Today was a pretty cool day. My students have been working on their 5th Six Week's Video Project for about 5 weeks. They were itching to present them and to show the class. All were GREAT. It is amazing that they get better and better every year. But, technology and the human mind keeps advancing.
Don't let people convince you that kids get worse and more stupid every year. It is simply not true. I find that each year I teach the students are more engaged, philanthropic and have more of a sense of service to their community. I know people are going to read this and think I am diluted. It is simply my world and my observation and it is true of the students that I am very lucky to have.
Today at the end of one a video about Malaria (it kills a person in Africa every 30 seconds), the kids had a bit of fun:
The two students who were presenting had a message to the kids, donate to Nothingbutnets.net to help send nets to African families. $10 can get a net for a family. It saves lives.
Then they had a slide with a caption: "Because we all know mosquitoes are not as friendly as we think." (yep that's me. the class busted out laughing)
I put this together for a training that we are doing in April. It's a bit of "Fresh Air" or an Ice breaker between parts of our training. It is called "What Do Teachers Make?" I adapted it from an email that made the rounds a few years ago. What do you think?
I put this together tonight. I'm going to show it as an "ice breaker" or "fresh air" during my 2 day AVID training next month. It was originally an email that was sent to me a bunch of times by teachers a few years ago. I converted it to a power point, but it really works better in a video.
Friday is Halloween. And we were studying the Roman empire and more specifically the "Roman Soldier." I took advantage of the day...
We had a good time Friday as we learned about the life of a Roman Soldier in class.
The kid's reactions were pretty funny! Some went crazy. Others looked at me like I was just appearing to them as the very same guy with a tie and shirt on like every day. Weird.
Today was a really great day. We had a block or 90 minute class period day. (We do on Wed/Thu) So I showed about 10 minutes of NBC Nightly News last night to catch students up on the election. There was also a great story about the war in Afghanistan. Gripping viewing. Then I introduced our Religion Project and Chapter 5 - The Roman Empire.
For the last 1/2 hour we did "Philosophical Chairs." It is just another reason I love AVID. I learned Philosophical Chairs through my training as an AVID elective teacher. The process works like this, you raise a question for debate that has two choices. The students write their response on a piece of paper and then they take a side of the classroom and debate ensues.
There are 5 simple rules:
1 - Stay in the hot seat (or undecided seats) for only 1 minute
2 - Repeat or Rephrase what the last person said
3 - Wait 3 seconds until that person is finished to be sure they are done with their comment.
4 - You must wait until the 4th person to speak again. (generally speaking, someone on your side must speak before you can speak again. the comments move like ping-pong back and forth)
5 - Move your 5 toes and get your feet walking. You show support for comments made not by talking, but by moving from your side of the room to theirs. It does not mean you have completely changed your mind, you just are giving them support for their argument.
The question today was, "Where would you rather live - Athens or Sparta?" This is such a compelling question. The kids really get into it. We have already investigated the roles of men and women in both societies and we took our test on the chapter yesterday. So today they were really ready to debate.
Our building principal came in during 5th period today. She stood wide-eyed as the students went back and forth about the question. The bell rang and I sprinted to the door to collect their notes and reflections. She told me later that students walked by her while I was waiting in the hall and said, "I just LOVE this class!" One of the students gave me her sheet and said, "This is such a great class... my favorite ever." It was from a young lady who was so much trouble for me at the beginning of the year. I almost started to cry. It really got to me and made me feel good.
I am really lucky to be a teacher. It is such a rewarding and incredible job. Using Philosophical Chairs
