Gandhi's birthday....

* It's Gandhi's birthday today. I've always been a big fan of Gandhi. I mean, who isn't, right? :) * Being that he is a national hero in India, and it is a national holiday in India, today we celebrate it. :) With cake, of course. :) Gandhi is on all of the money in India. Well, he's everywhere. Everyone loves Gandhi in India, well, and around the world. * In class today, I talked about how Gandhi invented peaceful non-violent protest. And, how he used it to help South Africa get equality. And, then he used peaceful protest to help his own people back in India get rid of British rule. Martin Luther King Jr studied Gandhi, and used his non-violent protest methods in the civil rights movement. * Gandhi was a wise peaceful man. He was shot in his backyard one evening, when he went out to his garden to pray. * I showed the students pictures of him, and I showed students many of his quotes. His most famous being, "be the change you wish to see in the world." I love that quote. He is so wise. * After I told my students that, I asked them to journal a half of a page. I told them they can write a reflection about Gandhi in anyway they wanted to. Then I gave them some ideas. They could respond to, "what did you think," "what did you feel," "what did you notice," "what did you connect with," "what did you realize," or interpret the quote. They could answer any one of these questions, all of them, or any combination of them that they wanted. Or they could write in their own way about Gandhi. * 1st hour, one student, "why are we learning about Gandhi?" * Me, "I told you at the beginning remember? It's because we are studying memoir, and it is Gandhi's birthday. And, I just thought it would be someone interesting to talk, and write about for the memoir unit." * Same student, "I don't get it, I don't know anything about him." * Me, "remember, we just talked about it. He invented peaceful non-violent protest to help South Africa, and India. Martin Luther King Jr used his methods in the civil rights movement." * Same student, "I don't get why we are talking about him. Why is he important?" * Me, "He created peaceful non-violent protest." * Same student, "I still don't get it. Why are we talking about Gandhi again?" * Me, "it's his birthday, and we are in the memoir unit." * Same student, "what? I still don't get it." * Me, "well, why don't you write down all the questions you have in your journal?" * Student, "I hate this class. This is so stupid." * Ahhhhhh. That was just one student though, well, it might have been 2 or 3 different kids by the end of the day, that said similar things. But, the majority of the kids said some really cool stuff in their journal. Oh man, kids, gotta love em. :) And I do. :) * Then with the family, we had dinner, and cake. Gandhi cake. Gotta love it. :)