What's new

It's hard to believe that this semester is half way through. Everyday I come to class and feel like there is something new I want to teach each day. Just having a hard time with the students following. Kind of funny. But seriously this week is going to be a tough one I used to have an easier time with our next unit "Imperialism" but for some reason I can't get in the groove. Ever have one of those weeks? I think that I want to have the students develop a presentation of countries that took a piece of Africa and see what that particular country's history has to say about that point in their history. If there is a justification and is there still a secondary type of interest in that country. Kind of like the US's interest(s) with Puerto Rico. I'm sure I could find something.
On the student front. One student who was particularly tough to work with this year has just transfered out of school. In all of my short five years of teaching I never had a student like him. He would blatantly cheat in front of me and when I confronted him he would seriously argue with me. That has never happened. I'm pretty strict in my room. Come to find out he did that with all of his teachers. So, when we did an "intervention" with his mom he admitted what he did and he signed a contract stating that he would never do it again and would show up to his classes. The next day he forgot to show up to his classes. Now he's gone. Funny how things work.