I confess; I went to my classroom late this afternoon and worked for three hours. Today is the last day of Spring Break and I have stayed away more this year than any before. Ostensibly I went to set up the CD player we used to have in our house. Before he moved to France, our younger son gave us his flat screen tv and stereo/dvd/cd/surround sound media thingy that has everything in one unit. They use a totally different system over there. In order to properly "house" our old aiwa stereo, I needed to clear a place. In the process, I not only cleaned off a table that has needed some serious TLC since before Christmas, but also went through two big boxes of junk hidden under the table. I dumped a lot of paper stuff there just to get it out of my way. I sorted, filed, threw away a bunch of stuff, put other stuff into notebooks, and used my clorox wipes on every surface around my desk. I have the wipes sitting out so we can tackle the student desks first thing in the morning.
My white boards were ready to go before Spring Break, all charts were already up to date, my plans and copies were done ahead, so I'm ready. School starts tomorrow - the final countdown. I have nine weeks... 43 actual school days (I never count weekends or holidays). When I look at all I would like to do, I absolutely know I don't have enough time. This particular group of 8th graders never mastered basic grammar. I think it was neglected in earlier years and no matter how hard I have worked with them, they just can't seem to get it. So tomorrow, I'm going to start a project that I used with my very first class... of third graders! We're going to 'make' grammar books. They'll define the part of speech, write three example sentences, and illustrate or cut and paste pictures that represent that particular part of speech. My 7th graders are so far ahead of my 8th graders it's not funny but I bet they'll want to do this too once they hear about it. I may make it a tradition. I'm only spending this week on it. I've devoted more direct time to the parts of speech than I ever have before and I'm not going to do more than this.
I have a stack of WWII novels I want kids reading plus there is a novel based in 12th century Korea, A Single Shard, that we must do! As a private school, we receive several international students for a year or more of study. Most of our guest students come from Korea. I hunted for quite some time to find a book that I felt would not only highlight the antiquity of their country and culture but would teach our American students about the country in a way that would honor our Korean students. I love this book! The main characters are dirt poor and yet extremely ethical in all aspects of their lives. They are a complete contrast to the situational ethics that many countries, including our own, seem to accept. So a week from tomorrow, one 8th grade class will start this novel while the other begins literature circles with WWII novels. I'd prefer to do both at the same time but I'm short a few books. I may beg for more copies; it would make my life so much easier to only have one prep rather than two. And when the year comes to this point, I do want to make my life easier! There's so much 'stuff' that has to be done. We've already received the curriculum order sheets for next year. If we get our orders in early, we save $$$. I really do understand that, especially these days. Any---way--- here we go! The countdown is ON!
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