Expert in Geography

It was day two with the English class at the continuation high school. We were fully into the movie Girl Rising, stopping every 15 minutes to review ethos, logos, and pathos. (Please see yesterday's post for a brief overview of the lesson.)

The teacher had suggested that it might be cool if I could find a world map and point out where each of the girls' stories took place.

A quick Google search turned up an awesome map where you can click on a country and a map of that country pops up. (It's here in case you want to check it out.)

I was not surprised that in most of the classes when I asked where Haiti, Nepal, and Egypt were I only got vague answers that were mostly wrong. This was the continuation high school, and as a culture we are notoriously bad at knowing where anything in the world is.

So, I was surprised when in 2nd period I asked where Haiti was, and one student gave me a very good description. Then he surprised me by correctly locating Nepal. And then Egypt.

They do actually take a geography class as freshmen. I'm glad that at least one of them was paying attention.

Could you locate those countries on a map without a hint? Did you take geography? How did you do in your geography class?

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter...

Down Time

Last week I was back at the continuation high school. English class. They're doing a unit on modes of persuasion. There will be an essay they will have to write. But later.

On the days I was there, they were getting practice identifying ethos, logos, and pathos. By watching the film, Girl Rising.

But, to get them started, we first watched the trailer...



After, I asked them to come up with examples of ethos, logos, and pathos from the trailer...

"What? We were supposed to watch it? It's a trailer. You know, the thing that comes before the movie. We weren't paying attention..."

Because, apparently, I wasn't clear enough when I explained that they would be coming up with examples...

Fine. I offered to play the trailer again. At least they were able to come up with examples after a second viewing.

Do you enjoy watching movie previews? Have you seen Girl Rising?

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter...

Cloned

At the heart of much speculative fiction (and fiction in general) is a question. What if? On Tuesdays I like to throw one out there and see what you make of it. Do with it as you please. If a for-instance is not specified, feel free to interpret that instance as you wish. And if you find this becomes a novel-length answer, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements ;)

What if you discovered that you had been replaced by a clone?

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter...

Also, that little blog project I mentioned last week is up and running. Stop on by Talking It Out and say hello. We'd love to see you there. 

Bunny in Progress

Yeah, so the plan for today was to have Saturday's bunny all put together and ready for its closeup.

Didn't happen.

I got the inner ears glued on. I got some of the pieces attached. But the nose and mouth... Still working on it.

Here's what I've got so far...

Yes, the eyes are supposed to bulge. Go and take a look at the pattern: Freaky Easter Bunnies. Although, I think they might be too high on the head. I might have to rip them out and replace...

Not going to worry about that right now. We'll see how the week goes. And then I'll have to figure out how this guy fits into the letter H. Or N. At this rate, I might have to look into making him fit for T.

Ah well.

If you're doing A to Z, how's your plan working out? Or did you post everything ahead and are all good to go? How about this bunny--isn't he freaky?

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter...

Almost a Bunny

A couple weeks ago, I mentioned the Freaky Easter Bunny pattern that I'd seen and had to try. I'm making progress...

Hopefully I'll have it put together in time for B...

Do you see the bunny it'll hopefully be? Can you believe April has started already? (Here we go again.)

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter...

Perilous Rain

Rain had been forecast for this day for a full week. The sky was cloudy that morning. I saw girls walking around with umbrellas.

In other words, rain was expected. So, when water started falling from the sky that afternoon, no one should have been surprised.

But I was with 7th graders.

It was the end of the day. The bell rang, dismissing them. They hovered at the door, watching it rain. Hesitant.

But eventually end of day won out, and they exited the classroom. Well, most of them. A couple continued to stand at the open door.

"I can't go out there. I can't get my hair wet."

She explained that her hair would get frizzy. Um...

"You can't stay here until the rain stops," I replied. (It rained pretty much continuously, if lightly, from the time I left the classroom until after I got home. I was not about to wait out the rain.)

So, she braced herself and braved the rain. I have no idea how her hair fared.

The Video Loop

7th grade life science. The teacher was exceedingly kind. She left a video.

Middle school science tends towards the wild on a good day. While videos don't settle them down, under the right conditions they can be easier to execute than bookwork.

The teacher, who was on campus, told me that it was "pretty violent. They'll love it."

It was on the extinction of the dinosaurs.

I had the usual issues. A few of them had seen it before. My response: "I've seen it five times today. You can watch it again."

Yeah, that's the downside of videos. One of my occupational hazards. I get to see the video on loop all... day... long...

Two days later, I'm back at the same school. 7th grade science. Different teacher.

Guess what he left for his class?

On the bright side, a couple of his classes were awful, so I was busy on misbehavior correction. Because at some point, I really have to tune the video out or it's going to drive me crazy.

In case you're interested, this is the video. (It's 56 minutes, so I won't actually expect you to watch it.)



Also, I'm over at Unicorn Bell today with a guest post by someone from my writing group. I'd love it if you checked it out.