Day 21- "Do you want to play a game?" War Games

White Mondays...what a way to start the week. Actually, this Monday wasn't bad because I planned it that way. Also, I discovered that when a white or black day falls on a Monday, I only really have 3 days of lessons to prepare. I guess there is my silver lining.

Today, my senior classes played Jeopardy (well, except my first class, which was a repeat of citing sources from Friday) for bonus points. The classes seemed to really enjoy the game and review, and they did a good job with their knowledge of the subject material. At times, I felt like I was in a SNL skit with a class full of "Sean Connery", even though no one in any of my classes has seen that skit (which saddened me beyond words). I had one question on grammar errors that one answered correctly all day, which was a catch-22 for me. I was happy I stumped them, but disappointed they weren't able to figure it out. I played a little mind game with them on Final Jeopardy and actually had the answer on the wall at the front of the room, which only one group found out. Sometimes, the best way to hide something is in plain sight. After Jeopardy, we did the marathon writing activity until the end of class. The students really got into the writing this time with topics such as "It isn't fair...", "It really annoys me when...", and "My biggest pet peeve is...". One of the prompts was "A day I'll never forget", and a student shared about the day her friend committed suicide. The class was dead silent after this, and I wasn't really sure how to proceed. I thanked her for sharing that event from her life, and then I moved on to the selection of the next prompt. I think it's really cool that she felt comfortable enough in class to share a writing that personal, and I hope this type of real, raw writing continues with my students. My last period class, a.k.a. my night class, was a struggle to keep on target today. Two kids who haven't been in my class in literally 2 weeks showed back up today, and some of the other screwballs in class couldn't handle their presence. I feel like I'm teaching freshmen with this class due to their maturity level, well, or lack thereof. They don't have the fear, but the fear may hit them when I send out progress reports on Friday, and they are 1/8th of the way done with their senior year and failing a class they need to pass to graduate. if they don't care then, well, its hard to fight apathy when it is a solution.