"What are we doing today?"

So not having the skype chat really messed me up today for some periods. I was supposed to watch the video of the skype chat in four of my classes today, but no video led to some issues.

In three of the classes I handled it well. We went over the homework in full detail, I brought in different crafts and objects from the reservation to show off and pass around, and we began hashing out the major points in a class debate that was going to happen the next time the class met.

In my fourth class, things did not go as well. This class met an extra time last week so they already went over that homework, already had the class debate (which went really well), and did not have anything due today. I couldn't give them their chapter quiz early because (1) they already had a pop quiz this chapter - and this was a big quiz any way, and (2) I didn't get my copies back from the people who photocopy everything for the teachers yet.

So in class, I talked about what happened with the skype chat and why it didn't save (or evaporated is more like it - it legitimately just disappeared as the computer was trying to save the recording), we talked about the major points of the skype chat and how it went in general, I passed around the crafts and objects and we talked about them for a little while, and we went over what the quiz would be on. Then came the dreaded question from a student, "so what are we doing today? just this." To answer the question directly, Yes. But I couldn't say that to them. So I strung them along for a little while and talked about other things, but they could see I didn't really have anything planned for today.

That was fun. But then they started asking questions about the notes and I was able to use the next few minutes in class being articulate and knowledgeable for the students - it proved I wasn't a complete idiot.

We'll see how tomorrow goes.