Alright so today just reaffirmed what I've been thinking the past few weeks with rearranging the order of what and how I teach my world history class. My 3rd block class is a bit chaotic this semester. It's when we have lunch, and this is my class that has my socialites and attention seekers. And it isn't just one or two, a third to half of them on any given day fit in these categories in a class of 30. But today, we had some of the best discussions I've had as a teacher with this class. And it wasn't because we did something super engaging and exciting, no simulations or projects. Some quick notes, review and some videos to watch and reflect upon.
So why the difference, the topic. We started really getting into the Cold War, and the students cared, they had questions, they realize that what we're now talking about ties into their lives today. And I'm stoked about how the class went and then at the same time, a bit frustrated because there's only 15 days or so left in the entire semester and now I've finally got them seemingly hooked in. And while certainly there are things I could have and perhaps should have done earlier to improve this, I do believe that waiting until the very end to discuss these topics doesn't do me any favors. At least by starting out with this stuff early, it'll hopefully make the connections that much stronger too when we look to tie in things that happened long ago to more current events.
No comments:
Post a Comment