first full week: donezo.
So eight school days into the 2011-2012 school years and I've got to say: I TOTALLY LOVE MY STUDENTS THIS YEAR. I'm pretty sure that my face genuinely lights up when they walk into the room. It started the first day of school during homeroom: the kids picked up on the fact that "meet your teacher" day had not been enough for me to memorize their names, made a line at my desk, and one by one, said "my name is ________ and I'd like a pass to _____." It was so polite and sweet.
They were troopers through the boring rules 'n' handbook parts of the first week and took the first essay assignment like champs- champs who use the writing process, even. Writers' workshop has been amazing- I started with narrative and borrowed an idea from Mrs. A to brainstorm using a getting-to-know you exercise- "9 facts and a fib." These students ask insightful and practical questions during the minilessons, and they've worked so hard to put descriptive details into their rough drafts that I gave them an extra day to get the finals done.
Reading instruction seems to be going well, too- they're coming in with a lot of prior knowledge and we got into the concept of utopian vs. dystopian science fiction when discussing conflict, which was fun for me. One of the kids said, "why can't we be tested on cool terms, like 'dystopia?' Why do they have to ask us about boring stuff like 'what was the setting?'"
Library day yesterday was a dream. Sometimes it's been me having to practically lead kids around on a leash and beg them to take books home, but this semester's classes? They've already been borrowing books from the classroom library, and when I asked a particularly bouncy young lady what she was so excited about during first period, she said, "We only have five minutes left before we get to go to the library!" like it should have been obvious to me. They scattered all over the media center after the librarian's intro, with *purpose.* Every time I asked a child if they needed help, it turned out that they actually knew what they were looking for and weren't just aimlessly wandering. One student who'd contributed a lot to our conflict discussion asked if teachers were allowed to check out books, and after I told him yes brought a book (The Clockwork Three- hello, middle school steampunk!) over to me, telling me I needed to read it.
Love, love, love. Feeling so blessed with these young people in my life. Hope we keep it up this way.
heather***
They were troopers through the boring rules 'n' handbook parts of the first week and took the first essay assignment like champs- champs who use the writing process, even. Writers' workshop has been amazing- I started with narrative and borrowed an idea from Mrs. A to brainstorm using a getting-to-know you exercise- "9 facts and a fib." These students ask insightful and practical questions during the minilessons, and they've worked so hard to put descriptive details into their rough drafts that I gave them an extra day to get the finals done.
Reading instruction seems to be going well, too- they're coming in with a lot of prior knowledge and we got into the concept of utopian vs. dystopian science fiction when discussing conflict, which was fun for me. One of the kids said, "why can't we be tested on cool terms, like 'dystopia?' Why do they have to ask us about boring stuff like 'what was the setting?'"
Library day yesterday was a dream. Sometimes it's been me having to practically lead kids around on a leash and beg them to take books home, but this semester's classes? They've already been borrowing books from the classroom library, and when I asked a particularly bouncy young lady what she was so excited about during first period, she said, "We only have five minutes left before we get to go to the library!" like it should have been obvious to me. They scattered all over the media center after the librarian's intro, with *purpose.* Every time I asked a child if they needed help, it turned out that they actually knew what they were looking for and weren't just aimlessly wandering. One student who'd contributed a lot to our conflict discussion asked if teachers were allowed to check out books, and after I told him yes brought a book (The Clockwork Three- hello, middle school steampunk!) over to me, telling me I needed to read it.
Love, love, love. Feeling so blessed with these young people in my life. Hope we keep it up this way.
heather***