"What did you do this weekend, Isaac?"

"I go to Food City,"

"what did you get at Food City?"

His response? "Food."

This kid catches on quickly....



Things in the classroom seem to go fine...I wonder how much better they could be if I was more consistent. I seem to have lapses of just getting tired and not using consequences the way I need to.

There are so many things that I need to do better. My planning is up and down...and how well I pull off a lesson doesn't seem to always correspond to how much time I spend planning. Sometimes my best lessons are the simplest ones that I put together in a few minutes...and what I think are well planned lessons totally bomb. It is also TOTALLY different with different groups of kids. I need to differentiate better. Then I get overwhelmed when I think of doing everything it would take to do things "right" and I just feel burnt out and I get paralyzed and LAZY. I realize more and more that I am still in the infancy of my development as a teacher...In SO many ways. In terms of my actual instruction, in terms of parent communication and keeping kids accountable......also, I think I need more consistent routines and systems and I have got to figure out a way to make things easier for myself so that I can do the important stuff without getting burned out. This makes me want to stay in my position for one more year so I can try and get it right.

mmmmm. deeeeeep breath. I will get better if I let myself learn.

4th Quarter Begins....

Well, I actually missed the first two days of the quarter due to illness. Apparently, Las Vegas is a great place to have fun....and come down with a cold. The Grand Canyon is a great place to NOT get over your cold and Phoenix is a great place for that cold to turn into an ear infection. Regardless, I made it back to the action by Wednesday with at least 1/3 of my voice. It was great...I think the kids were so relieved they didn't have a substitute, and felt bad for me that they were really well behaved. We had a really productive and fun three days doing AIMS writing practice. They now feel really comfortable with a pre-writing method we reviewed from earlier in the year and wrote persuasive letters to the cafeteria...they love to whine and try to get their way, so it comes somewhat naturally, plus we all love to talk about food. To top it off, fourth hour got to watch Adam Sandler's "Lunch Lady Land" at the end of class. The amazing thing was, as soon as that thing ended every single one of them was working furiously, determined to get their letters finished by the end of the hour.

Well done, sixth grade.

I had a perfect tutoring session with one of my favorite people, Isaac. The great thing is, since he is learning to speak English, we get to chat and joke around and it is a totally legit learning exercise. He is so smart and a very dedicated student. He is still learning the language but makes sure he figures out all the directions and turns in the parts of his science fair project on time something many students fluent in English have a hard time with! He is an amazing person in his personality as well. So good natured...there is more, but I can't quite describe it. I consider myself blessed to work with him.