Tricky, Tricky

I was very patient today, stopping every time there was noise. I did my best to put off a wounded, disappointed look each time, too. So really, the kids kind of patrolled themselves. They heard me stop mid-word or mid-sentence or whatever, they saw my put-upon face, and they told the noisy ones to shut up. Whee!

I've been telling my classes about skinny vs fat questions. That's working pretty well. Next up is a 'game' for literature circle discussions. I just need to come up with questions to pose to the groups.

For writing, I talked about the way that characters have to solve a problem or overcome some kind of obstacle. Then I wrote a list of the parts to a story. Finally, I introduced the mini-project. I made sure to threaten to take it away if they didn't behave correctly, though. I let one person come up and choose one card from each pile (character, setting, problem, troubling trait, helping trait, solution). Then they will put them all together and create details for a story. Thursday they will act it out in their table groups.

Cross your fingers, y'all.

After school, one of the coaches was nearby when I was all firm-bitch-lady, telling the kids in front of my class to turn around and move. She said that she hadn't seen that side of me yet. I laughed and said, oh yeah, I'm a big ol' bitch. She was all, right on.

A conversation between two kids in Class C, before school:
Student 1:...oh wait, I'm confused.
Student 2: You're always confused!
Student 1: Hey, not all the time.
Student 2: Yeah, you are.
Student 1: Well, yeah.

I came home and ate a bit. Then, I went and worked out! I went to something called "Therapy Dance." That's a total misnomer; it's really Latin Dance Aerobics. Salsa-type steps for 45 minutes. It was pretty fun. Very cardiovascular but not too intense, and I didn't get all red-faced and over-exerted. It was a great way to ease myself back into the workout routine. There's a stability-ball class on Thursday night that I'm really excited about.