Greetings,

If you're viewing this page, you might be a parent, guardian, or 8th-grade Dunkirk Middle School student, or college student enrolled in my Fredonia State course. I sincerely welcome you all to my classroom, or more appropriately, my digital classroom. Here, you'll find every resource I provide, every policy I enforce, and every lesson plan and material I teach during the year. I encourage you to read deeply, click curiously, and explore the farthest reaches of this site. It represents my life's work, and as such it evolves as rapidly as my learning in the field of education.

I bid you my sincerest welcome.

Mr. Karpie

Enjoy the images of my classroom above. It's a great place to hang out and learn. If those images pique your interest, click the image below to take an in-depth, digital field trip of my classroom complete with explanations of the reasoning behind its spartan aesthetic.

This week's news: 8th Grade ELA

Take a moment to enjoy these images of our top ten team ELA students! 

Sarah: 100%
Hazel: 99%
Eddy: 96%
Cor'dell: 94%
Emilee: 93%
Kayden: 92%
Elijah: 92%
Shyla: 91%
Lisbell: 91%
Lily: 91%

Unconscious Bias Unit: History Week

Unconscious Bias Unit

Our second week is focused on the historical significance of inequality. While most of the unit focuses on the current iterations of unconscious bias, it's important that students make the connection to the texts dating back to the 1860's, when women and minorities were already asking for the same kinds equality that they're still fighting to enjoy today. We'll use three differentiated passages depending on our students' reading level, and utilize some jigsaw methodology to share an accurate picture of the history of inequality in our country.

Runner's World Bias Connections

Please don't think that I am promoting this magazine issue in an effort to make any kind of money. The 300ish people who view my website each week would have no impact on Runners World's bottom line.

Armed with the knowledge shared from the issue to the left, I enjoyed the Syracuse 1/2 Marathon through an entirely new perspective about running equality on 11/10/2019.

Obviously, Runners World magazine has been reading my website, and is aware that our 8th-grade unconscious bias unit is in its infancy. The magazine decided to devote its most recent issue to the inherent inequality between male and female runners (mostly based on relative safety, but also based on body image, shaming, objectifying, etc.) 

While many of the stories border on the "adult content" side of inequality between men and women, there are some real statistics, some real stories, and some advice that can help us avoid the "toxic masculinity" that both causes and doesn't help to end the unequal treatment of female runners in our country. 

At first, I thought to strongly recommend the link to the left to the parents of female athletes, then I realized that really defeats the whole point - everyone should read these stories, especially the parents of male middle school students who can end the harassment of women on the run once they grow into men.

Extra Credit Opportunity:

Any student interested in pairing any of the articles shared in the issue above with any of our close read tools will enjoy extra credit early this marking period. These articles share important, real-life stories of inequality, but as a runner, and avid advocate for gender equality, it would be absurdly self indulgent to include them in the main texts of our Unconscious Bias unit.

The Interdisciplinary Educator Blog

Read

I maintain an education-based blog to chronicle my learning.

All the writing in the field of education is done by educational researchers at universities, who don't teach real students, or text-book and education-software corporations, who don't teach real students.

I believe that teaching real students is important when claiming to understand how to teach real students.

If you agree, click the link or button above to read my blog.