Not a Fair Fight

Tuesday. Ms. S taught four periods of twelfth grade government and one period of tenth grade world history. In the lesson plan, she asked me to tell her which was the best class of the day as they would receive extra credit points as a reward.

I normally rank the classes. Some teachers like having that information, so now it's just habit.

The government classes were working on their "civics project". This was a group assignment, so once I had taken roll, they shifted around so they sat with their team members. They discussed.

The world history class was to outline a chapter. Individually.

So, um, yeah, this was not a fair fight. If the tenth graders had chosen not to work, it would have been different. But they settled to silence, and I had a stack of work at the end of the period.

The twelfth graders? They weren't loud. Many appeared to be on task, but their project wasn't due, so I had no way to verify what they'd gotten accomplished.

(First period chatted. There is a difference to the sound when groups are discussing their assignment versus when friends are sitting around talking. First period was not on task.)

So, while the seniors weren't bad (I'd take that kind of working any day, well, all but first period), the sophomores were better.

The tenth graders won, of course. I just hope Ms. S gave the second place finishers points as well. Among the senior classes was more of an actual competition.