Balancing Act

My classes have become quite the balancing act. My second block American Lit class likes to work on their own. Keep the lecture/notes/discussion to a minimum and just give 'em the work and they'll do it. My third block College Comp class is still a bit reticent right now. They're still coming out of their shells, so I'm blathering more than I'd like. Though we have looked at some cool essays and I've gotten them writing right away. My fourth block American Lit class doesn't like to work. So I make sure to extend the lectures/notes/discussions. I don't turn them loose to work with less than 20 minutes. If I do, it's chaos.

But that fourth block is fun. They'll drive me nuts, but they're fun. We had a five minute argument over one bonus question from yesterday's quiz - "What weighs more a pound of gold or a pound of sand?" Since gold is weighed in Troy ounces, there is less gold, so it weighs less. They were outraged. That lead to a discussion of wording and tricking and reasoning.

Then on today's quiz, a student asked "what does 'swindle' mean?" I replied, "it means to bamboozle." You should have seen the look on his face. The guy sitting next to him burst out laughing. Then the poor kid had to ask, "What does bamboozle mean?" Ha. Luckily, I had a former football player of mine in there who said, "Quite being facetious!" It was a good end to a very good day.