Teach What You Love

I feel horrible saying this but I am so glad that we're done with China and Japan. There's nothing wrong with those subjects, but I just don't feel connected to them. I haven't been there, I don't have any stories, any anecdotes, any pictures, anything. The Chinese and Japanese were awesome, don't get me wrong. I mean, who doesn't love a good reenactment of how samurai committed hari-kari? I know my kids do.


But Europe man.... Europe is my bread and butter! I love this stuff, I eat it up, I'm consumed with it. I love telling my stories and showing my pictures and getting the kids excited about this. I get to bring in my pictures of Dover Castle and Canterbury and Southwark Cathedral and the Globe and the statue of David and Oxford and Cambridge and all these places that I'm teaching about that I've been to! I get to tell stories that I've heard myself a hundred times. I had the kids in sixth period eating of the palm of my hand this afternoon when i was telling them the story of "Why One Should Only Have One Child If One Does Not Want to Fragment Their Empire." They loved hearing about how Charlemagne's grandchildren split up his empire and then divided it again.... and again.... and again.... and again... until finally the king had to make sure all the lords were loyal so they didn't rise up against him!



They asked a ton of questions about what it was like to be a knight or a lord and lady or the king or a peasant and a serf. They even now are trying to act as good as possible because they know that next week, one of them might be king and the others will be serfs and peasants. Sean even went so far as to "propose"! He was on the ground having come up to sit nearer to the board and stated: "I know how to be king!"and then got on one knee in front of me and mimed opening a ring box! The class cracked up but it was so clever since I had dubbed myself queen of the room earlier and had gone around promising certain people that they could rule their table as long as they didn't cause me any trouble (fealty at its best).

Man oh man, I hope they continue to enjoy Europe because I know that I'm going to have a blast teaching it again.