Ah, what a time to be alive.
Senior projects started today, something that APN has been doing since 2002 as a culminating, year-ending, passion-having event. I forget what the standard was before we started this, but now pretty much all the classes do something similar. Some call it a TED talk, but it’s not really one. It’s something at the end of the year where we don’t have to grade a paper. And I don’t mean that in a snarky way–it’s also nice to see kids get up in front of class and showcase their talents.
There was a presentation on therapy dogs, insects, and t-shirt making and marketing. Fun. Kids got to see a video of dogs. They got to be way too close to insects. There were t-shirts. Pretty cool.
The best one, which is not to diminish the others, was the ridiculousness of insects. I guess our student and his dad do this often–they collect bugs, put them in showcases, or just have them around as pets. Some students were mortified, which was cute. Others were fascinated, and moved closer to the action. The kid started off by showing us silk worms. Yawn! How scary is that? However, it was a quick transition to the Madagascar hissing cockroach. It didn’t hiss, but he put in on his hand, as did that creepy old Mrs. Hart. Hey, when you’ve been teaching for as long as we have, what horror can a hissing cockroach be? The whipping scorpion was a nice touch, too.
We’re such losers. Well, at least I am, because I say every year how I want to get students up and doing things, yet time gets away from me and we end up doing something else. So, I’ll put it in writing right now–next year I have to get my students up and speaking and doing things more and more and more. Perhaps the reason they are not invested in what I’m teaching is that they don’t have to do it themselves–we always end up doing it for them.
What will tomorrow bring for projects? I don’t know, which is what keeps me coming back.