And This Day Just Goes On

The time f I n a l l y came for the students who were to take part in SLIME TIME to go out to the Soccer Field for that event. It was supposed to start at 10:30am but the seventh grade students were not called to go until nearly 11:00am. Naturally the delay meant 30 minutes of being able to get nothing done at all in class because I expected the call would come the minute I tried to start any teaching.

Following the call for the students participating in SLIME TIME I was left with only a handful of students. My joy was short lived though. Within moments of my participating students leaving, the non-participating students from my colleague’s classroom came over. My colleague had been tasked with chaperoning SLIME TIME.

I was thus challenged with keeping 20 students engaged and learning, while their classmates were outside enjoying this beautiful day, for 2 hours and 45 minutes. Enhancing my challenge, the non-participating students were, for the most part, the behaviorally challenged students. They felt they should not have to do any work while their peers weren’t. I cannot say I disagree.

My first attempt was an educational science video review of Scientific Investigation, the Scientific Method, and several other concepts we’ve covered this semester. Included with the instructional part of the video were a story of the Ice Man of the Alps, a murder investigation from the 1800s, and the Wright Brothers process for inventing the first airplane. This video did well to get us through until we were called to lunch at noon.

After lunch it was a different story. On the plus side, 2 students had signed out and gone home. On the minus side, the students left with me didn’t want to watch any more of the video.

Now, Bill Nye the Science Guy had always been a hit with the students and we did study Genetics this semester, so I thought a Bill Nye video on Genetics might hold their interest. It did, for about 10 minutes. I fear it wasn’t interesting enough to keep these students from getting restless.

Cartoons have always worked well to edutain the students. The Magic School Bus never lets me down. But even the Magic School Bus had a hard time holding the students interest today. I will be so glad to get back to our regular schedule tomorrow.

As always, I remain,

The Exhausted Educator