More reasons I love this school

So I missed the actual 'performance' but fortunately, the event was captured on film.




That's my Principal.... in an eagle costume.... riding a unicycle.... handing out Halloween candy.... before school today.

I absolutely love this place.

Random Acts of Art

Continuing in my "things I love about this school" series is a post I have been wanting to add for a while. I called it, "random acts of art". You never know when some new art project may appear in this school and despite being barely a month into the year, we already have some new installations.


This is in a stairwell to the 4th floor no one ever uses. Mostly made of wood, it is an interesting collection.


This is actually a holdover from last year. Its actually about 6' tall and in the back of the school. It's seen better days but completely random.



This is the mobile collection on the 1st floor. There are about 2 dozen or so individual mobiles. This so far has been on of my favorites.

Close-up of one of the mobiles. I like this one a lot.

I think this is a lion but I'm not entirely sure. He sits next to the stairs on the 1st floor near the main office. He's been there since some time last year. I wonder how long he'll last.

These random art projects are just one more thing that makes this a very cool place to work.

Back to School

There is something very cool about the first few days before classes begin. Yesterday and today the incoming freshmen have been wandering the building (guided to some extent) trying to figure out where all of their classes are. I love watching freshmen in particular because they have this lost/excited/scared look about them. They're starting high school and have no idea what's in store for them.

I have to say that I am very excited to get back to work. Its a good feeling and a nice change. I was always excited about starting a new year at my old school but there were always reservations - little things that I dreaded about going back. Not so here. The vibe in the faculty meeting yesterday morning as we started the year was very energetic and cool. We have some new faces in our merry little band and I think this is going to be a very good year.

It is amazing to work in a place that has so many dedicated professionals.

New Year, New Challenges

So I'm supposed to be on summer vacation, better known as July break. We have effectively 3.5 weeks off until its back to work. So what have I been doing with my summer vacation? I'm spending a good amount of it preparing to teach Economics next year.

I keep thinking next year when I should be thinking 'next month'. Its not a lot of time to prepare for a course I've never taught before but as I've been working on the curriculum, I've been getting more interested in the topic. Its going to be a fun challenge I think. The key is going to be making it interesting to the kids. I have to make sure I don't rely too heavily on the textbook. I think I've found some tools on iTunes I can use. I've also got some ideas about projects.

My other course, History of Chicago, is outlined but I have a lot to do on that one also. The next several weeks are going to be spent working. Fortunately I have a little break going to DC but other than that, planning, planning, and more planning.

End of the year drawing near

This week is final exams here at Lindblom Math & Science Academy and the last full week of our academic year. This has been an amazing experience for me overall and I'm even more excited for next year as I was for this year.

I think I did fairly well teaching "up" from my previous experience. It was of course a multi-faceted challenge. I had to adjust to block scheduling and the balanced calendar. I taught US History; a course I've never taught before. I had to teach all of my classes at the honors level. I had to adjust to a new school culture, learn new faces and names, and learn to trust that I am in a supportive and professional faculty where I don't need to fear the whims of those in power.

I'm very pleased with how my students have done overall. I think the majority of my sophomores are prepared for advanced history electives. I think most of my freshmen have developed strong study and research skills and are ready for Honors US History. I certainly hope my students are better aware of current events after all the quizzes I gave them this year.

Next year promises to be as challenging as this one. To start, I am teaching Economics; a class I have never taught before. I have a lot of studying to do to get ready for that class. Fortunately, another teacher is also teaching Econ and I can rely on some of his experience. It will be a challenge but I'm taking a positive view that I might be able to do it really well. I also get to teach History of Chicago which I am really looking forward to. Teaching two electives to mostly juniors and seniors will be a great experience here I think.

I am so very thankful that I landed this position here. I can't think of a better environment to be teaching in. I can't wait to see what happens next.

Senior Prank Day at Lindblom Math & Science Academy!

This morning I arrived at school and while walking down the hall I overhear one student say, "should we warn Mr. Silva?" I say, "warn me about what?" They say, "never mind..." I walk into my classroom and this is the scene.

Every single chair in my classroom, including my desk chair is gone. Students in the hallway laughing their butts off. I go next door to Kari's room;

Turns out, every single chair, in every classroom have been removed. We don't know where they are. The students say they're not outside anywhere. They're not in the ballroom. Their not in either of the gyms. So I go across the hall to the History Office to see if one of the spare chairs is in their. It is...

Along with several dozen other chairs. Then I hear the students say they found some in the women's faculty bathroom. I decide to check the men's faculty bathroom.

There's probably several hundred chairs in this bathroom alone. Good thing classes don't start until 10:00 am this morning. So far it's a good prank. Non-destructive, non-harmful, well executed. The final judgement will be how the seniors get our chairs back in our classrooms.

Game on Seniors. Game on.

Things I Love About My School Cont'd

Its not unusual to find students in a Chicago high school throwing dice and exchanging money. Kids have been doing it since, according to one teacher, "back in the day". So it was no suprise when walking down the hall this morning to hear the telltale sound of dice hitting the floor and a kid shouting "you owe me $20!" What did surprise me was the game.

Spongebob Squarepants Monopoly (TM)

Seriously. There was a crowd of at least 10 kids intensely engaged in what appeared to be a highly-competitive game of Monopoly. Somehow it has turned into both a team and spectator sport. I often marvel at their nerdiness. Its kind of cool but there is no way any of them can claim to be tough, not after you've argued over who gets the "Mr. Krabs" game piece.

