Birthday

My Period D class threw me a surprise birthday party first period. They brought in drinks, cookies, cake, cupcakes, brownies, and more. They even went to the Vice Principal to ask for permission to throw the party because they didn't want me to get in trouble.

It was great, never saw it coming.

Business Cards!

So March 20, was the last time I updated this thing. Sorry.

Since then, did a unit on the 1950s where we talked all about communism, the Soviet Union, conformity, and so on. We watched an episode of “Leave it to Beaver” and compared the family structure and values to that of “Everybody Loves Raymond”. The kids really got it and latched on to the idea of conformity and really understood what it meant and how it shaped the time period.

Using conformity as a jumping off point, we went into our next unit of the 1960s. We spent about a week and a half on Civil Rights with a look at Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Black Panthers. Some of my kids freaked out when I told them how Rosa Parks was actually an NAACP officer and her protest on the bus had been planned and organized weeks in advance. One student yelled at me, “you just ruined my childhood! I thought she was this average lady … and now this! I can’t believe this, this changes everything!”

I finished up our section on Civil Rights by talking about civil rights in the 21^st century, so I did a whole day on North Africa and the Middle East with a focus on Egypt and Libya. Some of the kids were pumped to be learning about stuff that had just happened or was happening as we were learning about it.

Some other kids freaked out, “wait we’re in 2011 now? What happened to Vietnam? Why did we just skip all that stuff in history, this is ridiculous.” I guess they didn’t see the connections between the 60s and today, but they got it eventually.

Here’s a link to that presentation I gave if you want to check it out …

https://prezi.com/secure/b19dc562d64e742c107bb2a0482b5a6bfde18a70/

After the Civil Rights, and a break for April Vacation (which is pretty much the greatestinvention ever), we started our Politics section of the 1960ss unit. We learned about the Kennedys, the assassinations, the Space Race, Lyndon Johnson and the start of the Vietnam, and a whole lesson dedicated to 1968. (Here’s the Space Race presentation, I thought the bit about the monkeys was funny … my kids didn’t https://prezi.com/secure/ad6831a2db8f2582991a94169011ad9ce2b47993/ )

After all of that was wrapped up, we finished off the unit with a week long look into the counterculture of the 1960s. The whole time of the section, I never put notes on the board. All we did in class was look at pictures, watch videos, listen to music, and talk about what was going on; sort of a “countercultural” approach to teaching. But they really caught on and appreciated it.

At the end of each section I gave a quiz (ourunit test is going to be on Monday) generally the grades were in the mid to low 80s for the Civil Rights and Politics sections, but the average on the hippies quiz was a 95. So clearly the kids bought in and really got it (or my quiz was way too easy)

For part of the hippies section, the kids had to create a concert poster for a sixties band. Some of them were amazing; I took this picture to give you an idea.

For a summation of the 1960s the kids had to make video projects, they came out really good but for privacy purposes I’m not going to post any here. But take my word, they’re good.

In other news, school is coming to a close. The seniors last dayis next Thursday before their exams begin. Most of my classes won’t be affected by seniors leaving but I do have a few of them mixed in with my juniors. Otherwise, as part of staff appreciation week, the administration gave all the staff business cards (I’m legit now) and a notepad with “From the desk of [name]” so that’s pretty cool.

We had Prom two weekends ago, it was fun. Weird being a chaperone but still fun. One of my classes organized everyone together and got the photographers to get a Period B class picture. That was cool, I’m gonna hold onto that picture forever.

Also, boys tennis, which I’m assistant coaching, is now 9-2 (oursecond lost which was yesterday was against a really good team we only play to make us better – we pretty much knew we were going to lose but it was good competition). And also, we have the chance to be conference co-champions after one of our matches next week. It would be the first time in 7 years tennis got to put a banner up in the gym. That would be an impressive resume for the first year as a coach (although I don’t do much).

Beyond that, I’ll try to keep this updated but nothing really is happening lately.