today i taught my first lesson. that's right ... a megan original, planned-created-and-implemented. i was working with a 5th grade teacher to enhance what she's doing in her classroom on mythology. i had planned for us to do some brainstorming and talking about myths, some connecting myths to our current lives a little bit, and then a smidge of reading a greek myth together. from there, in the weeks to come, we'll work on a fun extension project where we'll get to showcase a myth (or create our own) ... all good stuff.
anyways, i spent hours familiarizing myself with both mythology and the specifics of greek mythology in hopes not to appear completely incompetent in front of those 5th graders. i knew i wouldn't be able to talk around them the way i might be able to talk around kindergarteners by convincing them i knew what i was doing. so countless internet and book searches later, i was as prepared as i was going to be.
i was going to connect mythology to the 5th graders by showing them characters from harry potter that derived their names (and sometimes their personalities) from greek mythology, and then throw in a few real life examples influenced by greek myths. you know, it's all about authentic learning, right?
so here i am, armed and ready with my hermione granger, sirius black, and minerva mcgonagall pictures. i also had pictures of nike and pandora jewelry in my bag of tricks. and blow-my-mind there was one kid each time that knew exactly why it connected with greek (or roman in the case of minerva) mythology.
which of course is awesome. to know they are so excited about learning different things and they have the chance to be exposed to this is inspiring. i sure as heck had never read any of these greek myths (although somewhere along the line in my k-12 education i did learn about hercules, probs thanks to mr. disney).
and to be honest, in my 55ish minutes with these 5th graders today, i learned more about mythology than i did the weeks i spent planning and researching.
it is amazing what i don't know about greek mythology. but it is even more amazing to me what these kids do know. i can't remember exactly what i was like in 5th grade (except i know i liked to pass notes and that i failed a daily edit quiz), but i sure don't think i was excited about greek mythology.
but i'm excited about what i will learn now and it's all thanks to those kids this morning.
