You might have seen all of the memes about the full moon, Friday the 13th, and the week before winter break all happening in one big whirlwind – and I hope you are making it through this eventful season of teaching! I teach in a virtual school, so I didn’t notice the full moon or Friday the 13th creating any unusual student behaviors, but I did notice a much lower attendance/participation rate in my virtual class sessions!

My school’s last day before break is a half day of school on December 20th, and then we have two full weeks off. I am really looking forward to the time for relaxing and recharging my teacher batteries. But there is still a week left of school in the meantime – so what will my students be doing?

My 9th grade US History class is finishing up the World War I unit and they have learned so much! I focus on the US involvement in the war and students will learn about global perspectives in their World History class in 10th grade. Still, there is a lot of information to keep track of, so my students use a digital interactive notebook, which they will be using to study for their unit test next week.

Sometimes I am surprised by what students don’t know before we discuss it in class. We came to one of those surprising things just last week when learning about the Selective Service and and the use of the draft during WWI. I asked students if young men still have to register for the draft when they turn 18. It was a resounding “no” “absolutely not” “no way” from the students. Well…surprise! My students are mostly 14-15 years old and the boys were pretty shocked to learn that they would need to register for the draft in a few years. It also prompted the question of why girls don’t register for the draft, and we had a great conversation about this! So many teachable moments come up unexpectedly – something I love about teaching.

The timing of our WWI unit worked out well with the winter break schedule because we will have time to discuss The Christmas Truce in class next week! This is always a favorite lesson of mine and my students enjoy it, too. It is a heartwarming story to fit into an otherwise tough discussion about the realities of trench warfare.

I also teach a Career and College Goals elective. It only meets for 30 minutes a week on Fridays right after lunch. Well, this week is a half day on Friday so the class is bumped up to before lunch, but I only found this out yesterday. I don’t have anything planned yet since I thought the class was cancelled for the day…so I would welcome any ideas for a winter/holiday themed activity that has to do with college/career prep?! Please send ideas my way!

Speaking of half days, usually the afternoon is meant for staff professional development. But, my school did something wonderful and much appreciated this year. They cancelled PD on Friday 12/20 in favor of a “mental health afternoon.” This means we can log off at noon instead of 4pm and do whatever we like to benefit our mental health, and get our winter break started early. I have pretty big plans for self care that afternoon, and throughout break, so I created a Bingo chart to keep myself accountable. You can grab the free download here.

Then I got to thinking about how much my students need this break from school, just as much as I do. So I created a companion Bingo chart for the kids to use, also a free download! Get it here.

I’m actually working on one of my self care activities right now by enjoying the afternoon in my local library writing this blog post, and I checked out a book on making paper quilling projects to do over winter break!

I hope you have a lovely last week of school before break!