GREEK MANIA!

This blog is dedicated to my amazing JH class.  We've been reading "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan and I must say that they absolutely loved it!

My JH class is made up of 7th and 8th graders.  I couldn't believe how fast they became interested in the Greek Myths.  About half way through the book I started putting together a power point discussing more of the Greek myths touched by the book.  All my students really got into it, even my lowest readers had something to add to the Greek myths.

Anywho, about 2 weeks before we finished the book I made a deal with my class.  If everyone passed the test, not aced but passed, we would have a Greek Week and have fun before the SBA testing.  We did a lot of fun games to prep for the test.  I made a BINGO vocabulary game, that they really enjoyed and were challenged by.  Then we played a game to review the book where they split up into three groups.  It was a challenge game where there was a starting point, then I would ask a question, then the students had to run to the board and write the answer.  Each question was worth different points, so it's not over until the fat lady sings.  By the end of the review, I had teachers, students, and the principal coming into my classroom asking what all the noise was about.  The students REALLY got into it.  Needless to say all my students passed the test!!!  I was so proud of them :D

The next week we reviewed the test and then we watched the movie.  The best part about that was that throughout the whole movie, the students commented how different the movie was compared to the book.  My heart soared hearing that!  They all agreed the book was WAY better :D  :D

The last day was the most epic.  After the movie I had all the students play a game to find out what "house" they belonged to.  It actually worked out perfectly and out of 13 students, I had 4 houses represented:  Poseidon, Athena, Zeus, Hermes.  Then I asked the students to bring bedsheets to class on that Friday.

Setting up their flag (Poseidon)

Athena and Zeus getting ready to attack

Sacrificing a pig for Zeus

On Thursday night, I went home and learned how to write the God's names in Ancient Greek, along with all my students names.  Not as easy as it sounds but I learned a lot!  Then on Friday, I first did a mini lesson, with a movie, to show how the Ancient Greek Olympics were played.  The students really enjoyed that.  Then we had strawberries, from Half Blood Hill (of course) and Ambriosia (God juice) because they are all half bloods.  We toasted to the Gods and dug in.  Then I taught all of them how to create a toga.  It was so fun watching them make their togas.  Then they all made name tags for themselves, using the Ancient Greek spelling, and created Flags for each of their houses.

Hermes going for Poseidon

Look at the intensity

Let the games begin!

The last part was so amazing!  We went to the gym and created a capture the flag arena.  The four houses set up their bases and the games began.  We played a couple of rounds with the 4 houses, then they combined forces for a few games; Poseidon with Hermes, and Athena with Zeus (Poseidon and Athena obviously couldn't be together)  Then we invited mortals from the crowd (Sheila's JH class) to participate and we had a MASSIVE capture the flag.  It was SO fun to watch.  The students really got into it.

MASSIVE CAPTURE THE FLAG!

After capture the flag we spent the last part of the hour doing another Ancient Greek game: wrestling!  Boys vs. Boys, Girls vs. Girls.  They really loved this and by the end of the games we had A LOT of enthusiastic spectators....who learned about Greek history in the end.

All in all it was a GREAT end to the unit and the students will remember this forever :D

Tune in next week when I show you the video my HS students made, acting out Act 5 Scene 2 of "Hamlet"  quite enjoyable!

Junior High Trip

So yes....it's been over a year since I've blogged. Yeah.....I suck. BUT I've decided to turn the mood of my blog around a bit and focus more on what I've been doing in the classroom AND my 8th graders plans for this summer.

So, this past September, my JH class asked why they never got to take school trips like other schools they've heard about. I told them that it's mostly because no one has ever brought it up and really pushed for it. So, they decided they were going to be the class to push for it. It was then decided that they wanted to go on a 2 week adventure, discovering the joys of North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota. This may be a strange pick of places but it's all tied to a book weirdly enough. My JH class had just finished reading "Walk Two Moons" by Sharon Creech and they loved all the places the main character got to visit. They wanted to see the Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, and a few national parks in Minnesota.

To take this trip we would have to raise around $50,000. Let me tell you, this is SUPER hard in a dinky village of 400 people. Though the students have been working really hard, we did not get anywhere close to $50,000. It was time for a rearrangement. It was decided that we would only take the 8th graders, 14 total, and three chaperons. We also cut a HUGE chunk of time out of our trip. We will only be in the Lower 48 for week and three days and were only going to be in ND for two days, in the Wahpeton area, and Minnesota for the rest. It was a tough call but we didn't want to give up or wait another year.

So now we're shooting for $25,000 to take our 8th graders for the trip. We are on course and hopefully we'll make it!

Basically, my entire school year has been one fundraiser after another. This weekend marked our LAST basketball tournament and I HOPE that we've made enough money. Cross your fingers!

I'll be updating throughout the rest of the school year and let you guys know how the fundraising is going and all that. Below is a picture of one of our fundraising attempts, a Spaghetti Feed. We turned the gym into a restaurant and served everyone like a real restaurant. There were waiters and chefs and someone to personally seat you. There was also romantic Italian music playing in the background. It was A LOT of fun :D

The woman in the picture is Sheila Phillip. She is the other English teacher here in Kong and she's also coming along on the trip and has been planning this along with me. Without Sheila this trip would NOT be a possibility. She has organized all the planning for all 4 or 5 basketball tournaments we've had, along with raffles, spaghetti feeds, etc. She rocks and I'm so blessed that she didn't think I was crazy and wanted to do this trip as much as I did.

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