Welcome Back, Trickster!

I just showed my American History class an episode of "Welcome Back, Kotter". The 1st 5 minutes they were making comments like, "this is wack" or "this is lame". I didn't say anything, just let the show speak for itself. By the time the show reached the first commercial break the entire class was quiet and focused on the show. They thought it was a reward for being good this week (because i told them that). What they didn't realize is that I use scenarios from the show to explain things in class and relate aspects of the show to their lives. I don't just teach history, I also teach life lessons.

By the time the show ended they were hooked, they have fallen into my trap(just as my classes have done in past years). Last year I had one class that was especially NOT well behaved. I managed to get them to be somewhat behaved on a Thursday and on Friday told them I was so proud of them that I wanted to give them a reward. So, I showed them an episode, they got hooked. So, every week that they were well behaved Monday-Thursday, we would watch an episode on Friday. Surprisingly, we watched an episode almost every week. The best part is that my role as disciplinarian was greatly reduced as they started calling out each other to behave so they could watch another episode on Fridays. Ah! the little things do make a difference.

So far today, the kids are loving it. Hopefully it will work just as well this year as in the past.

***Note: Class is 60 minutes, episodes are 22 minutes. So, YES, we do American history for the 1st 38 minutes before watching the show. There is ZERO wasted time in my class, that's how i roll!!!

Thanks, Mr. Kotter!