Monday, February 28, 2005

Here We Go Again--Double Whammy

First day back at school after midwinter break. ALSO, another big ol' snowstorm! We're supposed to get between 6-12 inches between earlier this afternoon (2ish) and tomorrow at noon. Eek.

Well, let's start the day at the beginning, shall we? I went to bed at 11 and, of course, was not tired. Naturally. All night I tossed and turned, doing the "my eyes are closed! look! i'm sleeping! right? RIGHT?!" thing. Meaning, not really asleep. Weird worry-half-dreams about school and lessons and shit. After the alarm went off (which was really terrible to wake up to! I miss vacation already!), I was quite awake and alert, considering I wasn't really sleeping anyway.

Going to school felt very strange and surreal. Like I wasn'tsure I was doing what I was supposed to. And not positive it was the right day. (I'm always second-guessing myself like that.) Quite odd, altogether. Had to make a mad dash for the bus, which was idling at the curb when I emerged from the subway entrance. (Can you emerge from an entrance? Hm.) So I ran down the block, getting slowed/stopped by an old woman and then a car. I actually yelled out, "Move! Move! FUCK!", which kind of made me giggle, mid-panic. I made the bus, and I was the last one; a minute later a few more people tried to get on, pounding on the closed door, but the driver just moved on. Harsh.

Let's see. I was kind of happy to see the students. Shh, don't tell anyone. However, my head ached and felt fuzzy from lack of sleep and eat. I still coughed all day and blew my nose a bunch. Sexy!

Class A started things off...they were quite rowdy at the beginning of class. A lot, really. Once things got settled, though, they actually calmed down and were all on task. Just one little bugger was all talky and noisy. The others...were good. Holy cow.

I did decide to do the basics first, and I will do sort of a 'skill of the week.' We're starting with character development. I read them "Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros (an excellent and very short story; I highly recommend it), and they took notes on personality of the main character. Then they finally got to start reading Bridge to Terabithia, and they took notes on that main character.

For writing workshop, we made character maps. A few weeks ago we did self-character maps, but today I asked them to think about somebody they know really well, and make a character map about that person. For homework, they are to use those details to make a written description about them.

Class B was okay. Attitude A was in top form, so I sent her shrieky ass out of the room. Those two boys who don't do anything...didn't do anything except cause trouble today. But two boys who can be troublesome did pretty well staying semi-focused. That's cool.

Class C was okay too. They did pretty well with the reading stuff. Fairly chatty with the writing stuff. Same old, same old.

I stayed about an hour after school, doing paperwork type things, because they canceled the PD! Whee! See, snow is not so bad, is it?

Question: Should they still call it a "Winter Storm Warning" AFTER it's started snowing?

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