Busy week after Feb break

What can I say? It's been a busy few weeks.

Feb break was good. Busy. Productive. Did some school work. Got my hair done. Did some cleaning around the condo. Visited my old school (their Feb break was the following week).

The last half of break (Thursday to Sunday): I was at Harvard Model Congress in Boston with 16 of my students. Oh. And 1400 students from all over the country including a school from the countries of Jordan and United Arab Emirates. Oh. Stayed at the Sheraton in Boston. I felt so bad for the maids and the rest of the hotel staff having to deal with us for those four days.

My kids did a great job! They were well-behaved (for the most part). It's always the other kids that I have to babysit. For example: who puts kids on one floor and the advisor on another floor? Didn't get much sleep.

On a positive note: one of my kids received an award. He was the chief foreign policy adviser to Obama. And, one of my kids was a ranking member of the Senate. So proud of them!

Had progress grades due this week so I was in a correcting frenzy! I always wait until the last minute to correct work. Bad teacher! :-)

This coming week is busy too. I'm out on Wednesday for a Professional Day - Using Essex History Seminar on the Cold War. Thursday after school are parent conferences. Thursday evening I'm at the National Archives for a teacher workshop. And Saturday I have a volleyball coaches clinic all day.

What is your inspiration?

Who or what inspires you?

I have a few responses to this question.

1) My Mom inspires me as a woman every day. This woman is amazing! She's overcome breast cancer. She's a funny lady who sees the humor in life. She encourages both my sister and I to be who we want to be in life. She supports me now matter how much I mess up in my life. And, she inspires me to just be me and to love myself (which most days can be a difficult task).

2) My English and History teachers in High School. I had two amazing educators in my life in high school that believed in me and encouraged me to become a high school History teacher. My History teacher died ten years ago. But, my English teacher and I still email each other and keep in touch. Recently, he asked me if he could use me as a reference for a teaching position at a community college. How cool is that?

3) My students inspire me to become a better teacher every single day. They are the reason why I love what I do in my life. They encourage me to be creative and to be a life long learner and positive role model (hopefully!). :-)

4) My colleagues. I've been VERY blessed in all three school systems that I've worked in to have worked with incredible people. We support each other. We collaborate. We bitch and vent to each other. We share teaching ideas with each other. And, we have fun together.

What inspire you?

Having a great time teaching the French Revolution

My freshman have been enjoying the French Revolution so far.

I've got them thinking of reasons why people would be willing to revolt. We did an activity on the political spectrum and the connection to the French Revolution. We've been discussing the causes of the French Revolution. And, I passed out a project . . . an ABC Book on the French Revolution. Normally I would do my children's picture book of the steps leading up to the storming of the Bastille project but decided to do something else.

What's up next? My class will "Storm the Bastille" - storm a neighboring classroom (with my colleagues prior permission of course!). A mock trial of King Louis XVI using my guillotine (I had a student at my previous school make me a real guillotine - the blade isn't sharp folks). The history of the guillotine video from the History Channel. Showing excerpts of the film, Marie Antoinette.

Anyone have any other teaching activities for the French Revolution?

Is 38 old?

Apparently.

The word got around school that Feb 14th was my birthday. Joy.

So, my students were in class on Friday trying to guess how old I was.

They came up with unique answers. One student said I was 45 (he's failing the class - Ha!). One kid said I was 25! I told him he is getting an A for the class! (JK of course!) :=)

When I finally told them my age (38) they said I was really old but I don't look old.

I told them there are days when I feel old. Some days, I feel my age. I told them for the most part they keep me looking young.

Today, I went out to lunch with one of my friends. The plan is to just relax - no school work. I have some movies I checked out of the library this afternoon to watch this evening. Catching up reading blogs. Enjoying reading all the posts on my Facebook. Oh, and ignoring the fact that it is Valentine's Day.

I'm off this next week for Feb break so I may be posting more frequently.

Started the French Revolution this week!

Can I just say how much I L-O-V-E teaching the French Revolution???????

I don't know what it is about this time period . . . the suffering of the middle class and poor (gee, sound familiar???) . . . the drama of a King and Queen . . . . the decapitation of a King and Queen . . . . the control freak that tries to conqueror the world (aka Napoleon).

I started the unit by asking the students to answer this question in their journals: "Is freedom really "free"? They wrote some great stuff. We talked about the definition of freedom and what does freedom mean to them. They also talked about how much freedom means to them and how they know that other people throughout history have risked their lives for their freedom. It was a great discussion.

I then played the Beatles song, Revolution. We talked about the lyrics of the song and what was the message in the song. I then asked the kids to define revolution. They were mixing up the difference between a revolution and war so I had to clarify the definition.

Then, I put them into groups and had them brainstorm and write out on big sheets of paper reasons why people revolt. Can I just say how great of a job my kids did on this activity! So smart! :-) We then discussed what each group wrote on their papers.

I had a quick PowerPoint on the Causes of the French Revolution. We discussed the Estate system. I did another activity where I asked for two volunteers to represent the 1st estate (clergy) and two volunteers for the 2nd estate (nobility). The rest of the class made up the 3rd estate (middle class/poor). I made signs for each estate and separated each group. I started to pass out pieces of Hershey's Miniature chocolates to only the 1st and 2nd estates. The 3rd estate was getting upset as I continued to talk up how unfair the estate system was in France and I passed out more and more chocolate to the 1st and 2nd estate. Finally I asked them what were they going to do about it and they yelled out, "Rebel and Revolt!" I think they got the general point of how unfair the estate was in France before the Revolution and a general idea of why there was a revolution. I will obviously build on from our discussions and activities for clarity and accuracy as we can continue the unit.

I then went back to the reasons why people revolt and asked them if any of the reasons listed on their sheets of paper related to what we just did and they replied yes. I asked how and they responded in various answers. I also brought them back to the journal question of freedom and they talked about how freedom is not free.

It always amazes me when my students "get it" and enjoy what we do in class. At the end of the class, I asked them what they learned and if they enjoyed the class. All of them blurted or yelled out YES!

Of course, a little bit of chocolate was probably helpful . . . . . . . :-)