Triumph

I'm tired. I also know there are hundreds of teachers who are equally as tired. I'm ready for break and a chance to catch my breath. This is finals week so it's a chance to regroup, discover what my students learned (or didn't), and try to think about how I can be a better teacher come Monday.

On Monday my 1st hour began working on their full sized body biography (thank you Donorschoose.org for making that a reality!) assignment. I learned about this project my senior year in college and have done variations of it almost every year.  This is the first time I have done the assignment with the novel Sold. I wish that I would have videotaped them working on these, because they are simply amazing.  I love walking around in the hall listening to them discuss which adjectives, symbols, colors, quotes, and major events should be displayed on the portrait.

They are thinking, analyzing and working together to bring the character to life.  I cannot wait to see the finished product because not only do I have some pretty amazing kids 1st hour, I also have some amazing artists (wait until I post a picture of Lakshmi!). 

If you're a teacher and interested in using this assignment let me know and I'll email the directions.  This could easily be applied to social studies and other classes that study people/characters.

I also gave my final exam today.  I stole the assignment from my friend Kelli who used it with her students earlier in the year.  One of the main themes that I tried to tie in all my units this year was the idea that even though life was difficult, it was still worth living. Our motto this year is to champion our futures. My favorite line from Sold is "simply to endure is to triumph". Sometimes I wonder whether my kids are really getting it or if I just hope they do.  Today, I can smile because I know they do!

Their task what to write an advice letter to "Despondent Adolescent" who is struggling with the loss of her father to cancer, failing grades, and a mother she never sees. She wants to give up and doesn't know what to live for anymore.  My students had to respond to her letter explaining why she should keep going...by using examples from the "Odyssey", The House on Mango Street, and Sold. They also had to incorporate 15 of the vocabulary words. They nailed it. They were awesome.  Even the ones who have a lot of work to do in terms of writing, understood the enduring understanding of the literature.  They owned it.  They might not remember all of the characters' names, but they can relate the stories to a real life situation and can analyze the events of the works in a meaningful way.  They owned Bloom's Taxonomy today, and I want to make copies of each of these letters and send them to all the so-called legislators who "think" they know something about education and what it means to measure learning.

I'm pretty sure they would be schooled.