I’m starting to be practical and think about aiming the content of the PLC toward next year. It’s because the professional feeling here right now is colored by that “Month of May” feeling of semi-despair that is no teacher’s fault and every bit the fault of a broken system.
How indeed can we interest our kids when spring is happening right outside the prison walls? How indeed can we make things interesting now since testing is over and the cell phone culture is firmly in place now in this time of incredible change in our country? How indeed can we force kids to learn when they don’t want to? With all the issues of class size, the mental health of a nation, and all the little power shifts and in-fighting that always seem to be worse in the spring, how indeed are we to make things interesting in spring?
I have asked Tina to write a Bite Size Book of May Activities that have the sole purpose of getting us through the intensely difficult period of the year following testing. She may not get it done for this year since so many other things are pressing (Cascadia, more Bite Size Books, etc.) but we might have it for next year. Maybe she will comment below on some basic ideas for how to plan classes for the month of May. Anyone succeeding at making traditional TPRS stories work right now is a god.
2 thoughts on “General Update – 1”
Funny, i have been doing SL admist all the Math, Forensics competitions and Civil War day. Someone ask for stories…. lately, ive been showing music videos for brain breaks.
Fantastic idea! I look forward to the bite size book. I agree, Ben, that kids’ attention is on spring. The world is coming back to life – who would want to do tests or exams? I had a great few lessons outside in the sunshine last week using the scavenger hunt idea from the CI Liftoff group. I believe it was Tina who posted pictures of TL clues and suggested that students take selfies when they find a matching object or make one themselves. My kids loved it, even the ones who find their pens more fascinating than anything else in a classroom. It was wonderful to see their creativity run rampant in the fresh air. They were completely different human beings! There were so many smiles and so much laughter.