It's Monday and I'm Teaching History.

Today was Monday. On Monday, we have all 8 periods during the day and things tend to be nutsy. I started with my 1st period class, setting them up for typing. The kids type on Monday, as usual.

The fun started during 3rd Period, however. Mr. Denise, who built the CLP technology department over the last 10 years, is now teaching History. However, he is not an Ancient History buff. Mr. Jewett, who also used to be a History teacher, is. For this week, they have decided to switch classes, with Mr. Denise teaching our Graphics and Web Design class Style Templates, and Mr. Jewett teaching Mr. Denise' World History course about the Ancient Greeks.

Mr. Denise is famous at CLP for being very tough, but fair. He does not take any bullshit in his class and has been known to have a quick trigger finger when it comes to throwing kids out of class for being disruptive. He demands the full attention of the kids and gets it. This is neat to watch. He started the class with a short 4 minute review of his "classroom rules." His way or the highway, in essence. The interesting thing is that most kids really like him as a teacher.

Anyway, Mr. Denise started his presentation on color theory and style as it applies to websites. Good stuff. The kids hung on his every word. I have been sitting in the lab with the rest of the kids, following along on the lesson and working on "the Museum Project" that Mr. Denise is guiding.

After class, I asked if it would be ok for me to go to his next class with him, as I had a planning period. He said, "Sure." He was starting a unit regarding the Electoral College. On the way to his room, I told him of a neat analogy regarding the Electoral College, comparing the system to the World Series. He said, "Hey, that's a great example!"

In his class, Mr. Denise began his lecture with the birth of the nation, covering the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, etc. He then got to an overview of the Electoral College system. Some kids seem to get it, some didn't. Mr. Denise then says, "Well, let's see if Mr. Burkhard can explain it another way." Quick mini-lesson time! As I went up to the front of the class to go over my example, some of the kids that are in my other classes started cheering. That was fun!

I went over my analogy, using the World Series as the comparison. Let's say that the Red Sox win World Series games by the scores 11-9, 10-0 and 12-2, while the Cardinals win games by the scores of 2-0, 2-1, 2-1 and 1-0. If you add up the runs scored by each team, the Red Sox have scored 35 runs and the Cards have scored 18. As anyone knows, the winning team in a game is the team that scores more runs. So the Red Sox win the Series, right? Of course not. The Series is decided by which team wins the most games out of seven. Total runs scored is immaterial. Games won is the only deciding factor. Much like the Electoral College deciding the President of the United States. Total popular vote is not what matters, what matters is the allocation of electoral votes from each of the states. Some kids seemed to get it when I explained the process in this way.

It was alot of fun.

Moving on to later in the day, I took over the 8th period class today. I spent about the first half of the period going over my rules and regulations for the classroom and we spent the rest of the time finishing up the current project, a "Future Technologies" website. Next up for the class, "Flash." Argh.