As I was perusing the calendar for December, I noticed that the last day before our winter break is a minimum day. And while there is a chance that the district could hire a teacher before the break, it's unlikely, so I've been planning things through December for the class.
I decided that we should have a party.
On the day I mentioned this to the class, the party day was two and a half weeks out. But they're adults (young adults ages 18-21). The program is a transition program, readying the developmentally disabled for the "real world" by teaching them skills to enable them to be more independent.
I figure having them help in the planning for said party is curricular. I mean, I could write a lesson plan justifying my choices if needed. So, I wanted to give them plenty of time to come up with things and help in the getting it all set up.
I suggested that we should do a gift exchange. For a holiday party, the two I know of are White Elephant and Secret Santa. I left it up to them to choose which one they wanted to do.
I explained what they were. Sydney was familiar with White Elephant, so she explained it to the group. They were kind of familiar with Secret Santa already. Then I put it to a vote.
There are nine students in the class. We got five for Secret Santa; then we got five for White Elephant. Logan voted twice.
We explained to Logan that he could only vote once. I took the vote again. Four for each. Logan abstained.
I was not going to break the tie. It had to be up to them. I encouraged the class to argue their sides to Logan, but no one took me up on it.
After a second round of explanations, Logan finally decided.
We're going to do a White Elephant exchange. It should be interesting.
I would love to see what they come up with for the exchange
ReplyDeleteYou know I'm going to do a blog post about it.
DeleteThe results of this should be interesting.
ReplyDeleteI would be interested in knowing the outcome, too.
ReplyDeleteUnless nothing happens, there will be a post about how the exchange goes.
DeleteI hope we don't have to read about Logan refusing to participate!
ReplyDeleteWe'll see.
DeleteIsn't a White Elephant the same thing as a Secret Santa? I'm REALLY not being a wiseguy (I think I'm incapable of being wise)...I really don't know.
ReplyDeleteSecret Santa is where everyone draws names and gives a gift to the name they drew. White Elephant is where all the gifts go in a pot, and people pick them randomly as their names are drawn. And then there's the stealing.
DeleteI had to look up what White Elephant was and I am with Al, it thought the 2 are the same thing. Regardless, it will be fun to Red bout what happened.
ReplyDeleteI did a White Elephant with my writing group several years back. I thought they'd benefit from trying a different gift exchange. It went pretty well. They had to be encouraged to steal. And then a few stole back the gift they had bought. Sigh.
DeleteSounds like a fun decision, despite the drama.
ReplyDeleteIt was.
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