Bean dip & Yoohoos

The fact that I've been back at school for 8 days and just now sat down to write a blog might be a little insight into how insane these first weeks have been.

Before I vent about the craziness, I will tell you about how amazing my kids are.  Seriously.  They are everything my last years' kiddos were and more!  Of course, there are always the Johnnys of the class (sorry, bubba, your name is just pretty common :), but even those kiddos are endearing in their own ways...and very, very, small groups.  Ha!

But honestly, they are such a sweet group of kids.  Some of the bad attitudes that I had last year aren't represented in this group.  The whole 6th grade demeanor is just very sweet and kind.  I have found myself as hopelessly attached to this group as my  last.  It IS a fantastic feeling seeing my old kiddos, though.  Sometimes I intentionally walk through the 7th grade hall when classes let out :).  I get a few hugs, high fives, and even 20 second book talks.  Maybe I did something right last year!

Now on to the insane part of my year.  It feels as if I am starting all over.  Last year I taught reading to traditional and Pre-AP classes.  My lessons plans were often the same for each class, making planning a 2 prep event at most.

Although I am slowly but surely getting the hang of it, my plan book is a hot mess.  Not only am I teaching 2 different classes/subjects, I am teaching those objectives to 3 distinctively different levels of students.  Somehow it was decided that we would try to a create lower, more intensive class of students for each English teacher.  What has essentially resulted from this separation is a special education class....in MY care!  While not all of the students are considered to be so, a large majority fall into that category.  It is obvious that the class has to be taught much differently from my Pre-AP classes and traditional classes.  I do have a co-teacher in that class with me, but I am the captain of the ship!  It is by far the most challenging thing I have ever done.  Every single  day I realize something that I need to change about the way I work with them.  Last year, my most difficult class was a challenge mainly because of behavior alone- the struggling kiddos were interspersed with the more traditional students, which leveled out the playing field and helped pull the struggling kids up by example.  Now I'm dealing with zero focus, plenty of behavior issues, and a different learning style.  I will survive, though!  NEXT year I'll be perfect at my job. :)

One of the first things we did in a few of my classes was to create a page designed to help me get to know the students.  There are a lot of activities out there that serve this purpose, but I saw this on a teacher's blog and knew I had to do it!  I gave each kiddo a sheet that said "I am a...." and they had to fill the large 'I' with as many positive things as possible.  The results were pretty neat!  We ended up using them as a brainstorming activity for a writing assignment, so it actually served a double purpose.  Check out these cute papers.  I feel like this assignment made them dig pretty deep.  I really know what is important to them...plus I know who is really silly!

Back to lesson plans :)

-Mrs. Combs