Celebrating Dr. King in China

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Revered Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

This weekend I wanted to acknowledge Dr. King's birthday in my classes. I had adapted a lesson on Dr. King that I found on the Internet and added a few more of my ideas. A lot of my students were absent this weekend because of the cold weather and studying for their big middle school exams, so the lesson didn't got exactly as I would have hoped, but most lessons never really go the way you think they will! Sometimes they are so much better, and sometimes they are so awful!

Anyway... I only had three students in my late afternoon class last night. I spent the first 90 minutes on their normal curriculum, and then moved into my special lesson. They all recognized Dr. King's picture, and vaguely knew about the Civil War and segregation in the United States. I told them the briefest story of U. S. History from the Civil War to the 1950s! It was brief... Lincoln... Rosa Parks... Dr. King! Everybody seemed to grasp the point though. We went through a short power point on Dr. King's life. Everyone gasped when he was shot the first time, but lived, and then again when he was assassinated. Grace, who I have mentioned before in my blog, was especially interested in Rosa Parks, which was adorable. Then, we talked about heroes for bit. Finally, ( and this is the part I totally "took" from another teacher's lesson plan) I pointed to a few apples that I had placed on a small star table. We talked about how the apples all looked so different and came from all around China. Then, I split all the apples in half and we talked about how they are alike on the inside, just like all of us are! It was a really special moment to share with my class. Plus, they stayed for fifteen minutes eating apples and asking me questions about Dr. King and the Civil Right's movement. It was just so awesome! I think it might go down as one of my favorite moments inside an EF classroom.

Today, I taught the same lesson to my oldest group of students, and they were most excited to learn about the March on Washington and how so many people were able to be in one place at one time. I had never really thought about that before! They were really concerned for Dr. King's wife and daughter when the power point presentation ended. They are just so sweet.

Meanwhile, in the teacher's office, peace was not so easy to find! Even the most even keel teachers in our group were getting stressed because we hadn't received our first week of Winter Academy schedule that starts tomorrow. It was given to us right before our last set of classes began. Luckily, my last class for the day had been canceled because of low attendance so I got to review my lesson plan for tomorrow morning (Winter Academy lesson plans are provided to use) and get all my supplies together. I had to color in a bunch of pigs. Roddy goes to school and learns four colors, red, blue, yellow and green and enjoys coloring pigs in my lesson for tomorrow.

Cindy and I decided to get out of the craziness of work and go to the Vineyard for dinner. I was ready to not being eating another serving of chili! We laughed about the funny things at work and how if we ever have children, and they need some help, we could threaten them that we will send them to Auntie Cindy in Beijing or Auntie Colleen in Oregon.

Well, I need to be getting to bed. I got lots of small stars to face early tomorrow morning!