Sunshine!

I need sunshine! It's been cloudy and rainy for three days now. Something has to change.

Yesterday, I observed a couple of classes at a magnet school in Bridgeport. It was SWANKY. Not in the financial sense, but in the sense that students sat quietly and did their homework. The walked through the hallways without a ruckus. And if they misbehave, they get kicked out (and sent back to my school). The science teacher was incredible, and she gave us some advice on how to bring rigorous science education to a classroom that is not in a magnet school. I learned a lot from her and got a good reminder about how to keep holding kids to high standards.

Today was challenging and rewarding, like most days seem to be. Red class, the homeroom of legend, was good. Although I walked out of class frustrated that I spent 40 minutes battling with them to stay on task, I realized I did not spend a single minute battling with them to sit in their seats or talk quietly or be silent when I'm talking. Not at all. This marks the end of one battle (until tomorrow, of course) and the start of a new one.

Yellow class was extra tough today. I had a nice challenging worksheet to push them today, but I was surprised with two new students. I could never get the class under enough control to reteach the material to the new students, and of course they didn't sit patiently or ask a fellow student for help. What am I supposed to do? I can't stop the class to reteach the material, but I also can't ignore them. If I had known in advance, I could have come up with a makeup textbook assignment or packet.

Tomorrow is Junior Achievement Day, which is a financial/entrepreneur awareness program for kids K-8. Some volunteers from GE are coming into the class to teach all day. This is nice, because I don't have to teach, and theoretically I can sit in the back and do some much-needed grading catch-up. Right? Except that my homeroom class will be sitting in my room ALL DAY. It'll be a fun experience in marathon classroom management.

I finished my planning for the week, which is a nice treat. That means that I'm all planned through December. It's not too far until Christmas Break! Only 2.4 weeks, although we have JA Day tomorrow, a half day next Wednesday, and a half day the following Friday. That makes it about 1.9 weeks to go.

In other cusp-of-adulthood news, my boyfriend got another interview and my Memphis friend got into Harvard Law School. Yeah. Harvard Law School. And I got a curved shower rod and installed it myself. Big victories for some and small victories for others.