Today was the last day of class. Last night I baked my students a cake to honor all of their hard work and, more importantly, because I had forgotten to remind them that we were going to have a potluck. I figured I would bring the potluck to them...
Today, I went in with only two things planned: Eat cake and present projects to class. Before class started, I had a few of the girls that were already there help me put the desks in a circle. I told them all to sit in the circle.
Then we just waited for everyone to arrive. I took attendance as they walked in and collected any late work that still had to be graded. I had a few students who still didn't have what they needed, but I took what they had and figured I'd just give them a grade on that.
Once a majority of the students arrived, I told them all to come up and get a piece of cake and then we'd start with presentations. Only about half of them actually took a piece, but some said they would come back for more.
After we all settled in, I had them each present their work. I told them to tell me the title, explain it if necessary, and then give a brief explanation of each of their genres and repetends. These little explanations could have been better, but overall, they were decent. I didn't want to expect too much out of them on the last class because many are stressed out and need to relax.
One thing I did notice that I am really glad about is that my students are almost all friends with each other. They stay after class to work with each other on stuff for my class or for other classes they have together. They call each other on the phone and communicate to one another all of the time. It really is exciting to see a class work so well together! I hope that I can continue to foster a classroom atmosphere like that in my classrooms...
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