The Creativity of Students Never Ceases to Amaze

I'm trying to get myself into a weekly routine of 2 posts per week. I will be posting every Monday and Thursday from now on. However, I had to share these incredibly awesome moments from class today.

AWESOME Moment #1:

A student of mine came in after school the yesterday and decorated the chalkboard with an artistic interpretation of our assigned document readings. This image was waiting for my class when they walked in. The image also incorporates a theme of "corn is in everything" which is a joke taken from our study of agriculture in geography class last year.

Here's some historical context: The two documents were both from post-classical Eastern Europe, specifically Vladimir I of Kievan Rus, and an account of Byzantium's Constantine the Great. Both docs were written by monks from the Eastern Orthodox Christian faith. The general message of each document? Veneration of great "Christian" leaders. Both documents give accounts of the a leader accepting Christianity and baptism. Both go out of their way to legitimize the superior position of the Eastern Orthodox Christianity. The docs give accounts of some great "tall tale" miracle stories, and give some insight into what each historical figure might have actually thought about the Christian faith. It all makes sense given the POV of the authors, who also wrote in retrospect. You could even take the document on Constantine, or the document on Vladimir and compare them to Kati's doc about Mansa Musa. Lots of parallels are present.

AWESOME Moment #2:

A few moments after seeing the chalkboard... a different student came up and excitedly asked me, "Mr. Walker! Did you check your email?"

Here's what I found:

It's Mehmed II leading the Ottoman army towards Constantinople. I heard you liked the Ottomans, so yeah.... :D Hope you enjoy it!

P.S. i got the picture of your face from the WalkerTeach blog.

Apparently I was the secret weapon that the Ottomans used to capture Constantinople. Either that or I'm suddenly as cool as Bruce Campbell. Both options are absolutely acceptable.

Final Thoughts?

It's encountering moments like these that remind me of one reason why I am a teacher. Sometimes I am lucky enough to bear witness to completely random moments that prove just how amazing kids are.