So, I have this class; Pre-Engineering. It's all by itself in the line-up I teach. Not since I was in charge of the engineering academy at my first school have I had a class like this.
The kids are just at a different level. And the class is less than half the size of all my other classes...16 kids.
All my other classes are the same and this is the third year I've been teaching that class...over and over, all day. It's weird to go from that to this and back again all before lunch. I explained this to them (in the event they were wondering why I was all erratic with my style). They said they would be patient with me. :-)
The truth is, while I love, love, love my other kids, I'm able to teach the way I think teaching should happen with a class like this. I gave them a vague-ish (open-ended) assignment to go along with the "History of Engineering" unit. They were to research Leonardo da Vinci's sketches and were to build a model of one of them using whatever they could find in the lab to build it with. (Because Leo didn't have Michael's or Home Depot down the street, right?) I told them to make it theirs and gave them very few rules.
Here's where it gets all sketchy (and is probably in violation of all the teacher rules). I didn't give them a due date. I told them to discuss it amongst themselves and when they were in agreement to let me know. They chose today...a month ago. Ahem. (I was a little concerned about the length of time they thought they needed...because, well...teens sometimes want to take advantage of things. I raised my eyebrows, and laughed a little...but in fairness, they did what I told them to do. And this wasn't the only thing I had given them to do.)
Turns out, it all worked out like I wanted it to work out. I'm pleased they took it seriously and am pleased they all had very different projects.
In other news, I'm the world's slowest knitter. (In reality, I start projects and forget about them.) Progress is being made. I have a fraction of one glove knit, lol.
Dinner was curried rice noodles with tofu and broccoli. (Minus the cilantro, because Alicia says cilantro smells like stinkbugs. I can't argue with her...because she's right...so I left it out.)
