Best Practices

Okay, so today was the last day with the students before our much desired and long awaited spring break. My teaching friend KC and I had pretty well decided that the only thing to do on a day like today was eat a fair amount of Easter candy, try to keep sarcastic comments to the kids at a minimum, and pray to all that is holy that the day would pass as quickly and painlessly as possible.

Yeah.

So, everything was going relatively okay (and by relatively okay I mean that my tenth graders humored me with a few smart comments during class discussion and my public speakers refrained from giving speeches about Baywatch that were focused entirely on breasts and red lycra swimsuits that are three sizes too small--that was yesterday) until sixth hour.

At some point during the opening minutes of my sixth hour class as I was touting the merits and wonders of Susan Glaspell's play "Trifles" and was expounding upon the significance of exploring issues of gender inequality both socially and culturally, one boy interrupted me with, "Okay, so, can we do something FUN today?"

To which another seconded, "Yeah, what ARE we doing today?"

I managed to mask my urge to immediately gauge my eyes out with a slight eye roll, smile that undoubtedly looked more like a grimace, and said, "Well, as I was saying, we're reading this play and we're going to discuss it."

At this point, Public Dissenter #2 said, "Ugh, English class is NOT about reading and talking!"

With the urge to gauge my eyes out entirely obvious at this point, I said, "Really? What's it about?"

"I don't know...it's about...like...grammar and vocabulary...and stuff..."

Super.

So I trashed the play, had kids take out their notebooks, and lectured for close to 50 minutes on parts of speech, diagramming sentences, and had kids copy down vocabulary words and definitions in their notebooks.

About half an hour in I was concerned I'd run out of material. Lucky kids, I was still going strong when the bell rang.

Happy, happy spring break.