Senior Skip Day and Romeo and Juliet!

So, today was one of our senior skip days (yes, we have two--one for early graduates and one for the June graduates). I entirely expected an empty 4th period, because my students had been talking all week how they were going to magically "be sick" on Friday. To my surprise though, about half of my seniors showed up. I decided last night that I was going to make cookies for my seniors who made the choice to come to school, even though it could have been very easy for them not to. I made two batches and they devoured them! They seemed genuinely grateful though, so that was nice.

Since these were most of the "good kids," I decided to take a risk. They took a quiz, and after they were finished, I said "If I ask you guys something will you tell me the truth?" Most agreed that they would. I then asked, "Why do most of you hate this class so much?" They then proceeded to talk about the class--my class--for about 10 minutes. It was very reassuring to hear though, because they assurred me that it wasn't ME, it was THEM. They said, "We've been told that we are the worst senior class to come through this school;" "We are just so lazy;" "A lot of people actually do like this class, they just like to complain and act like they don't;" "You actually try to make this class interesting, but a lot of us just don't appreciate it because we've been through 12 years of schooling." Maybe they were just trying to make me feel better, but I hope they were being honest.

My freshmen, on the other hand, are finishing up Romeo and Juliet. I did a great assignment last trimester that made the students connect song lyrics of their choice to the play. They had to analyze the lyrics and find common themes between the play and their song. It was a class discussion that lasted half of the period, and it turned out very well. Because it was so successful last trimester, I was very excited to do the same assignment this trimester.

I gave out the assignment last week and the students seemed excited too. We practiced with two songs together, and they loved the idea that for homework they had to listen to music. Well, today was the class discussion, and I was disappointed because it didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. In fact, 1/3 of 2nd period and 1/2 of 5th period didn't come to class prepared with their song lyrics. It was very disappointing. I don't know if it was me or the kids, but it just goes to show that one lesson doesn't work with all classes and students.