Mrs. Stubbs's English Blog: Being Unpopular...Always a Good Time

Well, in case you're not aware by now, mid-term progress reports went out last week. It made me very popular amongst my students (not). I don't usually send home a hard copy since everyone has access to grades continuously, but I felt that they were not checking grades, not worrying about grades, not setting real goals (as a whole - not all, but most). I believe that they need to be pro-active, not re-active, and so I decided to go this route. As I handed them out, a few said, "It's OK. We check them all the time at home." But I also heard many say, "Great! Now my parents are going to want to see all my grades," and "You're getting me grounded, Mrs. Stubbs." I was even stopped by other teachers to be teased about how well-loved I am right now. If it means that those who were paying no attention and putting their future high school career into jeopardy are now paying attention, then it's worth it. It's just not very pleasant.

So last week, here's what we accomplished: we finished Act III and took a quiz (which I'm still working on grading); we did our first round of Khan Academy Test Prep for the PSAT which is coming up in April; we read part of Act IV.

Here's this week's schedule as it stands right now:

Monday, 2/27 - we'll hand back papers; 2nd Hour will continue with Verb Packet #4 (the rest are done); we'll finish reading The Crucible.
Tuesday, 2/28 - we'll continue with verbs; they'll start watching The Crucible and do a Type 2 identifying 10 key differences from text to movie.
Wednesday, 3/1 - academic advisory - we'll continue with verbs; we'll continue the movie and Type 2.
Thursday, 3/2 - career advisory - we'll continue with verbs; we'll try to finish the movie and the Type 2.
Friday, 3/3 - we'll begin the final assessment, which will be a final, multi-paragraph essay. I'm working on getting their mid-unit essays done now so that they have them back before they do the final essay - it just takes me a lot of time.