3rd Lesson

Today's lesson was the best one for me yet. I could actually see the learning taking place, which is a cool thing to see indeed. It concerned slavery in the Civil war. i read them a story about escaping via the underground railroad, and I created a story that they would finish off themselves. At first, they had some trouble getting started, but soon enough most of them were writing furiously. I expected that several students would come up to me towards the end of class to submit their conclusions, but they just kept writing. I decided with consultation of the teacher, not collect them just yet, and they could place them in their writing folders, to come back and work on them again later. Also, I again laid out the expectation right from the get-go that they should behave in the same way as they would if Ms. Bradford were teaching them. I did it with a bit more force this time, and I can say with confidence that there were no behavior issues whatsoever. It may have been because they were sitting at the desks writing for about half the class, as opposed to last time when they got up and acted stuff out, or maybe I am finally earning some respect in their eyes. Who knows? I just know that this was the best one yet, on several levels.