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Secondary Smorgasbord: Teachers’ Traditions

I never realized just how many classroom holiday traditions I have, until I tried to settle on one to write about. Does that mean I honor traditions? Or does it mean that I’m stuck on repeat? Is my whole life Groundhog Day? Am I destined to be that teacher everyone rolls their eyes at? Poor thing, there she goes again with that project… 

Enough with my existential crisis. Truth is, I just happen to love so much about the holiday season. For several years we would read Dickens’ original version of A Christmas Carol. I grew to know it so well that I could probably play every part on stage. It kills me every single time Scrooge tells Marley’s ghost the rationale behind his appearance, “You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!”
If you are lucky enough to be teaching A Christmas Carol, you are going to love this:

Created in 1901, it’s the first known film adaptation of A Christmas Carol. The entire story is told in under five minutes, and it even has some impressive special effects for the time. By special effects, I mean that Marley’s face is superimposed on the door knocker. Okay, this isn’t a George Lucas film, but it’s 1901 for goodness sake.

Let me know what you think!