Gratitude

On a more pleasant note than my last post, this week my students wrote thank you letters to the semi-anonymous donors who made our electricity labs possible. I know some of the sentiments in the letters were forced, but some were honest and sweet. They wrote about what they learned in the labs and what they like about doing labs. Next year I would like to do more freewriting or journaling or reflections whatever I decide to call it. I think it's helpful to have kids process what they did in writing outside the constraints of answering questions or the formality of a lab writeup. And also, it was amazingly peaceful to have even five minutes of class when all the kids were intent on writing without much input from me.