Hello Beautiful People,
It’s officially spring fever time at my school. What am I talking about? 
I’m talking about the fact that the children are restless.
R.E.S.T.L.E.S.S.
It’s been like senioritis on caffeine in my classroom lately, and it’s enough to drive a person mad.
It’s a terrible feeling to constantly be trying to make your class interesting & engaging, only to be met with resistance, constantly. See, lately, if the lessons do not revolve around what my students want, well, it’s boring. It sucks. They want to go home.
Welcome to the age of entitlement. Welcome to the land of everyone gets a trophy, just for knowing how to spell their own name.
Like I said, it’s enough to drive a person mad.
So, I changed tactics, yet again.
And managed to find the screenplay for A Few Good Men online – a perfect, perfect, PERFECT fit for my class. An EXCELLENT movie, (I adore Sorkin), and a surefire way for my students to participate, by reading aloud. Plays and screenplays are meant to be SPOKEN – they are not meant for “silent” reading time, nor are they meant for ONE person to do all the reading.
So…
I gave them the scripts.
And they fussed.
And they huffed.
But you know what? They eneded up liking it. You know why? Because I refused to give in to what they wanted. I made them RISE to the occasion, knowing that if they gave it a chance, it would be a beautiful thing. And it was – they ended up engaging with one another, listening to one another, and READING.
And then there was the icing on the cake…for one of my former students came to visit. She ooed and ah-ed and told me how much she MISSED HIGH SCHOOL, how much she loved myself and the staff, and then she thanked me for being great.
And so, when I want to pull my hair out during the next couple of months, when I feel as though I’m talking to a wall when I’m teaching, when I ask myself WHY DO I BOTHER…
…I’ll focus on my alumnus that came to visit…
….I’ll focus on the class reading A Few Good Men…
…I’ll focus on A Few Good Moments.
Live, Love, Learn,