*Phoenix Wright from Ace Attorney (c) Capcom
Tuesday was a fairly productive day. Students prepared for
their big debate day on Thursday. Joey and I chose names at random to see who
was going to be on which side. Either they were going to support immigration and
who was going to argue against it. They were allowed to continue writing on
whichever side they felt they wanted write about, but were required to have
evidence to support both sides. After the debate, they are going to write about
the other side anyway.
I was surprised at how many students were against immigration!
I know, as a teacher, we cannot say that their opinions are wrong. But deep
inside me I was surprised, even a little scared. I wanted to tell them, “NONE
of you would even be here if not for immigration!”
They briefly looked over the rough drafts they had about the
topic with one another. There was not as much time as I would have liked. We did
not go Wednesday so I am unsure if they had more time then.
We also had a wonderful opportunity to attend a teacher
meeting. They went over test scores and were collaborating with one another. They
separated students by class and subject to see who needed help and where. They were
all very adamant about giving the best for their students and were surprised or
sad when discovering a student did not perform well on the recent NECAP scores.
It was enlightening to see where teachers saw problems and how closely they pay
attention to students. They know and understand their students so well and genuinely
care about all of them. I wish people who wrote those “teacher does something
wrong again” articles got to see these teachers and learn a thing or two from
them. One teacher was concerned about an advanced placement student not doing
work and how they wanted to help. They did not gossip about what the problem
was, but how they could make her school life easier and get her back on task.
I was unfortunately losing my voice that day and was not
able to teach and talk to the other teachers as much as I would have liked to,
but I am still glad I was able to attend this meeting and see students in
action again.
On Thursday, the sixth grade had their debate. I cannot tell
you how amazing it is to see young students professionally dressed up, folders
in hand, and ready to get into action. They were all lawyers that day and I was
positively giddy at seeing so many prepared students. The sixth grade debate
was supporting or arguing against excavating Egyptian tombs.
I thought that we were going to have to push questions on
the students to get them talking, especially since the sixth grade had never
done a debate before. Not needed. They jumped right in and really kept the
debate going. Neither group “finished” their debate that day. I was amazed at
the questions, the responses, and the preparedness. I was rendered speechless
at moments. I remember last week we told the students to dazzle us. I was
indeed dazzled.
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