Brainstorming and Future Bloggers

Many times I get ideas for school while taking a shower. This idea, however, came from sitting in front of the computer blogging.

My seventh grade students are reading The Diary of Anne Frank. I try to do a lot with this unit to get them to understand the circumstances of the situation as closely as possible.

None of these students know what it's like to do without. Oh, they sometimes can't have what they want, but they always have what they need. They get those two words, need and want, confused often. It's amazing how much children/teens take for granted these days and how much they waste. Was I that way?

Last week we read how how they relied on ration books to get food. Not having any of those around, I did the next best thing; I brought in MRE's (meals ready to eat) and had the students try them, telling them to imagine having to eat this kind of food for three years. They were troopers and tried. We agreed the Cajun rice and sausage was kind of gross!

In the past I've asked the students to keep diaries during this unit, normally met with moans and groans. So as I was blogging, I thought it would be neat if the students set up their own blogs (with permission, of course). They would have to blog about something serious at least once a week, but they could blog as often as possible. Also, since this derives from English class, they have to use standard English. None of the "language" they use on e-mails or on MySpace.

They're excited about it, which makes me excited!

Yesterday we read the part where the families were celebrating Hannakuh and Anne gave her mother an I.O.U. to do ten hours of whatever her mother wanted. Yep, for Valentine's Day, the students had to make Valentine's for their parents, and the inside message was

Here's an I.O.U. I promise to pay

Ten hours of doing whatever you say

without whining or complaining

and with a smile!

Some students try to add a P.S. "Mrs. Chapman is making us," but I told them to add "but I don't mind."

Of course, I'm torturing them! hahaha! Isn't reading fun?!