I found a teaching style that worked!

Yesterday, the psycho lady insisted on giving them their notes to copy for the period. So today I asked her which notes and she didn't give me a straight answer. I had a feeling I would end up creating something on the fly. After third period I have them one more time and she suggested that I read the notes to them. So she was so adamant about having them write their notes and then changed her mind. So I created a lesson that would help prepare them for the test next Tuesday. Instead of copying the notes down, I had them each pick a topic, such as knights, life on the manor, black death, and fall of Rome. They had four questions that they used the textbook to answer. After they answer the questions I had each of them teach the class about their topic. They loved it! They loved teaching the other students and showing off their knowledge. We had some nice discussions about it too. The psycho lady told us to shut up at one point. And I just said, "she can't be talking to us," and kept that denial. She doesn't understand that we were having a lively discussion about the material. Just because they were animated doesn't mean it wasn't academic. I'm standing right there too! I'm glad I handled it as a small issue and moved on ('cause I was really pissed inside). I need to try more peer tutoring and have students give more presentations. They rocked!