Observation #2
Anne Frank has been a challenge and a half to teach. I hadn't anticipated how mentally draining it would be to attempt to teach thirteen year olds the emotional scope of the Holocaust. They kept wanting to giggle during the lessons, which I suppose can be forgiven as emotional discomfort manifesting itself in 13 year old minds, but it was still something I had to contend with. Shannon observed on a reading day, which was a simple bread and butter type of lesson. I let the kids pick their reading parts and stopped them periodically to foster discussion on topics I wanted to highlight about he characters relationships and the history of the Holocaust. It was simple, and it was a little boring to me. But then I suppose not all lessons can be fun and invigorating. Despite the boredom for me personally, the students were engaged, and it went over well. Overall another successful lesson.