Instead of writing about differentiated instruction that I have been exploring in my Crew I thought I would try to demonstrate differentiation (click this link for a reminder on what differentiation is) as if I was working through the topic of blogging with students…this can’t look the way that I would want based on the functions of this website…and based on my knowledge of how to use this site… but you can see where I was going with this…I hope!
Class Question#1: Can anyone tell me what a blog is? Class Question #2: Raise your hand if you have ever read a blog.
I quickly learned after arriving at the University of Iowa for my undergrad that taking religious studies courses was a popular thing to do. One professor in particular, Jay Holstein, blazed a trail at Iowa that included religious studies courses having 500 students in them and being classes that students would sneak into in their free time. A documentary was filmed in 2008 focusing on his work and a short clip from the film can be viewed below to understand the type of educator that he was day in and day out.
This fall marked his 50th year anniversary of teaching at the University of Iowa and they celebrated him with a live streamed event including former students, his family, and his Golden Lecture. To hear him lecture again was an absolute gift. One quote he said stood out to me the most and that was:
“Education leads to uncertainty. Things that were simple are now complicated… Don’t be afraid of uncertainty. Be suspicious of certainty.”
Through innovation, social emotional learning, growth mindset, and effective teaching, we are introducing our students to the complicated and the uncertain and we are teaching them to not be afraid. That curiosity and that confidence in questioning anything and everything will be valuable to our students forever.
I love football. I grew up a 49ers fan, my best friends played football throughout middle and high school, switched to the Packers as an adult (Go Pack Go!), and fell in love with the Hawkeyes while I attended college at the University of Iowa. When I became a teacher, I went to every football game, hosted pregame meals in my classroom, and talked about the game in the hallways to any and all students who would listen.
I knew about CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy). The great Junior Seau had commited suicide while I was in college. In September of 2015, my favorite football player while I was a college student, one that I had bought the #9 jersey of, Tyler Sash, died at the age of 27. The cause of death? Mixture of drugs. But that didn’t sit well with any of us Hawkeye fans. Five months later it was revealed that he was in Stage 2 of CTE with comparable damage to that of Junior Seau who died at 43.
“Early symptoms of CTE usually appear in a patient’s late 20s or 30s, and affect a patient’s mood and behavior. Some common changes seen include impulse control problems, aggression, depression, and paranoia. As the disease progresses, some patients may experience problems with thinking and memory, including memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, and eventually progressive dementia. Cognitive symptoms tend to appear later than mood and behavioral symptoms, and generally first appear in a patient’s 40s or 50s. Patients may exhibit one or both symptom clusters. In some cases, symptoms worsen with time (even if the patient suffers no additional head impacts). In other cases, symptoms may be stable for years before worsening” (www.concussionfoundation.org).
In April of 2017, Aaron Hernandez, former Florida Gator and New England Patriot powerhouse, convicted of murder, was found dead in his jail cell. About five months later, it was revealed that he was in stage 3 of CTE with damage well beyond was could be expected for someone his age. The Netflix documentary “Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez” did a great job of highlighting his struggles including CTE.
This blog is not about defending Aaron Hernandez who committed crimes that are unimaginable. This is not a eulogy for a player that I thought was the King of Iowa. This is not a plea for football to be eradicated. This blog is about voicing and exploring the moral implications of being a lover of football and seeing grave consequences of the game. If repeated hits to the head do the damage then this is something that has to be talked about when we are educators of the youth that are receiving these hits. How do you talk to your own children about this? How do we talk to our students about this? Do we not talk about it? Is it too personal? These are the types of things that our students should be exploring for themselves in our religious studies curriculum and in their education as young adults.
A former student, now friend, is a current D1 football player who jokes about CTE that he will endure when older in order to cope with the reality that he, his teammates, and brothers might have a fate that is dark.
An acquaintance who currently plays for the Houston Texans told me, “I know all about CTE but I love football so I am willing to deal with the consequences.”
I love football. But a little piece of my heart breaks when I watch football because I know that there are consequences of the game that I can’t predict but that I know for a fact will be devastating.
Over spring break I was able to have some down time on the couch in front of the TV. Instead of browsing and binge watching on Netflix I decided to flip through the cable channels and HBO was televising a documentary about Martin Luther King Jr. called King in the Wilderness.
In the Spiritual Journey course for seniors I have chosen to discuss spiritual darkness. I dove into the idea of a “Dark Night of the Soul” from St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila. I highlighted the spiritual darkness of Mother Teresa that we now know she was enduring thanks to the publication of Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light which includes her personal writings about her spiritual struggle.
I also chose to have students look at American spirituality. In particular I pointed them to Martin Luther King Jr. and the spiritual basis for his ministry of nonviolent protest. King in the Wilderness gives a glimpse into the last months of Dr. King’s life and the hardships that he endured in his ministry. The film highlights the criticism from the Black Power movement of his nonviolent philosophy, from those that were displeased with his speaking out against the Vietnam War, and from those that worked with him in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference that felt he was spreading himself thin taking on African-American rights, poverty, and anti-war issues. An interesting thing that I learned from the film was the work of J. Edgar Hoover at the FBI to discredit Dr. King, labeling him a communist and morally bankrupt in his personal life. However, the most compelling part of the documentary was the highlighting of Dr. King’s spiritual struggle. He made jokes about assassination to his colleagues, expressed anger with himself and his colleagues that they were not doing enough, developed a tic, and expressed his thoughts that he would not live very long. In the end, according to the documentary, he had come to terms with death and no longer feared what was inevitable.
In history books, the lives of social justice heroes are often cut down to what is “inspirational” and deemed “important”. However, according to our Catholic faith, suffering is often an essential part of our life in Christ. It is in those moments that there are great “fruits”. I think it is important to remind students that everyone struggles. The spiritual struggle can be one of the hardest to endure but they are not alone. Even those who they see the face of Christ in so easily, have had periods of anger, doubt, and “nothingness” in their spiritual journey.
Love showing a documentary and having a student say thank you because she learned something completely new, shed some tears, and wants to watch it again!
I remember what it was like to be a highschool student, overwhelmed with the social pressures and the academic rigor of a Catholic Prep school. As a student, project due dates and test dates were just a part of life. I never would have complained or protested. But I also never remember my teachers asking if we had other tests or projects due in other classes that matched with their class. Now that I am a teacher, I always laugh when I overhear students talking about teachers “planning” their due dates to match up as if we have the time, energy, or desire to “plot against” them.
Today, I reminded my junior students that our Unit Test was Friday and was immediately met with mouths agape and groans. I asked students to raise their hands if they have other tests that day, and of course most of my students had hands up. What followed was not a discussion full of complaints, whining, or negativity towards teachers. Instead, I asked questions. I asked what subjects. I asked if they preferred Friday or would like the test moved to Monday. I let them vote by hand raising; to no avail as most students didn’t want to be held responsible for a hand for an unpopular choice or me shooting them down.
The vote wasn’t conclusive. I decided to give them a detailed timeline of what our classes will look like this week and what the structure of the test would be, assuring them that there would be test review. And guess what? They are taking their test on Friday.
I gave them options. I gave them reassurance and support. They chose their own adventure, which coincidentally turned out to be the original plan. But they feel better about it, and I am going to cross my fingers that their test grades reflect that!
