THE ABOVE VIDEO WAS SHOT AS STUDENTS WORKED ON A "K-W-L" CHART OF THEIR HOLIDAY ORIGINS ONLINE RESEARCH AND LISTENED TO BOB DYLAN'S VERSION OF "MUST BE SANTA". This is all spontaneous.
Well, I wasn't sure if we should set aside some time, on our last day of school before the winter holiday vacation, to "chill out" and party a bit. On the one hand, it's always good to take a step back and relax after working hard for a while. But that was the thing that was bothering me: many of my students weren't really working all that hard.
In fact, a lot of them hadn't been doing much of anything lately. And the last thing I wanted to show them is that you can get rewarded in life for doing little or nothing. To be sure, that is sadly true in some cases; you can't count on that, however. So, I put forth this idea: only those who had shown that they'd been doing their work would be eligible for our "Holiday Chill-Out" party.
Well, at first, less than half the class met the requirements. I even considered sending those kids to other classes which were having parties, and keeping the "slackers" for a make-up work session. But in the end, nearly all of Room 405's students were able to participate. A few stayed after school to get stuff done (good work, Brianna and William!). Some had to work during their lunches and recesses, even on our last day, to be able to enjoy the party.
So, I hope we can all learn from this. If you want to be rewarded, you have to do what is expected of you. It's true in school, it's true in all areas of life. Once you realize and accept that, life seems to make more sense.
Well, I wasn't sure if we should set aside some time, on our last day of school before the winter holiday vacation, to "chill out" and party a bit. On the one hand, it's always good to take a step back and relax after working hard for a while. But that was the thing that was bothering me: many of my students weren't really working all that hard.
In fact, a lot of them hadn't been doing much of anything lately. And the last thing I wanted to show them is that you can get rewarded in life for doing little or nothing. To be sure, that is sadly true in some cases; you can't count on that, however. So, I put forth this idea: only those who had shown that they'd been doing their work would be eligible for our "Holiday Chill-Out" party.
Well, at first, less than half the class met the requirements. I even considered sending those kids to other classes which were having parties, and keeping the "slackers" for a make-up work session. But in the end, nearly all of Room 405's students were able to participate. A few stayed after school to get stuff done (good work, Brianna and William!). Some had to work during their lunches and recesses, even on our last day, to be able to enjoy the party.
So, I hope we can all learn from this. If you want to be rewarded, you have to do what is expected of you. It's true in school, it's true in all areas of life. Once you realize and accept that, life seems to make more sense.
RSS Feed