TESTS!

My last unit test, the class averages were in the low 70s somewhere. The kids were really upset about their grades, and even more upset with me for the fact that I didn't scale them.

I'm in the process of grading this unit's tests right now. As of the first three classes, the averages are in the high 80s. I'm wicked proud.

What is even better is who is getting the top scores in each class. For example, in my Period C class the same guy and girl keep trading off for the best grade on tests. This time they got 2nd and 3rd and the top score came from a really quiet kid who was struggling last semester with a grade in the 70s.

In my Period D class, the girl who normally gets the best grade by far didn't even make it into the Top 5 grades (she got at 91% so don't be worried). But it just shows the rest of the class is really trying. The girl who got the 2nd highest score was also in the 70s last semester. And the best story of them all, the boy who tied for the 4th best score had a 57% average last quarter.

I must be doing something right.

Question

During the debates, one of my students posed a question that was knowingly off topic. I thought it was intriguing.

What would happen if Pinocchio were to say "my nose is going to grow right now"?

Debate

Yesterday and today we had a debate in class on whether or not we (the US) should have dropped the atomic bombs on Japan in 1945.

In some classes, the debates went well. I was really impressed with the effort and the research they put into their arguments. Other debates were not so good.

One group argued the atomic bomb should not have been dropped because the radiation from the explosion mutated the people in the cities -- thus creating the Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles

Another group's concluding statement was as follows:

"To put it in relatable terms, Japan is like Mr. [my last name]'s beard. If we had not come in and shaved it then it would have grown and continued this terrible war. If we had not done what we did then his beard, AKA 'America', would not be the way it is today. It ended the war and all the additional deaths that would have occurred."

wow. my beard was just called America.

another group started their debate,

"I want everyone to close their eyes. Picture you are in a field. It's a huge field, full of colorful flowers. It's a bright, sunny, and warm day. Now picture you're lying in the field, surrounded by hundreds of cute puppies. Now imagine they are all dead ... that is what the bomb did."

teaching is weird.

WWII

On Monday we started our next unit: WWII. I have really planned this one out, and although it doesn't have many activities, I'm pretty happy with what we are going to be doing.

On monday we started with Pearl Harbor, then for homework the kids read FDR's "day of infamy' speech and compared it to President Bush's speech after 9/11. It went pretty well, I would have wanted a little more discussion, but I was happy with the classes.

Tuesday we went a little back in time and did a whole lesson on Hitler's rise to power. The kids seemed really attentive and wanted to learn a lot about him. I wish I knew the answers to all of their questions, but I was able to hold me own.

Today we talked about the European Theater and five major battles. It was a lot of notes today, but for the most part the kids were receptive.

For homework tonight, the kids are reading a speech by Heinrich Himmler about concentration camps, and then the testimony of the commander of Auschwitz during the Nuremburg trials. We are going to have an in-class text based discussion tomorrow and for homework they're going to be reading an excerpt from "Night."

My hope is that the students will be able to see the huge contrast in the ways the different parties talk about concentration camps, the demeanor, tone, and language will be very different. Hopefully it will spark a good discussion in class.