Quote of the Day

My approach to distance learning has been to maintain the daily announcement that I provide through our learning management system, and so students have worked through the agenda as usual, just at home and with no direct instruction. As part of the announcement, we always have a quote of the day, and this week has been no different in that respect either, except that I have asked the kids to respond to the QotD in writing and to post their thoughts on the class discussion board.

Here's what we've written about this week:

Monday: “She refused to be bored, chiefly because she wasn't boring.”~Zelda Fitzgerald 

Tuesday: “I find the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." ~Thomas Jefferson 

Wednesday: “Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out." ~John Wooden 

Thursday: "A pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty." ~Winston Churchill

I've tried to choose aphorisms that give them the opportunity to process what's going on through a lens of optimism, but today, when I asked which one they were in response to Churchill's words, most identified as pessimists.

I was thinking about their responses as I took a walk this afternoon, and I wondered how I could lighten the mood a bit for tomorrow. I decided to use a quotation from Ben Franklin: "Trouble knocked at the door, but, hearing laughter, hurried away." and ask the students to share something that made them laugh this week.

I'm looking forward to reading what they write.