This one is going to be short.
     Last week, on October 3rd, I talked to my beginning students about Germany's National holiday, "Day of German Unity".  To create context, we make sure to spend some time talking about the reason for the rift, the Cold War, and the specific problems in Berlin.
     In our classroom journals, I always start by asking students to write a few lines about what they know of the Cold War and the Berlin Wall. If they don't know anything about it, I tell them, as a "marker", to write that they know nothing about it. Then, they are to take notes on the discussion, and indicate what new things they learned.
     Well, one student, who turned their journal in late, wrote a line that I could not pass up.  She indicated "I don't know anything about the Cold War, or the Burlington Wall".
     Maybe the downturn in Arkansas temperatures, and the number of kids complaining of the cold (74 degrees) had her thinking about coats?
     At the end of the class, her notes had Berlin, the key dates, and several other lines about Cold War tensions.   I love my job!