Things are Moving

Now we're starting to go.
Every classroom just got two brand new "short" bookcases and three round wooden tables.
Ms. W. and I, who I share the sophomore Global Studies room with, have assigned classroom leadership roles for each class:

~Timer
~Tech
~Sign-ups Organizer (for weekly Unison Reading groups)
~Intern (for most trusted & reliable student in each class)

Yesterday, in the midst of a sophomore class I looked around. To one side, a student explained to others at her table the meaning of an English word.
Next to me, students worked together reading in unison---"Okay, 1-2-3..."
Across the way, a group of Dominican boys--only one of whom understands much English--read in unison, without much supervision.
Two students on a computer in the back of the  room were not trying to sneak onto Twitter or look at junkfood on the internet. Instead, they researched the meaning of "cultural diffusion." Earlier, a boy alone at the same computer was reading about Leonardo da Vinci.

More than half a dozen students so far have borrowed classroom films since the sign-up sheet went up at the end of last week.
And they have not even gone in yet for the typical Hollywood-type films. Or even the historical films from U.S. history, such as those regarding Malcolm X or Martin Luther King, Jr. Rather, they've been watching History Channel films about Alexander the Great (a Bengali boy), the Incan Empire (a full blooded Incan girl from Ecuador), Islam (a Muslim boy with Kosovar roots), & the story behind the battle of the 300 in ancient Greece (a Haitian girl).

A fascinating array of students.

A boy from Yemen brought in his country's flag today to display within our classroom collection. Last week, the Muslim boy learning more about his religion brought in full-size flags of both Albania & Kosovo (a very unusual find, I assume, in most parts of the United States, but not necessarily in this neighborhood). Soon thereafter, two other boys from Yemen came in with the flagbearer, grinning widely as they looked up at their homeland's flag--a nation now plunged into turmoil.