This evening I had my first online ethics class since stopping for a week to make time for last week’s ISO meeting. I wrote the lesson plan yesterday, and it’s on the topic of Witch Hunts, since this is the last full week (Tuesday to Monday) before Halloween. I start with the Salem witch trials to set historical context, and ask some questions about why those events happened and how something so grossly unjust could take place. And then move onto modern figurative witch hunts, where people are accused of something with little or no evidence, and what sort of consequences may occur.
It’s a fairly complex topic for the age group of the kids I’m dealing with, but most of them are pretty bright and I think they can handle it. Except today I had a new enrolment, and I did the full 3-minute introduction to the class, then launched into the backgrounds tory and starting asking questions, and when it came to this new kid she just looked like a deer in the headlights. I had to ask several times if she was thinking, or if she understood the question, or if indeed she understood English, before determining that her English skills were quite rudimentary. I had to remove her from the class, and then afterwards refund the class fee, unenrol her, and write a message of explanation to the parent.
At lunchtime today I took Scully on a long walk, with ball chasing time. She’s missed out a little lately, so it was good to get out in the fresh air for a good long while today.
This afternoon I catalogued and photographed more Magic cards for listing on eBay. A few hundred cards from the Unglued, Unhinged, and Unstable comedy sets, and a few hundred from Throne of Eldraine.
New content today:
Yeah, it’s unfair to the student to throw her into a class as abstract and discussion-based as yours when she can’t communicate well in the language.
If she spoke Italian, you could create a class just for her. You’d probably improve your own language skills while teaching it.