When 4 Copiers Don't Work & Student Artwork

At Springville Junior High, we have 2 duplicators (big copiers for 50+ copies) and 3 copiers. Friday the 11th was a teacher work day. Teachers were inputting semester grades and making copies for this semester. 

Well, one broke. Then, another. And another. Then, the fourth. We only had one copier (for 40> copies) working on Monday. (DISCLAIMER: I broke none!) 

I met up with many teachers on Monday morning in the workroom to make copies. Numerous teachers were upset that they couldn't get copies that day. And...our specialist was on a cruise that week!

Tuesday, I go back in because I still needed copies. Nope. But, I was told that the copiers would be fixed tomorrow morning.

Wednesday, I go in the morning. Nope. I go during lunch. Nope. I go after school. Nope.

Now, I was a little worried. I needed copies for Thursday's lesson. I was teaching my 8th graders about the important Founding Fathers who came to the Constitutional Convention and what they did. I was going to have them read biographical worksheets with questions to answer. Well, now I had to come up with a different lesson plan. 

So, I googled lesson plans that didn't involve 135 copies. I went on uen.org and found this Constitutional Convention simulation. Now I only had print off 13x4 copies. (13 states who went to the Convention and 4 U.S. history classes.)

I loved this lesson! It went wonderfully! My students had fun working in different sized groups answering questions about how the country should be run. Coming together as a whole Convention and trying as a class to come up with a singular answer for each question was outstanding with the different ideas that I heard from my students. I loved it! So much better than the lesson plan I had before the copiers broke.

Well, besides having great ideas in their heads, my students sometimes can be artists. But not in the serious sense. I find little sketches on the desks. I take a picture and then warn them that if they do it again...well, don't. 

So, here are some drawings on desks in my classroom:

A little spooky.

This was on someone's homework.

You can't see because of the glare, but there is a caption by the Penguin: "Peaunguien: spelled incorrectly on purpose =)"