What a full week (actually two)

So I got so caught up over the last couple of weeks that I forgot to post an update last week. Class has been in full swing and we are trying to cram a lot of information down the throats of the students. I have been real lucky to be placed at WVHS with my co-op teacher, he has allowed me to take an active part in developing the lessons and teaching a majority of them. The great thing is that there is so much information available for this time period and region. I have been able to find some great videos and cartoons on the web to include in my lessons and it makes a great activity getting the kids to look at and interpret the political cartoons. I have heard some great answers for symbols in the cartoons.
I had to laugh the other day we were starting to talk about the first and second Balkan Wars and I had asked the kids where the Balkan region in Europe was and one of the girls in my second period class looked me straight in the eye and said "in Balkania"
Well I finally heard from my observer and was lucky enough to get my first observation in and it went real well. I got some real valuable feedback and he gave me some things to work on. I am looking forward to getting the next one out of the way, but I am also looking forward to working closely with my observer over the next few quarters till I move into my student teaching and pulling from his 25 plus years of teaching experience.
I hope everyone has been having great experiences in their classroom as we get closer to the end of the school year.

See y'all in class.

Another week in the bag

Wow, what a week it has been, you can tell that both the students and the faculty have been cooped up way to long and are all jonesen for spring. My students are still real good and even though the sun shining through the windows gets a few of them ancey most are still pretty focused and glad that Napoleon has died and the first French Revolution is behind us. We had a pretty good time with the Napoleonic wars and our faux recreation of the Battle of Trafalgar. As years end is fast approaching we area starting to give the students more information and taking them pretty fast through the Industrial and Agricultural revolutions, The Crimean War, The Unification of Germany and into WWI.

I found some pretty good information on the Charge of the Light Brigade and even found a pretty good clip with the British making fun of all the mistakes that were make.



Horrible Histories - Charge of the Light Brigade

These guys have some great takes on various historical events and are worth taking a look at to use in your lessons.

Looking forward to WWI and II and the section we are developing on Russia from the Revolution to the Fall of Communism.