Chapter+2

March 3
What a busy few days. Between what seems like endless meetings, administrative needs, and other team leadership duties I feel more than a little overwhelmed. Still, through all that classes have gone very well since Monday's debacle. The students have been on par and sharp. We've done great work in all my classes. I'm eager to see their performance on this test tomorrow. My focus this weekend is going to be getting caught up on grading. I have a terrible amount of back work that needs to be slogged through and then get myself planned for at least the first few days of next week. Let's hope it goes well!

February 28th
Friday was a fabulous day! Awesome by any measure. We covered the material well and we did a truly nice job with our machines. We are continuing to take a look at the final purpose of government today as we attempt to analyze how governments fail to guarantee freedom. We'll use that to transition into the Declaration of Independence. Once there we'll finish up with the foundations of our government and we'll move into the Articles of Confederation. Today was a tough day, though. I'm not sure if it was students tired from the Oscars, or just a rainy day, but boy oh boy it was like herding cats. I think I need a nap after the energy I had to expend getting everything accomplished. We'll do well tomorrow to get through the Articles of Confederation and a new constitution; I think I'll need to pare down some activities and build in movement more to my class for this lesson - maybe something along the line of labeling one's self and building off the standing/sitting chair activity.

February 23rd
A couple of //really// good days with students covering types of governments. We breezed through all of them in two days and are moving quickly through to purposes of government. They are doing wonderful as I introduce new arts based strategies, such as tableau. We had some fabulous tableaus yesterday during periods three and four. Really great stuff. One thing I have to improve is my informal assessment - I don't know why I'm suffering in that, other than feeling rushed. Poll everywhere has helped force me to stop and do this, but I want to do it more in class.

February 17th
Very productive day with yet another altered schedule. Even though we had an assembly this morning and another during sixth period this afternoon students responded tolerably well. The morning meeting went great, especially given the recent concerns folks have expressed and when class got underway students did fabulous with the do now and then they did even better as we worked through types of government and monarchies. My lesson improved with each period and I think that's a direct result of expanding on the activities I used during lecture. We had our final day of working on our radio project as well, and thankfully students did very well turning the corner and bringing that project to its conclusion. Early reports indicate success.

February 16th
A good day - my dictator deception worked well, even to the point where I could successfully work into the ruse the students that 'knew' about the idea even before I did. The overall success was great, particularly given that we had a shortened day. My only concern - a student indicated that someone may have actually cheated. We'll see how this plays out tomorrow.