The Danes are Coming!

Ms. Emily Smith, a fantastic English teacher here at NBHS, arranged for a student exchange program with a school in Denmark this year.  Her work came to fruition at the beginning of April, as we were lucky enough to host a group of Danish students.  The students were able to go to classes with their host students - many of whom are enrolled in WHAP.  As a result, we enjoyed having the Danes in our class almost every day for two weeks. And man did we bond! 

 

Having teenagers from the "happiest country in the world" in our world history class was everything that one would hope it would be.  They offered us perspective on Europe, the world, and the USA.  We shared stories, and taught each other words, history, dancing, and games.  My class goal has always been to find the "ties that bind" us all together, and live ourselves into new ways of thinking.  

Without hesitation, I can say that we took giant steps in accomplishing both of these goals during our time with the Danes.  I hope that next year, when our students cross the Atlantic to Denmark, that we can continue to learn and grow through this amazing experience.

Cool WHAP

We spend every day learning so much about history, and how the past is prologue in this class.  And this year, our students are simply amazing.  There is such an amazing enthusiasm and vibe in our classes this year, that I can not wait to get to school everyday.  We have recently completed our unit on 1450 - 1750.  This brings us fully into the Modern Era of world history, and everything that we discuss from this point forward (I argue) takes on added significance to our current culture/world.  We are now entering into the even more complicated era of Industrialism and political revolutions - and our students are as curious as ever. 

But while it is always paramount to cover our content, and analyze history, we also must come together as a community, and put our heads together for a purpose.  As a result, our class rule # 10 is to start a tradition.  So, it is with much pride that I write about our class tradition so far.   Well, this year some of our students came up with the idea to:

A. Make Hooded sweatshirts, and

B. Create a class logo based on Cool Whip.

C. Fill the back with the most hilarious moments from our time together.