Hope lingers on

This afternoon, I had complete silence and (seemingly) attention of Class C, just for the reading workshop. Wow!

Class B started off the day; they did very nicely first period. Second got a bit rowdy.

Class A was just one period; they were rowdy.

All of them, once I got through my lesson on SNOT (Show and Not Tell), and had them start working on practicing, I circulated and saw some good work.

My examples of boring vs SNOT:
She cried.
Tears fell down her cheeks like rain.

I walked to school.
I floated all the way to school.

He hates his sister.
He ripped all his sister's toys to shreds and stomped on them.
(a student actually came up with that one)

I left school at 3.00. I got home at 6.15. In between, I took three buses (an hour and a half) to get to UPS, a bus and train to get back to Forest Hills, then stopped at the grocery store before walking home. I have actually been losing weight; those tan cords are a size eight and fit just right. I don't think I've bought anything in an 8 in years. But it's just because I hardly eat during the day and then, even though I think I eat a lot when I get home, I get full easily.

It's already 7.20. I need to shower, watch some tv, try to get some work done on my own homework, and fine-tune my plans for tomorrow.

In discussion with another first-year teacher/kindred spirit, I decided to do the next project as a biography. BUT, it will be a biography of a fictional person that the students will create, in the time of Ancient Egypt. That's what they've been studying in Social Studies, and it includes lots of intelligences.

Tomorrow is my synonym lesson. It may go on through Thursday, we'll see how it goes.

Fantastic Mr Fox is going over well. I'm using that for activating prior knowledge (about foxes and about farmers) and then for making predictions. Each short chapter is perfect for predicting the next event.

Okay, I will try to get some work done. Also, I have some new pics to share with you! Hurrah!