The Egyptians

I have all kinds of questions asked of me whilst teaching junior high students. Some impress me of their comprehension of complex situations, others remind me of the important things in life. The other day I was beginning a unit on Egypt. I wanted to make a good impression with the students – build up their excitement about the topic and introduce it in a way that would make them all thirst for information on the subject.

I began, “Today we are going to be studying a new unit, one that continues some of the themes from the last one, Mesopotamia. Egypt has a rich history of building projects, dynasties of pharaohs, and life surrounding the Nile. We are going to inspect each of these aspects, by placing ourselves into some activities that will allow us, as a class to experience what life was like as an Egyptian. Are you ready?”

Instantly, murmuring began in the room and one hand shot up with a question. “Mr. Tillman, are we going to learn how to make cookies?”