Finis - For Now

We made it!  I cannot tell you what an honor it has been working with these kids.  I'm so humbled by and grateful for the opportunity the parents of these great students have given me.  Thank you for letting me be a part of your lives.

 First Hour

 My Before-School Buddy

 2nd Hour

 The Pancake Masters

 3rd Hour

 5th Hour

6th Hour

One of My Hardworking, Fabulous Freshman

Finis - For Now by Laura Stubbs is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

One More Full Week!

Here we are in the final full week of the year!  Can you believe it?  I should be winding things down, but I keep coming up with fun projects for my students to do, so it will be a busy week!

In English 9, we finished reading Part I of The Odyssey and they took the test on Friday.  This week we will watch the full movie and use the narrative as a model for writing their own heroic epic poems.  I'm going to have them start off by brainstorming ideas to use from their own life, and then I'll let them go crazy (in the same style as The Odyssey, with fantasy elements and all).  The draft will be due on Friday so that I can correct them over the weekend.

In English 11, we finished reading Night and they also took a test on Friday.  I have finished grading their personal narratives, and this week we will be creating web pages based on those narratives.  My focus is on the idea of how we tell our own story.  To add to this, we'll be watching The Book Thief in order to think about the interesting choice of having Death tell his own story during the Holocaust.  I want them to think of two things:  when sharing our story, we need to choose our details carefully so that when the public reads it our story becomes part of the fabric of society.

I'm hoping that my students are as excited by these projects as I am.  I look forward to seeing what fun and creative ideas they'll incorporate!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week.  Ciao!


One More Full Week! by Laura Stubbs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Two and a Half Weeks...

Graduation is over, and I'm feeling sentimental.  I love participating in graduation, and I'm so grateful that so many have allowed me to play a small part in their lives.  I loved many students in the Class of 2014, and I'm so happy for them and look forward to hearing from them as they enter this new chapter in their lives. Onward, and upward, right?

And while I'd love to dwell in nostalgia-land, I can't because we still have TWO AND A HALF WEEKS TO GO!!!  Can you believe it? I feel like I should have my room boxed up and I should be turning my kiddos back over to their parents for two months, but those abominable snow days are coming back to haunt us now.  Bummer!  But whatcha gonna do?

Onward, and upward...

In English 9 we're finishing Part I of The Odyssey in the textbook.  We'll take a test over it when completed and I have the movie so they can see it as a whole.  After that, we'll do a little poetry to end the year...I'm thinking performance art for the last day of school.  Hmmm...I'll have to dwell on that idea a little.  They are also taking their second NWEA assessment of the year on Tuesday and I've asked them to do their best so that we can see if they are growing as students.

In English 11 we're halfway through Night and I'd like to finish it this week.  There are quite a few interruptions, of course, so we'll see if we get to the test or not. A.P. meetings for next year are this week, and I'm pulled out a couple of days for different meetings, so we'll see how this goes.  I'd like to test late this week or early next week.  I'll try to keep you posted.

I hope everyone is enjoying the glorious weather and getting in some family time.  It's that busy time of year!