At Least Some of the Hostility has Subsided

Today is our Fall Homecoming. We dismiss at noon for pep rally and parade, so no one comes to class expecting to do any work. Since I finally got my 1st and 5th hour chemistry classes back to the same spot, I didn't really want to do too much this morning.

So we did the imploding can demo and talked briefly about pressure changes. Kids then had the rest of the hour to tie up any loose ends in their lab notebooks.

A student raised his hand and said "I have a question."

One of the girls who was instrumental in the mutiny the other day happened to be in his group. She cast me a sidelong look and said "Garrett, don't you know no questions are allowed in this class?"

I grinned and reminded her that there are lots of questions in here.

Surprisingly, she smiled back and said, "Yeah, but you are the only one who gets to ask them, we are the ones that have to come up with the answers!"

Overnight, the climate in my room has shifted in a more positive direction. I'm not sure what happened, although I am pretty sure our librarian has been discreetly dropping hints to her regulars about the "difference between being a learner and being a robot."

Maybe it was our first test. For all the whining they did, most everyone did much better than I (and they) expected.* That may have won them over more than anything. It's hard to argue that I'm not teaching them anything when they do well on tests.

What ever the reason, I'm not complaining.

Off to a parade...Happy Friday!

*That is the exactly what I told them as I handed tests back. No one seemed offended...