Seniors...

Thought I'd re-post a few past entries about end of year activities for the newbies to the blog who haven't been through the archives. Here's one from FIVE years ago - how is that possible??

At my school, seniors graduate a week before school is out (usually it winds up being longer than that for make-up days, but it was a no-Snow Day year). And, of course, our school asks that senior final grades be posted a week before that so that they can notify non-graduates. As such, seniors can be difficult to work with their last week because they know that their grades are already in. Luckily, my one class that is primarily seniors only meets twice this week because of miscellaneous senior activities, but what to do those two days? One day is "course reflection" day, where they complete their Surveymonkey.com survey and write a letter to me evaluating the class. The other day I give out a "Graduation" quiz of general knowledge they should now have as almost-high school graduates. There are about 70 questions on it - here's a sampling:

What number comes after 22?
Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?
During what month of pregnancy is it safe for a pregnant woman to drink alcohol?
What is the square root of 64?
Who was the first explorer to circumnavigate the globe?
Name any two parts of a plant.
How many states are there in the US? (SCARY answers for this one, usually)
What quantity of alcohol is safe to drink before driving? (I love it when they ask me "For someone over 21 or under 21?)
What is the date of St. Patrick's Day?
How many bones do you have once you reach adulthood?
In which ocean is Hawaii?
Where did each of the four planes crash on 9/11?
What are the first three digits of Pi?

Once they realize what kind of a quiz it is and stop moaning they really get into it. When everyone is finished, we then go over the answers. Some of the scores are pretty frightening. The kids tend to really enjoy this, and we wind up with great discussions about what they've learned, what they wish they learned, and what they think they will use the most in post-high school life. Typically this uses the entire hour, but if there's time leftover I have them try to write down as many of the US states as they can remember. Also a little frightening. It's a great way to use one of those post-grades/pre-graduation days.