The Day before a Break - 11/20/07

The day before Thanksgiving break!! I know it must sound bad to be excited for a break but I am! The vacation is welcomed, even though I worry about my students being away from school for so long. God knows what they’ll get themselves into over the long weekend. I always tell them, “Have a good day, stay safe!” I hope they do. I truly care about them all, even the ones that give me a hard time. Those students are the ones that need a lot of guidance or perhaps a different technique to get them interested. Regardless, today the students were bouncing off the walls. It was hard to get them to focus on anything. I am introducing my unit on the Roman Empire by showing them the movie Gladiator before Thanksgiving break. They really got into the movie and I had them fill in a worksheet asking them to describe specific social, political, and economic characteristics of the time period. This was for first period. Second and fourth periods are on a different schedule and since they have trouble staying on task there is no time for them to watch a movie. I had to lecture and do class activities. They didn’t like it, but I had no other choice. The day before a break seems almost pointless in any school because the kids have already mentally gone on vacation. I hope they all come back on Monday safe and sound.