The Plate

During the "Friendship" unit, I started class showing this china plate and told the story of how it belonged to my grandmother, has been in the family for years, its so priceless to me, this is the last remaining piece, etc. Then (this is all staged) Trevor the trouble-maker of 2nd period walks in, and hands me his 'late' note.

I walk over to change his absence in the gradebook, and he picks up the plate and smashes it into a million pieces! I totally played up a scene, almost in tears, and just about to walk out of the classroom! It was priceless! The girls were almost in tears and the boys were all like, "I'll beat him up for you, Miss Hancock!"

Then we let the class in on the secret, that we had planned this, and then related a broken plate to a broken friendship, how you can glue it back together, but you'll still always see the cracks, remember what was said, how you felt. Haha, they've been talking about this for days now!