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Here is this week's update video, where I just might have learned a Tik Tok dance and recruited a guest AHS teacher for a cameo...
(But seriously, I'd love more student involvement with these so if you want to send me a contribution for next week's update, go crazy and create something to make your classmates laugh, or provide them with some inspiration. Email me the file by noon on this Thursday!) Written Update I know this week may have brought another round of roller coaster emotions as you received the board's decision to continue "home-based learning" (shout out to Libby for that phrase) through the rest of the school year. Many of you likely saw that coming, but even so, it is a tough pill to swallow. I'm holding you all in my heart and mind as we move through this school year together, apart. I know we'll find a way to celebrate you all in true Osprey fashion and I can't wait to do so at the end of May, seeing the culmination of a semester (four years, really) of hard work in your TED Talks, final action projects, and the moment you all walk across that stage, in whatever form that stage will ultimately take. Alright, before I get all teary eyed and fry my keyboard and tick Dusty off, here's this week's update, which is 95% a repeat of last week's! 1. Send me a photo of you working on your action project! And, if you want to contribute to next week's video update, see my note above. 2. Thesis Refinements: For those of you who still have time, remember that thesis re-submissions are due 1 week after you receive an email with your rubric and comments from your Humanities teacher. Remember, the thesis is 50% of your overall Humanities grade and thus has a big impact! 3. See pages 1-3 of this document for a senior project calendar for April and May-- it includes action project and TED Talk dates 4. Action Project
The senior teaching team met on Tuesday, 4/21 to discuss TED Talk format. We will continue working together this week to dial in our expectations for a virtual TED Talk format and work on preparing lessons for you all to help you succeed. We'll communicate all that out in next week's Update but if you have any thoughts/suggestions about TED Talk format and how best to teach/prepare you all for them, please reach out to me asap! TED Talk prep will start Wed., May 6th and run through Thursday, May 14th. Presentations will likely run between Friday, May 15th and Friday, May 22nd. Again, more specifics to come next week. Keep crushing it, Class of 2020! Helllooooooo Seniors!
Here is this week's video update, where I attempt to learn a Tik Tok dance, update y'all on this week's assignments, and go over the senior project calendar for the rest of the school year! Read on for more info and links! We're rolling into the fourth week of online learning, the third week of action project work time, and we've got a whole lot to be grateful for. "What's that, Ashley?" You ask. Well, students, y'all have teachers who care about you all to the moon and back again, administrators who are working around the clock to make sure they are finding the best ways to support students and teachers alike amidst less than ideal conditions, open spaces in which we can explore, adventure, seek solitude, exercise, calm the nervous system, get perspective, breathe fresh air, learn Tik Tok dances, you name it, and lastly, you have meaningful work vis a vis your action projects, to devote your time and energy amidst a time when many people are struggling with how to be productive and contributing members of society. So without further adieu, I bring you this week's update 1. Thesis Refinements: For those of you who still have time, remember that thesis re-submissions are due 1 week after you receive an email with your rubric and comments from your Humanities teacher. Remember, the thesis is 50% of your overall Humanities grade and thus has a big impact! 2. See pages 1-3 of this document for a senior project calendar for April and May-- it includes action project and TED Talk dates 3. Action Project
The senior teaching team is meeting this Tuesday, April 21st to discuss TED Talks and we'll share more information starting the week of April 27th. TED Talk prep will likely happen starting Wed., May 6th and run through Thursday, May 14th. Presentations will likely run between Friday, May 15th and Friday, May 22nd. Again, more specifics to come next week. Week #3 Video Update
Check out this week's video update, with special guests, Robbie Patla and Sailor Kabeary! You don't want to miss this one, folks! We've got sage words of advice from your fellow Ospreys, the weekly update and me in ridiculous costumes doing ridiculous things to try to hold your attention, and be "hip" with the teenagers these days. Check it out! Also, let's just appreciate my refinement from the first video (flashback to me with the bad hair day and absolutely zero attempt at editing, to this gem, which is still horrid, but at least a huge step up). ***************** Here is what you need to know in written form: 1. Senior Thesis:
2. Action Project:
