This past Friday, my blended classes afforded me a wonderful opportunity to observe a colleague and also to deliver a mini-poetry workshop in a language class.


With my Podcasting and Storytelling classes not meeting, I was able to observe Phil Miller’s AP US History class as he used a discussion strategy I introduced him to last spring called Philosophical Chairs. Essentially, the debate strategy forces students to pick a side of an argument and to articulate their arguments. Students are then allowed to switch sides if they are convinced by the opposing argument. I had used this strategy when I taught at my previous school for controversial topics, however I hadn’t since coming to Carondelet. 

Watching Phil facilitate the debate was enjoyable. He had a nice touch of asking for student volunteers to be fact checkers (staying out of picking sides of debate). This was the second time Phil had used the debate strategy in his class, so seeing how he rolled it out and how engaged the students were, I was reminded why I like Philosophical Chairs so much.


I’m not sure why I stopped using the strategy in my classes, but I am aiming for Philosophical Chairs to return to my curriculum this year. 


Next, I went to Kerry Chermel’s  Spanish 4 class to lead a poetry workshop. A few weeks ago, Nadine Amarelo had asked me to come to her AP French class to help her lead an analysis of a spoken word piece based on Romeo and Juliette. I enjoyed that and was excited when Kerry asked me to do the same in her class.


I led a conversation about poetry analysis – beginning with how a poem means instead of what a poem means. This forces the students to look at the experience of the poem, rather then to seek out a deeper meaning or theme. I then led them through an analysis approach and really enjoyed analyzing Pablo Neruda’ s “A Dog has Died” with them.


I told both Nadine and Kerry that had my French classes in high school or college allowed for analysis like this, I might have actually applied myself and cared about learning another language. But, my inability to master the language prevented me from ever reaching that far. Still, the idea that our language classes are able to get into poetry analysis is really cool. 


Both interactions reminded me of how fortunate I am to be at Carondelet. Both started with organic conversations with my colleagues in the faculty room. Even more, the fact that Nadine shared with Kerry about my having co-taught poetry analysis with her led Kerry to approaching me to do the same in her class.


So, here is to continuing those organic conversations with our colleagues and seeing where the rabbit hole of cross-curricular innovation and education takes us.