Friday: TGIF!

Today was another long day of history. Here was the class schedule for the only Friday I will be here:
6th grade history (more Ancient civs.)
6th grade Theater ("The search for Odysseus)
8th grade history (the Industrial Revolution)
9th grade history (20th Century - US Civil Rights movements)

In the 6th history class, our teacher showed a video to the students about the different inventions the ancient Greeks made. She showed it to them, had them write down what they remembered, showed it again, had them add on to the list and discussed it, then created a full list while watching the movie as a reference point.

6th grade theater was a bit rambunctious. They are getting to the point where not everyone is in a scene, so students get restless quickly. This caused a few behavioral problems. Apparently, the policy is that the student gets a verbal warning. If the student continues to persist, the teacher collects their agenda book and writes a note in it to the parent. Apparently this is very effective, as many students reacted towards the verbal warning.

8th and 9th grade were similar. This is the most we have gotten involved in the classes, other than the popular culture class. The students were divided into 3 groups and Drew, Sarah and I each took a group. The students were given a passage to read about their topic and we were mainly used as facilitators. We helped the students understand vocabulary terms as well as leading discussions as to the key points. We did this after every paragraph, which was nice for the students, as they had plenty of time to ask questions.

One of our host teachers talked to us for a bit outside of class. She gave us some books about the city and wanted us to see if we would like to plan a lesson for next week. We shall see. However, because of this, we almost missed out lunch date with Joe and Liz. Actually, Liz did wind up having to go to class but we saw her leaving and had to literally chase down Joe off the bus. Sarah left to go for a bike ride while the three guys went to a Turkish-French restaurant. Pretty good first experience. We headed back to the Chateau so Joe could finish packing for his trip. Drew and I wound up taking a nap. I woke up before him and went for a small bike ride on the grounds and the nearby forest, similar to what I did with the group earlier in the week.

I  had to head back, as it was my turn to cook. Claire and I decided to keep it simple: make-you-own-taco bar. I think it was the best meal of the dinners, but I might be biased. After cooking and cleaning, I went to play chess with a older gentleman named George. This guy is was to awesome to describe. He has all sorts of random information, loves to tell stories, and even knows John Howe (Art director for the LOTR) We tied 1-1 for the night before I had to head out and escort the ladies as they left for a night out in the town. Fun times were had by many.