February was never my favorite month of the school year, and I’ve seen quotes from teachers that let me know I’m not alone. It’s dark. It’s cold. State testing is creepin’ up on us like the bad guy in a horror movie and there’s nothing we can do about it.
So, I’ve decided that for the month of February, I’m adopting a theme for all the resources I send out to y’all—and that theme is FUN.
Why fun? Partially because it’s great alliteration with February. Let’s take it back, declare it FUN FEBRUARY!
But mostly because I recently watched a TED talk by Catherine Price entitled “Why Having Fun is the Secret to a Healthier Life” and was intrigued at the ideas she put forth. I’d encourage you to watch it (it’s around 13 minutes) to check yourself and make sure you’re engaging in a healthy level of fun for yourself to avoid burnout.
For this week’s resource, I’ve taken excerpts from her TED talk that you can read and analyze with your students. I’ve paired that with some depth & complexity inspired questions over BIG IDEA and DETAILS. All you’ve gotta do is print it out for your students, allow them to read and annotate it, then engage them in some good discussion of the ideas they have about fun and Price’s ideas on it.
Click here to access the resource.
Next week, the FUN will continue with a writing assignment that springboards off of this TED talk analysis. So, set aside some time for fun this month with your students, and I’ll help bring the resources to guide the way.
Stay warm out there!
-Jonda
Thank you for this lesson! Our fun is usually at the bottom of the pile of our priorities.