We've done it! We've successfully finished another semester! This has been a great class, and the students have worked hard researching and writing.
I don't usually do a Quick Write with this class, but we did more of a Quick Draw. I asked students to draw an Ugly Christmas Sweater, and those who were willing entered those into a class "contest." They were quite creative! I'll attach the handout in case any moms or dads want to design a sweater.
We had our final two presentations today:
Anna gave us wonderful presentation on GMOs, their origins and effects on agriculture and our health. It was very informative and enlightening.
Preston spoke well about performance-enhancing drugs that today's athletes use. He gave us some good background information and some ramifications of doping to think about.
I can't tell how proud I am of all of these students. They worked hard, wrote well, spoke with grace and intelligence, but mostly learned not only about their topics but about themselves. When we finished our presentations, we talked about what worked well and what was challenging. Every year, students admit to procrastinating and losing motivation. That being said, they all rose above those challenges and have handed in good papers. I am excited to sit down and read the polished final drafts of their research papers.
Finally, we played a game called "Bowls." I pre-selected some Christmas/Winter-related words and put them in a bag. Students had to get their teammates to guess the words (like Catch-Phrase). For the second round, they had to get their teammates to guess the words using only actions (like Charades). I'm afraid that we ran out of time, but for the final round, they would have tried to get their teammates to guess the words using only one word as a clue. Here's a link to a variation of this game.
As soon as I get the final papers graded, I will be sending out grades.
Have a very blessed Christmas!
Mrs. Prichard
Links for this week:
Class Notes
