How to survive the last week before Christmas break if you’re a teacher?
……. no seriously… how? Tell me all your secrets.
If you’re smart, you dig a trench, buy yourself lots of lozenges (you will be yelling a lot), some sort of sustenance (like wine) and just hunker down in there.. this too shall pass.
If your classroom does not allow you to build a trench, and your principal says it’s a no go on the wine intake during school hours, then maybe you want to try this activity which gets the students out of the class and allows them to release some of that built up energy.
The Photo Scavenger Hunt
In groups of 3-4, students go through the list of photos/videos and try to complete as many of them as possible in 40 minutes (or however long the class is). Videos are worth more points than the photos.
Find a way the students can upload their pictures and videos into a shared class folder – I have used Google Drive before, and it works fine.
Here are a couple of examples of a few pictures from previous scavenger hunts.
Beatles: Abbey Road reenactment (they lost points because the one person forgot to take off their shoes)
Five people dabbing in a row
Jumping behind someone without them knowing
Finally – here is the list of photos I want the students to do
During the last week, I have been battling the cold of the century. I took two days off work, sat on my couch and felt sorry for myself. (However, I did get through an ENTIRE season of “Outlander” – so not a complete waste).
Now that I am back, and semi-healthy, I thought I would tackle this blog post I have been thinking about for the last couple of months. It is quite extensive, so I have been putting it off… But here it goes.
Greek Myths! Dun- dun – duuuuun
Greek Myths can seem boring… students groan and yawn when you tell them they’re going to read about Zeus and the gang. However, it doesn’t need to be boring at all. I mean, do they actually think about how many movies are based on Greek myths? Probably not. I bet they didn’t know that The Hunger Games was based on Theseus and the Minotaur right?
Also – Zeus was a complete hound dog, and had some SPI (serious personal issues). I mean, the guy married his sister. Who does that?
You could amaze them with this fun fact! Did you know that Ryan Gosling (who is Canadian by the way – no big deal), played Young Hercules early on in his career? *mind blown.*
After you have wow-ed your little nuggets with these tales of wonder you can open the door to the world of the Greek Gods.
Check out my lesson plan for a schedule and learning objectives. I have included a PPT, and a link to the two stories– Persephone and the Story of the Seasons and Echo and Narcissus. These cost $3 dollars on Teachers Pay Teachers, BUT it is so worth it. Trust me. Everything is done for you, and you don’t need to worry about it. Finally there are the handouts, and the “Create Your Own Myth” summative activity.
As an example of the “Create Your Own myth” to show your class, here is an extremely creative presentation that three of my students did a few years back. These students are great examples of what it means to have a good work ethic, because they put so much effort in to everything they did. The way the system works (thank you National Tests) makes us focus so much on grades and outcomes, and sometimes we forget about praising creativity and hard work. I honestly believe that having a good work ethic will get you much further in life than anything else.
Maybe we need to start teaching students that it doesn’t matter what grade they get, only that they gave it 100% on the way there.
These girls did that – and I can’t wait to see what they will be doing in ten years.
Here are all the attachments.
Lesson Plan: My classes range from between 40 minutes – 1 hour, so I take about 4 weeks to complete this unit.
If you have been a regular on my blog, you know that I try to do a lot of activities that allow the students to move. I do this for a number of reasons.
Students have an attention span of about 20 minutes, so if I really want them to understand something I usually make it into an activity that is “fun.” (This is according to my intense researching on Wikipedia)
The poor little nuggets sit in a chair for most of the day, so why not have them up and moving around?
I have a lot of students with ADD/ADHD/Dyslexia etc so doing something multi-sensory helps these students
And last but not least – I am competitive – so doing competitions and moving around the classroom amuses me.
We will be covering “Past Simple – Regular Verbs” next, and one of the activities I plan on doing with them is called Running Dictation.
Group: Three-Six people (If they are a weaker class put them in pairs).
Roles:
Role 1: The Reader . This person has the paragraph with the answers. They have to listen to The Runner’s question and find the answer in the paragraph. (I usually pick someone who has good reading comprehension skills).
Role 2: The Runner – This person goes between The Writer and the Reader. The Writer tells them the question they need to go and ask The Reader. The Runner listens to the question, goes to The Reader to get the answer and then goes back and tells The Writer.(I find that students who have dyslexia have really good listening comprehension skills, so sometimes I consider that when picking this role. Also, maybe a person with ADD/ADHD who needs to get up and move is someone to pick).
Role 3: The Writer – This person has the questions to give to The Runner, and is also in charge of writing down the answers in full sentences.
Here is the regular verbs in the past tense reading exercise I give them.
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