Sunset over London, in 2007 as I was studying abroad there. I am very sad to be leaving teaching at Westview and also excited to be able to travel to one of my favorite cities in the world next month!
Dear class,
Thank you for a wonderful last day, full of fun, laughter, and a bit of learning. I will really miss you all - so much so that I will probably be back the very next class to check in and help out Mrs. DeFrance Gilman. I hope you enjoyed my time as your long term substitute teacher, because I thoroughly enjoyed working for you. On to the last recap!
Essential Questions: What brings people together? What tears people apart? - Something that brings people together is education. Something that tears people apart could be the lack of available funding for more full time teaching jobs - which eventually meant that I was available to be the substitute for your class! A big circle. :-)
Soundtrack: "Thankful" by Kelly Clarkson. I always have this at the entrance music for my last classes, because I truly am thankful for the all the blessings, and the lessons that I have learned with everyone! Lyrics (some of which I read to the class)
here.
AGENDA 4/26/13:
News Brief
Final Jeopardy
Geo. Comp.
The Long Goodbye
Homework: Keep in touch! Work hard for Mrs. DeFrance Gilman!
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News Brief: Jose and Daisy presented the news brief today. Thank you both!
I hope that everyone enjoyed the news brief section as much as I do! It is always interesting to hear about what is happening around the world. That curiosity is something that really helped me in my time as a student.
Final Jeopardy: I loved this so much. It is always fun to play - congratulations to Team 1 for winning the friendly competition! As a reminder, the categories were: World War I, Russian Revolution, 9/11 Unit, The Class, Mr. Fritz, and "Places in Pictures."
A little loud and rowdy (I'm sure Mrs. Carpenter loved it next door), but that was okay.
Geo. Comp.: Yes, the return of the geography
world map quiz! Your class scored 137 out of 197, good for third place in my Global Studies classes. I am a nerd, so I love playing this game (I have named all 197 a few times, but not recently). Let me know if you play it and how you score, without cheating!
The Long Goodbye: At the end of class, I said a few words about how grateful I was to be able to teach your class, and talked a bit about ways in which you can stay in touch with me, if you would like to. I am not sure how long I will continue to have the Beaverton school district email, so if I do not respond to that, you can write to me at lukefritz64@gmail.com - I would love to help look at papers, give advice on school stuff, or just check in!
I also talked about social media, because I know that students are aware of my presence there. So yes, a good way to follow what I will be up to is bookmark and/or follow me on twitter, here:
@LukeFritz64 on Twitter - I made sure to explain that what I post on twitter is NOT teaching - it is my own commentary and should not be seen as factual. Also, if you want me to follow you, let me know. I will just assume that you do not want me to unless you tell me. Another social media site that I am on (also publicly, so you can follow without me following you, if you want) is
www.instagram.com/LukeFritz.
We talked in class about my role (just like any other adult that works with students) as a mandatory reporter, meaning that if you post something that threatens your own life or others, or about physical, mental, or sexual abuse, I am required by law to contact Child Protective Services to try and get you help.
In general, I would love to be a resource to help you and keep in touch in the future! I hope to see everyone again soon. Please keep working hard for Mrs. DeFrance Gilman the rest of the year!
Here's the picture that we took of the class as a panorama at the end (click to make big):
It messed up a bit, but still pretty cool!
Until next time, thank you so much again! :-)
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