You know you teach writing when you fuss at students for talking, they say, "Sorry, we were
plotting!" and that's a good thing.

Today's plans: Getting the oil changed in my car, watching college football, baking, and watching Pioneer Woman on the DVR. Fall is almost here, I can feel it!

heather***

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 ( Read more... )

Right after school opened today, one of my second period girls, came in, still wearing her coat and carrying her backpack. "Ms. B!" she said and came straight back to my desk and gave me a big hug. When I asked her what the hug was for she said she missed me over Winter Break. I was kind of overwhelmed by how sweet that was ( Read more... )

Yesterday I went with JQ and our group of friends to the high school football game (in the county where I teach). I saw several of my students from last year- who all look taller and seem more mature now that they are ninth graders.

First, I saw Marcus running around with his cousin who is currently in my class. I basically ran down the ( Read more... )

The state writing test was last week. The first day was kind of disastrous behavior-wise, so the second day I had a game plan from the minute I woke up. I wore dark, plain, boring clothes, and put my hair back and wore my glasses (my kids always say I look like I mean business when my hair's up) and no makeup. Before the kids arrived, I took the ( Read more... )

I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I assigned a personal narrative essay. I just thought it would be easier for my students to write about their own lives than to make something up, so I gave them two prompts to get them started. One was to write about a time when they took a chance to do something they'd been afraid to do, and one ( Read more... )

Quote of the Day: "Kick your mother in the ass and tell her to send her brother an e-mail." - my uncle Stan (who is nuts)Today I forced myself to stop worrying about the upcoming unit test and writing simulation and read Tennyson's "Ring Out, Wild Bells" with my students. I pretended to be a foreign language teacher and we pretended to be ( Read more... )