(no subject)
First off, before I go into student teaching stories, I've gotta gloat about this weekend, and how awesome it was. Because finally (finally!!), after obsessing about it for two years, I got to see Wicked.
Ok, so "see" is a slightly relative term. We were so far up that the top of the stage essentially blocked our view of any of the backgrounds, but there were really only 2 points in the show where the action was far enough back that I missed it and wanted to see what was going on. We saw most of it, heard it all, and I was entraced. It was so amazing. When I see it next time (I will see it again...) I will see it from orchestra. Or at least a lower balcony. And more centered. But I'm not complaining, because it was amazing. When Elpheba started singing "Defy Gravity," I was so amazed I was finally seeing it for real that I started crying, because I'm dumb like that. Oh, I can't even put into works how cool it was, so I'm going to stop.
That, and the fact that I'm starving and want to go make dinner. So, without further ado, here is my lovely entry from 7th period.
Today started off less than stellar. I felt like crap when I woke up this morning, and basically decided that I hate my body. Or maybe it hates me. Either way, I can feel and oncoming cold and my head has been pounding since I got up. Not a good sign.
As a result, I was a little shorter than I should have been with my 3rd period kids. I felt bad, but ya know, they are *always* talking, and today, I didn't have the stamina or vocal power to talk over them even for the beginning of class. As a side note, I think that I'm going to have a respect talk with my honors kids next week. I love them all dearly, and they're great kids, but I am sick of constantly talking over them every 5 minutes. The proverbial final straw was when I had students giving presentations yesterday, and their classmates would turn around and talk during the presentations. I dunno. Some things I'm pretty flexible about. Most things, really. Even when I'm talking. But it's hard enough for most kids to get up in front of the classroom and blatantly disrespectful for their classmates to talk over them.
Aaaanyway, the badness continued when my Edgar Allan Poe video from yesterday (it worked yesterday! Seriously!) decided it wasn't going to stream today. Nothing. So I nearly panicked, took a deep breath to prevent the impending tears of frustration, and came up with a little poem activity I saw Meg do at CTY with her creative writing kids. (Remember your mood poems, Meg? Looks like, feels like, smells like? It was a life-saver.) I took some time over lunch to type up an example for them, which was therapeutic, actually.
And they came back in, and got to work. All but one student, which might actually be a record high for me. Even A. and H., who usually do nothing. And a lot of them had great similes! I was thrilled and tickled with what they were coming up with, and I vowed to do more zany, quick creative writing with them. They don't have the patience for longer, more in-depth creative writing, because they tend to get frustrated and loose interest, but this is totally a start.
Plus, I had to laugh. When A. was done with his poem, he was talking about this place where it always rained whenever he visited, and curious, I asked where. He said, "It's a video game," making it somewhere between a challenge and bored indifference. I asked which one, and he looked away and muttered, barely audibly, "World of Warcraft," to which I was able to cheerily reply that it was cool and I used to have a character on there before I got too busy with school work. The look I got was priceless. He was like, "Are you kidding?" so I told him about my little level-8 mage and he told me about his 10 characters, and it really made me happy to have connected with him on some level.
So all in all, my day just went from craptastic to pretty darned good.
This is why I love my Level 2 kids.
Oooh, and there's a new icon. I'm going to make a better on when I have time (ha!) but this is an old one I made before I learned cool Photoshop tricks and it works for now!
Ok, so "see" is a slightly relative term. We were so far up that the top of the stage essentially blocked our view of any of the backgrounds, but there were really only 2 points in the show where the action was far enough back that I missed it and wanted to see what was going on. We saw most of it, heard it all, and I was entraced. It was so amazing. When I see it next time (I will see it again...) I will see it from orchestra. Or at least a lower balcony. And more centered. But I'm not complaining, because it was amazing. When Elpheba started singing "Defy Gravity," I was so amazed I was finally seeing it for real that I started crying, because I'm dumb like that. Oh, I can't even put into works how cool it was, so I'm going to stop.
That, and the fact that I'm starving and want to go make dinner. So, without further ado, here is my lovely entry from 7th period.
Today started off less than stellar. I felt like crap when I woke up this morning, and basically decided that I hate my body. Or maybe it hates me. Either way, I can feel and oncoming cold and my head has been pounding since I got up. Not a good sign.
As a result, I was a little shorter than I should have been with my 3rd period kids. I felt bad, but ya know, they are *always* talking, and today, I didn't have the stamina or vocal power to talk over them even for the beginning of class. As a side note, I think that I'm going to have a respect talk with my honors kids next week. I love them all dearly, and they're great kids, but I am sick of constantly talking over them every 5 minutes. The proverbial final straw was when I had students giving presentations yesterday, and their classmates would turn around and talk during the presentations. I dunno. Some things I'm pretty flexible about. Most things, really. Even when I'm talking. But it's hard enough for most kids to get up in front of the classroom and blatantly disrespectful for their classmates to talk over them.
Aaaanyway, the badness continued when my Edgar Allan Poe video from yesterday (it worked yesterday! Seriously!) decided it wasn't going to stream today. Nothing. So I nearly panicked, took a deep breath to prevent the impending tears of frustration, and came up with a little poem activity I saw Meg do at CTY with her creative writing kids. (Remember your mood poems, Meg? Looks like, feels like, smells like? It was a life-saver.) I took some time over lunch to type up an example for them, which was therapeutic, actually.
And they came back in, and got to work. All but one student, which might actually be a record high for me. Even A. and H., who usually do nothing. And a lot of them had great similes! I was thrilled and tickled with what they were coming up with, and I vowed to do more zany, quick creative writing with them. They don't have the patience for longer, more in-depth creative writing, because they tend to get frustrated and loose interest, but this is totally a start.
Plus, I had to laugh. When A. was done with his poem, he was talking about this place where it always rained whenever he visited, and curious, I asked where. He said, "It's a video game," making it somewhere between a challenge and bored indifference. I asked which one, and he looked away and muttered, barely audibly, "World of Warcraft," to which I was able to cheerily reply that it was cool and I used to have a character on there before I got too busy with school work. The look I got was priceless. He was like, "Are you kidding?" so I told him about my little level-8 mage and he told me about his 10 characters, and it really made me happy to have connected with him on some level.
So all in all, my day just went from craptastic to pretty darned good.
This is why I love my Level 2 kids.
Oooh, and there's a new icon. I'm going to make a better on when I have time (ha!) but this is an old one I made before I learned cool Photoshop tricks and it works for now!