the sloppy duck

well, thanksgiving has come and gone. there was a table full of food, dogs running around the house and playing wildly, people asking about future plans.

it’s quite weird, having this holiday without blood around. without blood asking me what i’m planning in life, how teaching has gone, hell, how my day has gone. but i guess i’m used to it.

so i’ll pretend like everyone here is my family, and that the guests came to see me, and that i’m not the outsider.

reason #427 why i hate the holidays.

I’m having such a ridiculously hard time keeping things going in social studies, what with field trips, holidays, meetings, and kids being out of the classroom. Although we didn’t even really start using the book until about three or four weeks ago, we’re JUST starting with Native Americans this week.

I’m having my kids do a lot of cooperative group work together, reading with partners and pulling main ideas themselves. We’ve done Cornell notes and group posters/presentations, which they seemed to like but— as I said— moves too slowly. I really hate the idea of doing packets of work (even in groups) and also the idea of me standing in front of the class lecturing the whole time makes me cringe as well. I have a really big soft spot for social studies and I find it fascinating, but just wondering if anybody has ANY ideas for some really cool and interactive activities to go through social studies?