Remembering Who I Teach
I have to always remember who I teach. I work with teens that want nothing more than to spend time with peers. That, of course, is something that has fallen to the wayside most of this calendar year, and almost all of this school year. Building community has been a focal point of my classes before 2020, now it's imperative but quite challenging. Students will talk to one another, but mostly stay quiet and prefer to work in small groups, or alone. Being at home tends to make them feel more reluctant to share and speak up, unfortunately. My Social Studies colleagues introduced me to Gimkit last year. Gimkit is a gamified review that my students have really enjoyed. The company has come out with a version similar to an incredibly popular computer game and we played this version in class last week, as a review of the Constitution, Three Branches of Government, and the Bill of Rights. My students loved it and they came alive during our classes. I was overjoyed to hear them hollering (a