Tomorrow, We Will All Be Awake

Posted by Alex Sharp Nov 2, 2008

Daylight Savings Time and Classroom

I used to have a great trivia question for my classes that I saved for the first Monday after Daylight Savings Time: " What is the longest month of the year?" It was October, because of the extra hour given from DST clock changes. Thanks to an act of Congress, the answer to the question is December, because it gets any leap seconds needed to adjust the clock.

At any rate, tomorrow is one of the few days I know everyone will be rested and ready to go. Working with teenagers eventually leads to an understanding of the general sleep habits of teens. Kids adjust to the time change in different ways, so I thought I would highlight some of the tips I have learned over the years for parents who want to help their kids get used to daylight savings time.

Elections and Classroom Discussions

Of course, the big topic this week in my classes will be the election. I am very pleased that my students seem to know so much about the different candidates and issues. Having multiple sources of information and different presentations of information has made it easier to be an informed citizen.

We had a mock election in class last week, and so I will be practicing what I preach when I go to work on Tuesday wearing my "I Voted" sticker. When my students ask me who I voted for, I am usually cryptic in my response. In 2000, I said, "The man I voted for has four letters in his last name." I enjoyed watching my students guess one candidate, and then realize - wait, they both had four letters (Bush and Gore). In 2004, I couldn't figure out anything as clever, so I just said I voted for "a candidate." This year, I haven't been able to figure out anything as tricky, so when a student asks which candidate I voted for, I might say, "The senator."