Only 25 quizzes to grade.

Another good game day.

I am trying sooooooooooooooooo hard to make the end of the year fruitful...

Instead of letting it be annoying, irritating, and really really boring.

The kids are tired...and so am I.

My inner curmudgeon is riding close to the surface and I am fighting for patience that usually comes naturally to me.

So, these last weeks are a challenge...

And a joy.


Sure the kids are antsy, and chatty, and sometimes uncooperative.

But they are also insightful, engaged, and ready to move on.

To facilitate a little more burning of extra energy, I have been conducting our "quizzes" in unusual ways.

Our most recent "quiz" was a quick three-column group poster.

Students had to provide descriptive words for Melinda (the main character) at the beginning of the book, somewhere in the middle and into the future.

At least one correct citation was required.

Extra credit was assigned for visual elements: color, drawing, connections etc.

The whole thing was strictly timed.

And it worked well.

The kids liked it--they had almost 15 minutes of sanctioned talking, coloring, and arguing.

I got to hear a lot of powerful conversations showing genuine understanding and interest.

For me, there were two extra special highlights to this exercise.

One, a kid asked for permission to get out and use a character traits list.

That was amazing, because, uh, yeah, please use the resources I have given you!

And once he did it, every one else ran with the idea.

It's nice when a good idea goes viral.

The other highlight of this exercise:

I have 125 students, but only 25 quizzes to grade.

Sometimes the good thing is me having less homework!