Andy, I also worked in middle school three years before coming to the high school, so working on a cross curricular team was part of that culture, and it's what I missed most after leaving that environment. Middle school is conducive to the team approach; high school is not however. I was hopeful that when we went to Houses, that it would lend itself more to cross curricular instruction, but for some reason, that hasn't happened yet. Sooo...as people have already stated, we won't have the same students or even the same grade level. Not so advantageous for the benefits of a project like this.
As far as the topic for this project, it was surprising how easy it was for us all to agree on one, but even though it is a timely and worthwhile topic, it really only ties into to the science and engineering curriculum, so somewhat of a curve ball. In the past when I've worked on teams, we would usually revolve our topic around a novel we were reading in English, and all the other content areas would see how they could tie into the main themes of the literature. Now that I've had time to process this project more and talk to the kids about it, it does seem like it will be somewhat forced into my curriculum.
Another challenge that I have encountered is the students themselves. I originally thought I would do this assignment with my Creative Writing class, but I feel it wouldn't work because this class doesn't even talk. I literately have to call on students every time we do peer evaluation or have a class discussion because no one volunteers to participate. Also, I didn't really want to try anything too experimental and self-directed with a class of 30 freshman (Good luck with that Brian). What I have finally decided on is my Literary Design class because most of these students are pretty vocal and creative.
As one can see, there are many challenges ahead. I'm not exactly sure what direction I'm going, but I guess the fun will be in the journey and collaboration. Again, I'm not sure we will make the connections with the students a pure cross curricular team would make, but I do think we adults will benefit from sharing. I think I am most excited about working with a fun, intelligent, enthusiastic group of teachers who are on top of their game!
Dana
