One more week!

Of classes, at least. Two more of summer school and Fellow Advisory. Woo!

Yesterday we turned in a big project called a literature log, where we accumulated different kinds of 'touchstone texts' that will help us teach pieces of literacy in the classroom. My author study was on Roald Dahl; I read "The Twits," "Fantastic Mr. Fox," and "The BFG." They were all great, I highly recommend them.  That's one excellent thing about teaching--a free pass to read fun children's books!

Let's see, what else? So next Thursday we have a final exam in our child psych/development class, and in literacy class we have a presentation of all the sample work we've done that will be units in our own classrooms.  Like a report (I wrote mine about the ocean), a narrative account (a picture book; I think mine will be about the night we went to Starlight Express and two British strangers helped us get there and get home), a narrative procedure (a how-to; mine is "How to ride the subway"--it's pretty clever), several kinds of poetry, and that's mostly it, I think.  Lots to do in the next six days.

This weekend I have no plans really. I need to do laundry, and I keep telling myself I will clean the bathroom. We'll see how long it takes me to actually do it.  I'm doing fairly well keeping the dishes washed and that sort of thing, and I'm containing my clutter a little better.

Things are a little lonely. I like my classmates, but it feels like there are some little cliques and of course I don't belong in one. I do my own thing and walk at my own pace, literally.  Many people stroll between classes together, but they go way to slow for me, so I just steam on ahead. Tra la la.

Hm, I can't really think of anything else. I'm beginning to feel pretty helpless and clueless; there is so much information shoved down our throats, not to mention all the paper thrown at us, that there is no way I know it all. I am hoping that it will go slowly and that I can get help implementing all these complicated teaching strategies. This morning we went to a "new teacher induction," but it just talked about the mentors the city is now giving all new teachers. I'm pretty relieved and excited about that.