"Did Knights wear Nikes?"

I'm currently sitting in Melinda's nice air conditioned classroom, using the internet and listening to Christmas music on Pandora....(love Michael Buble's stuff!)....we got out of school early today because the water in the drinking fountains was somehow contaminated. So 5th period was cut short. My class did not have time to finish their test review (finals are next week) but we will still have time to review next week, so I am not too worried. And I am definitely not complaining about getting out early! I have a lot of grading to do to get ready for the end of the semester....which I will likely procrastinate on until Sunday afternoon, as usual.

It's a bit weird to have Christmas just a couple weeks away. There are no snow days, roaring fires, or bulky sweaters. It is still in the 80's every day, with sunshine, coconut trees, the bright blue-green ocean and everything. The only thing that let's you know it is the holiday season are the Christmas decorations everywhere, and the preparations for holiday parties and concerts.

To those teachers out there:: I just did a project with my students that I feel went really well!! My World History classes have been studying the Middle Ages. Since finals are coming up, I did not want to give them a big test, and we have been doing a lot of presentations with posters and such. So we did something different. I had them in pairs, and they interviewed each other, asking questions about what life was like during the time period. One was the interviewer (several said they were "from CNN") and the other was a person from the Middle Ages (like a knight or peasant). We had everyone from Charlemagne to a person suffering from the Bubonic Plague. They presented earlier this week, and it was great! I loved the questions they came up with and some of the responses were pretty funny... for example, one of my 3rd period boys was acting as a knight. He began every answer with "well, back in the day....". When asked what kind of armor he wore, he said "Did you see that movie The Lord of the Rings? Kind of like that." Hilarious. A few even made swords and a crown and "armor" out of a cardboard box, so I took a few pictures. I will try to get them uploaded soon.

All of the volunteers have a Mid-Service conference here on island after finals week. I am excited to see everyone (the volunteers on the outer islands are coming!) and to hear more about their experiences. I feel like it will be a nice way to wrap up the first semester before we all head out for break. (Hawaii!!!!)

here are the pictures I took after they presented the interviews...