Kevin Brookhouser

One of the several unpopular assignments I force upon my students is the Sophomore Speech. I am capitalizing Sophomore Speech because it has become a thing at our school … a proper thing. Every single one of my 10th grade students is required to write a personal essay and convert it into a speech to be delivered in front of the entire school during our assembly period we call Break. The word speech has fallen out of fashion these days. It’s much cooler to give a talk than a speech, but talk doesn’t alliterate with sophomore . I guess I could have called them 10th Grade Talks, but as I said, the Sophomore Speech is a thing, so I’m going with it. Of course, I don’t win many votes for Most Popular Teacher of the Year when I announce this assignment to my students. Most members of our species tend to avoid public speaking whenever possible, and you won’t be surprised to hear that some students consider this the waterboard of English assignments. “Mr. Brookhouser, I real...

Each October at York, we host a day where students bring their grandparents and family friends to school. For almost ten years on this day, I have been having my students take part in Story Corps , a national program where people record interviews of friends and family. Students get the questions by going through the Story Corps Question Generator . I purposely do not record video of the interviews because I believe people are more willing to express themselves without a video camera pointed at them. So I record the interviews with GarageBand, edit the audio with still photos using Camtasia , and upload the full interviews as an unlisted videos in YouTube. Students can archive these recordings and pass them down to their own children and grandchildren. This might be my single favorite thing we do in my classroom. Here's a short sample of the interviews.

On Sunday I head up to Burlingame (or if you're gullible and from out of town, "San Francisco") to work with a team of educators to develop a new curriculum at the University of California Curriculum Integration Institute. The UCCI Institutes bring together educators from around the state to collaborate on the creation of model high school courses that anchor traditional academic learning in real-world experience, by integrating career technical education (CTE) with “a-g” subjects. UCCI Insitute courses are designed to be rigorous and relevant, to keep students engaged in learning and to prepare them for college and career success. I will serve on a team creating an advanced digital storytelling course. This looks like a great opportunity to expand the scope of traditional English classes beyond just literary analysis and creative writing through a UC approved venue. I am impressed by the integrated courses developed by previous UCCI teams . What great digital st...