Day One Hundred Sixty-Two
There was an issue with gas in one of the science labs today, which meant we had to evacuate the building until the fire department could give the all-clear. It was the hottest day of the year so far, and state testing was going on, so... another day with some mild chaos.
There was no chaos in my classroom, though. My Global Studies students began developing essay outlines to write about the war in Ukraine by recapping the causes of the war with me (intro paragraph details). Then I had them pull up the assignment they'd just completed using CNN's interactive timeline, and identify some of the effects of the war based on what they'd learned. I listed what they told me on the board (war crimes, high casualties, sanctions, disinformation, a refugee crisis, etc...), and told each student to pick three things to learn more about, and use that information to fill in the body paragraph sections of their essay outlines.
The timeline assignment had given them some basic knowledge, but the deeper they dove into their chosen topics, the stronger their reactions were to what they were learning. Some students rightly pointed out that this war has fallen out of the news coverage, for the most part, so there's a lot they hadn't known.
That's what makes this assignment such a good one, of course.
In APGOV, I started getting into one of the major issues in state politics- public education- because it's one the FSP, which they just learned about, has impacted tremendously, and it's obviously relevant to my students. I had them define for me what they thought an adequate education was, then showed them the actual statute, which led to some great conversation. After that, I showed a quick video explaining how education is funded in this state.
The fire alarm went off just as I finished that, so I just said, "Hey, know what's another example of state government policy? How many fire drills we're required to have" and led my class out.
If we hadn't been interrupted, I'd have had them read about the ConVal court case, but we'll just do that tomorrow instead.
Practice was hot, but by then the clouds had moved in a bit, so it wasn't unbearable. The sprinters did 100m repeats, block starts, and baton passes. I had just enough time afterwards to go home, eat dinner, shower and change. Then I had to go back up to the school for Academic Awards Night.
It's always fine, but I still get super nervous announcing the social studies award winners (pretty sure The Principal thinks this is hilarious because I'm not shy about speaking in any other circumstance). I got through it, though, and it was nice to celebrate our students' achievements.