358- SCHOOL CLASSROOM METHODS THAT WORKED!...(PART I)...

My Sociology (sosh!) classes and American government classes! These following teaching methods, especially the students' participation over the semesters and years, were the personal highs for this educator...I loved 'em!

1) the sosh! "Culture trip"....
Every semester sosh! students chipped in a small amount and rented a good
bus or two, not a Yellow, and explored far beyond their studies on cultures.
They left early in the am, first stopping at the U.Va. Lawn area, getting a feel
for future university life and local history. Proceeded, next, up to Humpback Rocks at Afton...climbed to the top of the Rocks...explored, below, the old farm site. Then headed down into the Shenandoah Valley, stopping to explore the
American Museum of Frontier Culture at the edge of Staunton...Scots-Ulster, English, early American and German farms. They loved it! Then, pointing out Mary Baldwin College and Bridgewater College along the way on the backroads.
Stopped in Dayton at their Farmers' Market....had to "drag" them away,
especially the parents. Pointed out James Madison U. and then a few miles
north, on Rte.11, to Meems Bottom Covered Bridge! Told them a cultural
ghost story as the skies darkened for night. Hnndreds and hundreds of
sosh! students loved that "culture trip" every semester, over the years. Funny
thing...not a single administrator or teacher ever acknowledged the terrific
value gained from the students' experiences all those years!? Parents always went...each semester they had to sign up early to get in....
2) the sosh! "Parents Day" and "Friends Day".... Each semester in sosh!, parents were invited to sit in on their classes, being treated like another student...students and a parent could ask any question about parenting or students. Students brought snacks for all, until a principal decided it was not to be. "Friend Day"...with permission, a student could invited a friend from another class to sit in and talk about, interact about "friendship!" Students loved doing it! Funny thing...not a single adminstrator ever positively cheered the method. But, in time, suddenly and mysteriously, that program, too, was "stopped."
3) "PONDERABLES!"..... Every day, in both classes, a handful of "ponderables" were written up on a special place on the board...object? Each and any student could think and respond, one at a time...with their right, respectfully and politely, to express their thoughts, opinions...THEY had the floor! Then, anyone could agree, respectfully, or disagree, with what the first one stated! The "ponderables" were varied, everthing...current topics...statements...feelings. Years afterwards, would see a former student, and they would always mention "Ponderables" as being their top part of class! Funny thing, not a single adminstrators ever mentioned its value as a teaching, educational tool!
4) American government "COURT DAY!".... For years, every semester, we planned and spent the morning at the local Courthouse. The seniors sat in on REAL justice, everyday cases in action. Judge Zepkin would pause later in the morning, and students could ask questions while he sat on the Bench! Then we were taken on a tour, then downstairs to the holding rooms and the security control operations room. At each locational step, the Courthouse staff went the extra mile with my students. EVERYONE loved it! This teach always threw in a little reward by stopping, for lunch, at a nearby Ukrop's shopping center. Not a single administrator in all those years expressed any appreciation to me or the classes as a class, especially those HUNDREDS of students over the years...same for the fellow teachers.
5) the sosh! FIRST-GRADE CLASS VISITS EVERY SEMESTER.... My soshers!, individuals or small groups, composed 'tales' and a compilation booklet for the first-grade class. And we went. Juniors and seniors together in the neat class of first-graders. They broke up into small groups and paired up...ones beginning their educational journey and new friends who were completing their own high school journey, with most going on to college! The young students had written their own tales, and both agers shared, together. They went to lunch together...went to RECESS together. My soshers! LOVED it each semester. Funny, again, not a single administrator, or teacher, EVER thanked the sosh! classes--classes that were ALWAYS packed each semester--for their creative, exciting teaching method. One "lesser" administrator DID "pick on", try to create 'trouble' for the class method. That same "lesser" adminsistrator admitted that their job at school was to search out the "troublemakers." That's an educator? I'm not sure whether the first-graders or my soshers! got the most out the visit!
6) Our AMERICAN government class was spotlighted in the world news media for communicating with the everyday people of Cuba. The NBC Today Show with Katie Couric interviewed the class...was on live TV one morning. My students, on their own, wanted to listen and make up their own minds about whether America and Cuba should sit down and talk! CNN News came to the school to partricipate in a forum. Cuban TV came to interview the students. A Florida Representative cam to the class with a forum. One administrator did slip the word to me that it was okay to participate. Two Cuban diplomats came to the school to hand-deliver the letter from Pres. Castro to me...and the class, and we were invited to, as a class, go to Cuba. This guy received boxes of handwritten letters from ordinary Cubans expressing their like of Americans. Under the table, I was informed that the class could not go...I, hmmm, could. I refused to go without my class! No support whatsoever was shared by anyone, nor from administrators.....
7) AMERICAN government BREAKFAST..... Students wanted to hold a breakfast, in A. govt., with a confab to discuss current topics in America. We did...they brought all of the ingredients and prepared the meal. Was quite successful. However, after a time, we were told that "it" was no longer to be...gone! Hmmmm.....
8) Sosh! "CASE STUDIES"....thousands liked and loved the Case Studies over the years!! With this original and unique method of teaching, each student, in an always full class, was responsible for, prepared for and shared a "case study" of, for and by themselves...each one had their own day to present! They could bring in "stuff" to show and tell from their life. That student had the spotlight. All the others, including me, took "notes" in a special packet that eventually grew to 30-33 separate case studies. After each case study, classmates could, respectfully and politely, ask them questions about opinions and further details on what they had already shared. At the end of a month or so, this guy prepared a "test" consisting of comments and descriptions taken from each case study, and the class, as a "test", was responsible for solving WHO all 30-33 fellow classmates were! THAT, by the way, was an indepth method of teaching all the way from beginning to the conclusion. THEY were involved all the way throught the learning process method!
Did I mention, too, that they all learned how to go indepth with a case study, and they learned about each other?