Planning for next year

One of the things I love the most about where I teach is that we are very forward thinking. Our faculty always seems to be reflecting, analyzing, and brainstorming ways to improve our school. Just yesterday I sat down for over an hour with Molly and Joe talking about how we're going to teach freshman World Studies next year. We pretty much have the course curriuculum mapped out - now we're going to figure out the skills we want to focus on and design a project-based final for the courses. It was a great meeting and I was a little awed by their energy. I had put a little thought into it but they clearly had been working on this for a while. I clearly have some catching up to do.

The other big priority is getting my mentees back on track for their reflective portfolio. We have a meeting scheduled for this morning where we're going to discuss the portfolio requirements and what they need to work on for it. I'm taking over Kayley's mentees while she's on maternity leave so I have three I'm working with now. Should be a challenge but fun especially since I'm doing my own portfolio for grad school.

Trimester Going Well

Things have been going very well so far this last trimester. My students predominantly have been working very hard. They're not very happy with me given the amount of writing I'm having them do but they'll live. The term has been going by fast.

This coming week is the ACT/PSAE for juniors. We're sending them to U of C to take the tests and the rest of our students have regular days. This is unusual because most Chicago schools given everyone those two days off. Being in a school that places such a high value on every day of school is very cool indeed.

Its also been very cool preparing for next year. At my old school, we wouldn't begin talking about the next academic year until about August. I already know what I'm teaching and an approx number of students I'll have. We have our calendar all ready to go and we've alreadt ordered books.

Its a huge relief to be in a completely professional school that knows what its doing.

3rd trimester begins

Tomorrow is the beginning of 3rd trimester for us - that means 3 straight months with little time off. Its going to be an intense academic period for both teachers and students. We have a lot of things to get done. For my sophomores it means a lot more research and writing. For my freshmen it means learning to do intensive research and how to write a history paper.

We start this term with "What is Culture?" for US History and "The Development of Written Language" for World Studies. Both cool topics I'm looking forward to covering.

March Break Almost Over

This is week 2 of our 3-week March intercession. I wish I could say it has been entirely a break. Last week and this coming week are being taken up by debate prep. We have the final tournament of the season this weekend - the Chicago Debate League City Championship. It was originally supposed to be a DePaul University's downtown campus but has been moved to Chicago Vocational Career Academy on the far southeast side. The kids have been working their butts off preparing and I feel very confident of their success. This is a major tournament for us and I hope the work pays off.

Otherwise, I'm also deep in planning for third trimester. The kids don't know it yet, but there are significant writing assignments in their future. Should be fun.

History Fair and end of 2nd Trimester

The great Lindblom History Fair has begun! I have many projects that have been completed including several papers and documentaries. As expected, there are a few excellent projects and quite a few that are, well, not so excellent. It seems that many of these projects turn out so that it is a nice looking board with some great visuals and whatnot but very little in the way of historical analysis and interpetation.

One of the things I stressed most was that each project had to answer the "so what?" test. When I look at an exhibit's topic, I need to have the answer. I need to know why the topic is historically important and what the impact is. Many of these projects come oh so close but just fall short of that benchmark.

I'm in the process of grading all of these projects, which count as the final exam grade for this trimester. We'll see how students grades fare after this. I have a feeling there will be some very disappointed young people after the grades are entered. What will be interesting though is showing all the parents the projects this Friday on report card pickup night.

You know you're getting old when...

So Sharon scored two tickets to the Metallica concert tonight at the Allstate Arena. The band donates proceeds from ticket sales and whatnot to Feeding America and she's going to meet and thank the rep from the band on behalf of her organization. I'm along for the ride since no one else in her office wanted to go. But that's not what makes me feel old.

One of my first thoughs was, "what does one wear to a Metallica concert?" How freakin' lame is that?!?! I don't know who goes to Metallica these days - I'm only vaguely familiar with their latest album but, really, do I need to worry about what I wear. But wait, it gets better.

I mentioned it to one of my colleagues and a couple of students overheard. One girl said, "YOU?!?! You're going to Metallica?!?!" Like it was the funniest thing she had heard in years.

Oh well. I'm going to have fun anyway and stay up past my bedtime rockin' with Metallica and she'll be doing homework.

So there.

Web Site Redesign

So I finally finished a project that I've been meaning to get to for a while - the redesign of my main web site. Previously, I had to edit all of the pages individually and mange everything. Today, I took the redesign live. I chose to use a package called WordPress for the new site. Rather than needing to use an HTML editor and upload individual files, this package manages all of that for me. Its a great content management system and will hopefully make things easier to update and manage.

It took a bit of programming and migrating the content from the old files to the new system but I think it is a much cleaner and easier to use system. Hopefully my kids will find it to.

New Year, New Post

Things have been busy since the last time I posted. We've had a lot of time off of late with the November intercession break and winter vacation. So far this new year has had some interesting things going on.

Two of my students got to go to Washington, DC for the inauguration. They won an essay contest of some kind and I think they'll be back today. They promised lots of pictures and full updates for the class. Most students watched the inauguration live in Keeler Hall. Reports from other teachers say that most of the kids were really into it. Apparently when someone at the inauguration asked the crowd to stand, most of the kids stood as well. Amazing.

I unfortunately missed all of that. I was listening to the speech on a car radio while driving in a funeral procession. Sharon's uncle passed away and we were in New Jersey for that. My kids keep coming in today demanding to know why I wasn't in school yesterday. I'm trying to be understanding but its getting on my nerves a little. I had promised them we would order pizza and make a party out of it. Oh well, they can learn to live with small disappointments. They're also mad because I left a ton of work for them.

In the last several weeks I have been thinking about my own time in high school. Later this year is my 20 year reunion. I have been reconnecting, mostly through Facebook, with many of my classmates. Some people I haven't spoken to since we left Morse HS. Its kind of cool to see where everyone is 20 years later. Its also nice to reconnect with long lost friends.

Anyway, new year and hopefully a new effort to keep this up. We'll see how that works out.