Reyes Returns: Why I'll Boo

Tonight, Jose Reyes returns to Queens for the first time since signing a long term deal with the Miami Marlins. While the Mets will be showing a video tribute at the beginning of the game and many fans will cheer, I will not. Tonight when #7 is announced as the lead off hitter for the Marlins, I will boo.

I will boo, but it's not for the reason you think. I don't blame Reyes for leaving the Mets last December. As a free agent in the prime of his career he made the right decision for himself and his family when he took the biggest offer, even if it meant leaving the team that drafted him and helped make him a star. Additionally, the Mets current financial limbo that the made it completely unrealistic for the team to sink an average of 16 million dollars into one player, especially one who is injury prone. I won't even boo because he joined the Marlins, a team that I have grown to hate after they gleefully ended our season two years in a row (fueled in 2007 by the antics of one Jose Reyes by the way.)

So no, I won't be booing because of Reyes' greed or a belief that he turned his back on the Mets. It won't be because he left for a rival team and it won't even be because of his highlighter orange hair.

Instead, I'll be booing because of September 28th, 2011.

On the last day of the 2011 season, many Mets fans showed up at Citi Field and tuned into SNY. they didn't do it to watch a sub-.500 team play one last game, but because they wanted to watch a homegrown player who they knew would be playing his final game in a Mets uniform. We wanted 9 more innings of the most exciting player to ever wear the orange and blue but instead we got three outs on the field and one pitch at the plate. After dropping down a bunt single, Reyes took himself out in order to win the batting title. To make it even worse he claimed that he did it for us, the long suffering Mets fans who have been clamoring for a batting champion for years, not for him and the millions that it would add to his contract (I guess I'm in the minority that would rather a championship or at least a pennant.)

So tonight I will boo. I will always remember the triples, stolen bases  and "Jose" chants but tonight at 7:10 I'll think back 7 months and remember the man who dropped a bunt, walked away and blamed us for doing it.

"Historical Graffiti": KWL Charts in my Classroom

I like to use KWL charts (Know, Want to Know and Learned) when I introduce big topics. It's a low stakes way to gauge my students prior knowledge as well as possible topics of interest that could lead to later lessons. After doing one to start the previous two units I felt that it was getting a little monotonous for the class. When I started my unit on Slavery this week, my students once again made charts but instead of the traditional three column KWL on handouts, they created KW charts on paper that was hung around the room. We watched two clips from the film Amistad during which the students recorded two pieces of information in their notebook for the K and W charts. After the clip, students were required transfer their four pieces of information to the chart paper.




A colleague of mine saw them hanging in the room and referred to them as "historical graffiti" which is not only pretty accurate but also the coolest things anyone has ever called my students' work. I have a total of eight of them hanging and while they look great from a far, it's what you see up close that is the most interesting. Each poster not only reveals a lot about what my students knew about slavery before they entered my room, but they also speak volumes about where my students are academically and intellectually. Comments featuring poor grammar stand in contrast next to sincere questions about the existence and nature of slavery.



As it was the first day back from break, I was just looking for something to get my students out of their seats while being productive. I really didn't have any expectations (good or bad) for it but I love the way it turned out and will definitely be doing it again.

Service Learning: Veterans and the Bronx

I'm lucky enough to work at the Bronx Lab School, a community that has made a commitment to service learning as a part of our philosophy and curriculum. Each year, for the last three school days before spring break, all students participate in a service learning project that is designed by one or two teachers in a program called Explore Week. After working with the music teacher on a project last year, I was looking to develop my own project for this year. Because of my experiences working with Operation Wounded Warrior through my volunteer fire department (chronicled on this blog in the past) I knew that I would love to do a project where our students got to work with our nation's veterans. When it was time to design our projects, a colleague of mine in the history department had the very same idea and our project was quickly developed: giving our students a chance to meet and interview veterans about their experiences, as well as issues relating to veterans and to make a short film about both.

After brainstorming about partner organizations, I reached out to Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), an amazing not-for-profit organization who are helping to serve the over 2.2 million new veterans returning from Iraq and/or Afghanistan. We pitched them our idea and they agreed to have us down to their office in Manhattan so that our students could meet with staff/veterans and film their interviews.

The students spent Tuesday of this week researching one issue relating to veterans (PTSD, physical disabilities, unemployment/homelessness and the new GI Bill), developing questions for their interviews and gathering information and photographs that could be used in their "mini-docs." We spent almost two hours at IAVA on Wednesday interviewing the veterans before finishing up at school today editing the films and having a pizza party/premiere.

The last few days were fantastic. In full disclosure, I often dread Explore Week because it can be a lot of work during a time of year when you're starting to feel a bit burned out. However at the end of Explore Week the last two years, I was grateful for the experience that I was able to have with the students at my school. Service learning not only allows students to get out of the classroom (it such a pleasure to see that student who drives you crazy in the classroom excel outside of a traditional setting) but it also allows them to learn by doing and see the amazing work that is happening in our greater community. The students that I worked with did a tremendous job researching, creating and editing their films and they also learned a lot about the issues facing the brave men and women who serve our country so proudly.

If you have the time, please check out the students work at the links below (Blogger took way too long to load the video directly on the blog) and check out the great work that is being done at IAVA on their website www.iava.org

Finally, if you ever get the opportunity please thank a veteran and never forget what they do for all of us.

Film #1: PTSD (click the title)

Film #2: Physical Disabilities (click the title)

Film #3: The GI Bill (click the title)

Film #4: Unemployment/Homelessness (click the title)