Today was one of those days that felt like a week. We started with VB practice for the varsity this morning at 6:30 since their was a HS quad after school at home. Then I stayed after school and finally got my file folders for each kid organized. Luckily Brandon helped me with that. We left and then went straight to Brandon's parents' house to have hamburgers and okra with them and Meghan while she's home. I'm glad I'm finally sitting down! I feel like the first few weeks of school have both flown by and gone incredibly slow. I'm always busy and feel like I haven't had a moment to stop and think since we started, but yet I feel like we've done so much already that we've had to have been in school for weeks.
I wanted to share today some of the things my kids came up with for their quickwrite today. Basically, I start each class with a quickwrite: a 5-minute, write-as-fast-as-you-can journal entry. For the 8th graders, today, the topic was based off a photo of two bicyclists who were stopped on a road and looking straight at the camera. Their quest was to describe what it was that made the bicyclists stop and look. One kid decided it was because they could see right into our classroom, and they stopped when he announced that today's lunch was Salisbury steak. They were trying to figure out how to get into the classroom to eat with us. Another kid told in detail of the unicorn farm, where the unicorns were playing chess and the goats were singing. I can't remember all of them, but man, the imagination these kids have! Love it!
The 7th graders had a similar creative topic. Theirs was to imagine that they received an official-looking, white, business-size envelope in the mail from a company called Peerless with the words "You May Have Already Won" stamped on the outside in red. They were to then come up with the next part of the story. One kid told the story from a 3 year old's perspective, and she won a lifetime supply of Spaghetti-O's. Another kid wrote the letter that was actually in the envelope: it started out saying you had won a trip to outer space, but then said "just kidding" and was actually a letter asking for money to support research for kids afraid of the colors red, yellow and blue. Another kid told it from the perspective of the oldest man alive, who is 1,979 years old. And still walking (the kids got a kick out of that part).
They just amaze me with their varied ideas! I'm excited to hear what they have to say about Where the Red Fern Grows in 7th grade, and I know the 8th grade will come up with some good tall tales/myths/legends/folk tales/etc. in their unit this week and next.
I love being a teacher so far, but man, I feel so busy!!
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