The New School Year

I survived the first week! To be honest, I was not ready. With the construction, moving, and non-instructional meetings, I had almost 0 time to prepare lessons. Thank goodness I spent some of my time this summer getting my EPI (Economics & Public Issues) course mapped out and planned. 

I am really excited about my students -- they got me through this week -- and I'm really hoping to get a lot of learning and joy out of a new course -- History through Sports. I'll be spending a lot of outside time learning myself -- I don't know much about the topics I'm teaching in this course, which makes me nervous. 😳

We started with the Ancient Olympics, and we went outside to our track stadium (I'm a track coach, so this helped me feel comfortable from the get-go) to try to get a feel of ancient Olympia. Of course, it's not exactly the same thing, but having the students measure out the Stadion (the only event actually held in the first 13 Olympics), measuring out current world records for disc and long jump, and reciting poetry like the ancient games did actually get them learning! They were super pumped and excited, and I'm hoping to carry that through the semester. We regrouped after each group'a activity and shared out findings. 

(photo courtesy of my awesome department chairman, William Lancaster @phs_lancaster )

I'm interested to see how I can incorporate more kinesthetic learning throughout the course as well! 

Let me know if you have suggestions! I would love your feedback!

Happy School Year to all!

-Jen