Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Junior High kids are awesome....

So today was my birthday. For the past 4 years, I've had crummy birthdays. This year, however, that changed. My day started out with Hannah* giving me an unexpected birthday present, continued with a great guest speaker, and also included teaching a great lesson and laughing at my kids.

I taught the third lesson in my unit today, after being observed yesterday. I'll post the results of that observation when I'm less tired, though. Today's involved having the kids persuade each other of their position on a controversial question, in order to practice speaking to convince, finding evidence to support a position, and making value decisions based on fact. The principal came to observe my lesson, and she loved it. To top it off, I almost got through everything I wanted to.

At the end of the day, all of the homerooms got to eat the treat I made them for my birthday. I baked zucchini bread from scratch, and the reactions to it were priceless. Kids were so shocked that something with a gross vegetable in it could be so good! Only one person refused to eat it, and that was his loss. I also brought jugs of juice for my homeroom (the cheap stuff that comes in gallons and is entirely sugar water and artificial colorings). I told them they could have seconds, so that I wouldn't have to lug it all home, so of course what did two boys decide to do? Have a drinking contest. But what was so great about that? They did it so discreetly, that it took me a bit to notice. When I did, I loudly asked if anyone wanted seconds. One student jumped up, and the boy who was in mid- chug spit his juice halfway across the room from laughing. Big mess, and I was mad at poor John and Marcus, right? Nope. John immediately started cleaning up his mess, they admitted to me what they were doing, and we all had a good laugh. Kids will be kids.

Oh, and before that, my mom sent me flowers, and my students all made me a card completely without my knowledge. It occurs to me that I'm an excellent candidate for a surprise party: I'm always clueless about people sneaking around behind my back. Ah, well. Ignorance really is bliss.