Long time - short time

My father-in-law is in the hospital. He's been there over 1 1/2 weeks. This has been occupying our time outside of school. And we're tired.

The seniors only have two days of instruction left. They take their final next Monday and Tuesday. Then they're gone.

Of course, they have to pass first.

My Econ students have been having a terrible time with the Final Project I assigned. This was to take the place of a test. They would research a topic in macroeconomics and create a PowerPoint that they would present during their final exam period. I was afraid the project was too simple, too easy. They were struggling. The class valedictorian was struggling. Two other members of the Top Ten were struggling. Today, with two days left, I canceled it.

All I can say is that macroeconomics is too much for them. I forget from time to time that they're still kids. They only read the newspaper because I force them to do so. They never watch or listen to the news. All they know about economics is what they learn in my classroom. So instead of macroeconomics, we're going to do personal economics. I dugout an old project on buying a new car, reworked it some, and added the PowerPoint component. Then I lined up another day in the computer lab to work on this whole new thing.

I made this decision / had the epiphany / came to my senses during 6th period. When I told them what we would be doing (and apologized), there was a noticeable release of tension in the room. I think they'll find this new project to be fun.