Turn Turn Turn
It’s been a week since it ended.
What more is there to say? On the one hand there is plenty. There is recap and reflection, summaries and sorrows, poetry and praise, adulation and ambivalence, elation and egadyness (okay, so my alliterative abilities failed me there and I resorted to a crass word creation ala Whedonism, but still).
Ecclesiastes I think sums it up well. Or was it the Byrds? 😀
My last week was supposed to be a light one. I knew my time was drawing to an end, I knew I wanted to give myself some wiggle room in case I needed it. I knew I wanted students to have a little fun. Especially after my test!
Monday was review day. I had opted to do a flyswatter, like last time. It seemed a very popular review game and students definitely had fun with it. I made a few changes to the game and informed students ahead of time. First, I had MORE questions, including some from previous units. So it served as a mini-review of all the units I taught. Second, it included some fun questions about me or my CT. Third, I was limited their number of tries to TWO. So two students go up, asked a question they get a chance to pick correct answer. First one does it gets TWO points. If neither gets it right then they can get help from their team. Now, the answer is only worth ONE point. If neither team gets it right after the second try, I get TWO points. Well, I am proud to say, I did not win in any of my four classes. In two classes, I received ZERO points, in the other two I received no more than seven. As incentive, the winning team was going to get an improved grade. Originally I was going to change their lowest score into an automatic A. Decided to just give them all extra credit in the amount of turning a low score into an A. SO MUCH easier.
Interestingly enough, many students listed this review game as one of their two favorite activities from this unit.
Tuesday was the test. I had designed the test using Quia, so I could more quickly grade the exams. As a platform it worked very well and certainly made the multiple choice grading easy. The problem was I wanted to do a graphing question which could only be done on paper. That, and for many students they just do not know how to take a test in a timely fashion. Yeah, I was a little strict when it came to this test. I did not have the time or inclination to coddle students and allow them to come back to complete the test. Someone suggested maybe my exams are too difficult and that is why they take too much time. Possible. But trying to push! All in all, I think students did the best on this test, at least of the three I’ve given during my student-teaching. Especially with regard to the short answers. There was still some confusion and sadness as I looked at their multiple choice answers, but I shall leave that for the CT to address. Bad of me?
Wednesday was a simple day: play Settlers of Catan online. Having the computer lab for Tue and Wed made this a CAKE.
And then came Thursday, my last day. I designed a virtual scavenger hunt, with students ended up on Wallwisher where they could leave me a message or two. I also allowed students to bring in food to share. And boy did they bring in food. There were several during my first couple periods who even went so far as to bake cookies or cupcakes or brownies. Color me impressed. The virtual scavenger hunt did not work like I wanted. I had hoped students could work in groups, but the confusion of typing answer into Twitter and finding Sticky Notes using Diigo I think would have been too great.
Plus, there was a pesky little thing called a Pep Rally. And it was the last day before Spring Break. So students kinda fled. I’m not sure I really got a good chance to say goodbye. But that’s okay too.
Unorthodox History 
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