I have been away.
I have been sick.
I have been busy.
The children, oh, the children. They are growing up this year, like they always do. I find myself getting a little misty about their impending departure in a few months. And then they do something irritating and I resume the usual. But mostly they are very dear, these little middle schoolers. Very dear.
Except for the one who passed on this flu to me. But that can't be helped, right?
We are moving into reading about the Holocaust now, and it is so incredibly depressing to me that I almost can't believe I have to teach it. Of course that is ridiculous, but still. We are watching a documentary called "Into the Arms of Strangers" about the Kindertransports to England, and man, is that devastating. I have many Jewish students who have pretty extensive knowledge of all this, and they give me more information than I sometimes know what to do with. We are reading The Devil's Arithmetic and will follow with sections of Anne Frank's diary and a little bit of Maus, Night, etc. We also have two gentlemen who will come speak to the kids. One is the son of a concentration camp survivor, and the other is an actual survivor.
If there any other teachers out there who have anything to share about the difficulty of teaching this to 7th and 8th graders, I'm open to advice or just thoughts about the experience.
Thank you.
The view of the backyard from my mom's house
That light fixture is now gone, sadly.
3 comments:
I can't help with the holocaust teaching issue, although kudos (or as my mom says "koo-DOZE") to you for teaching these kids. I, for one, am happy that we have thoughtful and compassionate teachers to teach (and I can't believe I'm going to use this word) youngsters.
I'm reading this very funny book about teaching that you probably already know about because apparently it was a mega best-seller, and everyone in the whole world has heard of it except me. But, still, I feel like I need to tell you I'm reading it because it's so darn enjoyable: Up the Down Staircase. I can't believe I'd never read this before...
i haven't taught this subject either, but you know that Bernie worked with a group called Facing History (i think Bennel knows about it) for years and could give you some advice.
as to Up the Down Staircase - i too loved that book and also the movie!
I read that book and saw the movie! That makes me bi-medial, I'd say. I liked it a lot. But I love all teacher movies, except I never saw that one with Richard Dreyfuss because, well, Richard has always been just a little hard to take. For me, anyway.
Thanks for your comments. After Joel Stein's latest on the inanity of blogging, I've sort of lost the zing to do it. Or maybe I'm just tired. I dunno.
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