Pirate teaching and textual evidence

I have had an amazing week!  Seriously,  I am so rejuvenated and jazzed right now teaching is like my super power! 

My 8th grade is a special case.  They've had a hard time of it over the years and they are just that more difficult to reach. I spend most of my creative juices on them to let them know that I respect them and want them to succeed.  This week we were discussing the Battle of Bunker Hill.  My school is situated on top of a series of hills so I knew this would be the opportunity to get them out of the classroom.  I waited till a day that wasn't supposed to rain but.....oh my!  It was cold.  I kept telling the kids, "We're from New England!   We were born for the cold!"  But really..... It was cold!  

Why I wanted to do was to show them how far away you needed to be before you saw the whites of someone's eyes.  They loved it!  My boys were the British and my girls were colonists.

We came up with about 30 feet and were totally able to process the pros and cons of the situation.

My seventh graders are an amazing bunch.  We talked about the seven determinants of civilization and found textual evidence to prove Sumer was a civilization.  We used sticky notes.... I really love sticky notes:) 

 The kids did amazing.  They had to find two quotes from the text that proved that Sumer was a civilization (I.e. technology, language, etc.). They did amazing and my admin called the activity, "Dynamic". 

It's been a good week:)