Week 9 Reflections: Pictures!

I know I've been a bit lax in my blogging the last few weeks.  Today I found out I have also become lax in my social interactions in the real world as well. One of my dear Spanish teacher friends commented this morning that I hadn't popped my head in to say hi in a while, and asked if everything was okay.  Her concern touched me, though I AM okay - I just hadn't realized how busy my brain had gotten until she said something!

In the last two weeks, I split my two English 3 classes into two different lesson plans, as one finished the Scarlet Letter and the other read a Nathaniel Hawthorne short story, Dr. Heidegger's Experiment, and wrote a paper.  I have an AP section that meets during the lunch block, which means that no matter which schedule we're on, it's always sixty minutes long.  Even on normal days this is seven minutes longer than my other sections, and on days like today, with a pep rally, I see them for a full 13 minutes longer.  Given that this particular bunch is extraordinarily fast-paced in completing their work, they practically require their own prep, as they are typically at least a day ahead of everyone else.

I've been slowly putting together a financial literacy unit for next week (I'll post more about that soon - stay tuned!), and that, combined with my self-inflicted four preps, and joining new stuff at church, and running our little household whilst hubster has been in the field for the last several weeks, has caused me to turn my gaze inward so I could focus on getting everything done.  So, in lieu of deep, reflective blog posts, I'm going to make this a pictoral post, and share some of the happy things happening in the first two months of school.

Our S.M.A.R.T. goal wall we made the first week of school. When the second six weeks began, I made them reevaluate their progress on their goal they posted.

Yay!  This student IS making good progress on this one.

The wonderful library staff gave our "Second Tuesdays" seminar a window display with our schedule.  October was study skills, and we had 11 kids come - about 9 more than we expected. November's seminar covers college applications.

A rather fantastic version of the Scarlet Letter, straight off the book cover, graffitti'd on one of my desks.

Examples of the character posters my American Lit students did in groups as part of their reading of the Scarlet Letter.