It is testing time. That is, time for the students to test me. And in return I will test them. I do not mean a formal exam, multiple choice, matching, but testing each other to see what we will do. Since I took a "mental health" day yesterday, I left work for the classes to complete in my absence. This is usually not a problem, especially for an honors class, of which I have two. So decided today to check to make sure they completed the work I left for them. I gave them a "homework quiz." This is a simple technique to determine who completed their work or homework (in my class, any work not completed in class is to be completed for homework unless otherwise instrtucted). Such a quiz is generally simple for the students who did their work. Two questions, one directly from the worksheet such as "What is the answer to question #5?" and a second question which required the students to have read the section(s) in the text book. Two questions, easy to grade and easy for the student who did their work. Their test of me was the simple question, "Were we supposed to finish it for homework? Nobody told us to." Would I give in? Would I simply concede that it had not been specifically stated the day before? No. If I do, then the students will make that the status quo and would require me to remind them every time that a classwork should be completed for homework. No better motivator for a honors student than a poor quiz grade.
This evening, after dinner, we sat around the table and made Christmas ornaments as per Evan's suggestion. It was definitely better than sitting in the office doing school work, playing video games, or watching TV. It was really nice to do something together, all too often we forget and take each other for granted. Last week Evan and I bought a gingerbread house kit, we are planning to build it this weekend.
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