This was already a short week with Professional Development and end-of-semester grading scheduled for Friday, while students had the day off school. Throw in a snow day Monday, and three half-days for middle and high school and it’s a pretty charged atmosphere, especially considering the upcoming Student Faculty Basketball Game following their mini-schedule!
So what should I do during the 20-minute classes?
An idea had been percolating. Driving to work, I thought about all the different things I’m interested in or curious about. Today was the perfect opportunity to engage in this conversation with the students about what exactly it is they are interested in. How can we match student interest with curricular demands that result in greater learning and satisfaction for both teachers and students?
A short video clip to launch their conversation, and then a few minutes of group discussion resulted in the word cloud below (courtesy of Jason Davies Word Cloud Generator) that represents a portion of the topics, jobs, hobbies or other fascinations held by some of the 150 seventh graders I have the pleasure of seeing in class each day.
There are some terrific topics here and I’m excited to think about the ways in which I can help students bring these interests into our classroom!