3. Calling for photos of you working on your action project! Please email me a photo of you working on your senior project so I can put together a slideshow of y'all to reassure each of us that we're all in this together! 4. Video Contributions: If you want to contribute ideas or footage for next week's update, hit me up! Lastly, just a reminder to stay in touch! If you're encountering any challenges, reach out to whichever AHS teacher/staff member you have the best relationship with. Don't isolate yourself! ********************* And finally, here is the written version of what I said in the linked video if you'd prefer to read rather than watch: I know you’re probably expecting me to share strategies for staying focused, ways to create schedules and routines, ideas for structuring your time, being disciplined, getting stuff done, etc…. However, I want to say two things instead. First, to reassure you that YOU’VE GOT THIS and Second to talk about the difference between managing your time for productivity, and spending your time meaningfully. For the first point, you’ve got this. I know it is hard it is to stay motivated when all of your routines and normal accountability measures (namely me and your other teachers hovering over your shoulder, flicking your ear when we see you playing a video game or snapchatting in class). I know you may secretly wish that we were still right there, forcing you to keep working but you’ve got this! There is a scene from Cormac McCarthy’s dystopian novel about a post-apocalyptic world where a father and son are traveling alone through the wilderness, trying to survive. At one point, the follow conversation between the father and son transpires: “You have to carry the fire.” “I don’t know how to” Yes, you do Is the fire real? Yes it is Where is it? I don’t know where it is Yes you do. It’s inside you. It always was there. I can see it”. Secondly, the difference between productive time and meaningful time. “Action absorbs anxiety”. But not action in the form of busyness for the sake of busyness, nor action to merely stay in motion and distract ourselves from boredom or pain. In fact, if covid-19 has taught us anything, it is to slow down, look inward, reflect on what wasn’t working with the way we as individuals and as a collective were moving through the world prior to this pandemic. However, what this mantra (action absorbs anxiety) means to me is the way in which intentional action, and action in service of others, action to combat injustices, no matter how small they are—the injustice that your elderly neighbor can’t safely shop for their own food, or the injustice of insufficient medical supplies for healthcare workers. This type of action in service of others takes you out of yourself, it engages you in meaningful work, and that anxiety you may feel creep in subtly in the moments when you’re between tasks, the moment when you first wake up in the morning, before you start your day, the moment between finishing your math assignment and before you decide what to focus on next, that subtle anxiety that is perhaps a response to the uncertainty of these times, perhaps a response to a nagging sense of “how should I spend my time so as to be “productive” today?” well, action in service of others might just abate or absorb that anxiety. And rather than wonder “was I productive” today, perhaps you can answer , “I spent my time meaningfully” For after all, what does productive mean? Don’t we all just want to feel like the way we’re spending these finite days on earth is spent meaningfully? And so, I’ll end with a short poem by Pablo Neruda, written in the early 1900s but is super relevant to what we’re all experiencing now. I offer the poem as an invitation to use this time to slow down, not for the sake of Inactivity or Inaction or sloth dome, but for the sake of reflection of what habits, practices, routines ,mindsets that you think are ingrained in your being were not really serving YOU or others, and consider how we can come together in this sudden strangeness and be more intentional about how you spend your time. Because it is like a currency. The most valuable one we have. 12 Seconds By Pablo Neruda Now we will count to twelve and we will all keep still for once on the face of the earth, let's not speak in any language; let's stop for a second, and not move our arms so much. It would be an exotic moment without rush, without engines; we would all be together in a sudden strangeness. Fishermen in the cold sea would not harm whales and the man gathering salt would not look at his hurt hands. Those who prepare green wars, wars with gas, wars with fire, victories with no survivors, would put on clean clothes and walk about with their brothers in the shade, doing nothing. What I want should not be confused with total inactivity. Life is what it is about... If we were not so single-minded about keeping our lives moving, and for once could do nothing, perhaps a huge silence might interrupt this sadness of never understanding ourselves and of threatening ourselves with death. Now I'll count up to twelve and you keep quiet and I will go. THIS WEEK'S ASSIGNMENT CHECKLIST
THESIS: Submit your thesis by Monday, 4/6 at 11:59pm Share with your Humanities teacher and your SPA. THE RUBRICS!!! Read them, know them, love them: ACTION PROJECT: Shift focus to your action project!
The Essential Documents Explained (Watch THIS SCREENCAST if you want to listen to my British cousin from Yorkshire explain the contents of these documents) Cohort Advisor Assignments
Action Project Guide
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Ashley CarruthHumanities teacher at Animas High School Archives
May 2021
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