Well the first full week of school has come and gone. Personally, I prefer this second full week to the first few days. I love just jumping right in and getting to the meat of the classes; I hate the rules, and syllabus, and housekeeping stuff that has to happen at the beginning of the year. I'm not a huge fan of get to know you activities, I would rather just literally get to know them by getting things going!
I do forget though how it does take some time to get procedures and expectations down, especially with the freshman. I come in with memories of how the class was run by May, forgetting that each year my past freshman were once new freshman, and it took some time to establish a routine with them. Patience Patience Patience is key these first couple of weeks, and I do have to keep reminding myself of that.
I am EXCITED for this year though. Every year I think it has potential to be the best, and I love that feeling. I am most looking forward to my electives (Creative Writing and Yearbook) this year. One of the struggles of teaching at a small school is scheduling. When required classes are only offered one period a day, it makes it difficult for kids to have a lot of flexibility to take the classes they want to take. On the other hand with that, kids sometimes end up taking electives they really have zero desire for, they just need a class to fill 1st period with etc. It gets incredibly frustrating! The kids who truly want to take your class can't, and then the kids who don't want to be in there, are. The past four years I have really worked on developing the curriculum for Creative Writing and the Yearbook business, and I feel like things are finally coming together. Our Yearbook won A NATIONAL AWARD for last year's book ( I admit, I cried when I found out), and this year's creative writing class is the best I've ever had. Only 9 students (up from 4 last year), and every single one of them WANTED to be in this class. I even have HALF of them that truly want to be writers, and I can tell already that they have a passion for the craft.
I got them started this year reading Stephen King's "On Writing". I believe King is the best writer of all time, ever. He is magnificent at what he does, and is a truly gifted storyteller. I've read
"On Writing" a few times, the first time being back in college. Each time I read it I get so fired up about writing and just feel the fire burning to put words to pages and create something new. I wanted my kids to feel that same excitement, especially since I knew a majority of them truly want to become writers. This week we've been reading his words and blogging about their responses, and I am SO EXCITED for them to start writing next week! They have had some great insights and reflections while reading; I am always amazed at what goes on in their heads, and how they express those thoughts through their writing.
Through our reading and writing this week I have also had them set them goals for themselves. We've talked about how great readers also need to be readers! I've challenged them to read a certain amount of books this semester, and to give up TV and phone time and actually try to read each day. So, along with them, I am also challenging myself. Obviously I love to read, but a lot of times during the school year I find myself reading less and less. Last spring I set a goal for myself on Goodreads to read 50 in 2016. I've read about 20. My goal is read those last 30 by the end of the semester. I need to follow my own advice though (which honestly is tough...I can preach it to the kids..but I need to practice living it!), which means I need to not just turn to Netflix when I get home, and start carrying a book around with me again.
The other goal I had them set was what type of writer they want to be, or what do they hope to accomplish. King talks about how to be a writer you need to write. Every. day. I always tell myself I will write along with the kids, but then as the year gets going I tend to just work on other things while they write. I am determined this year to get back to my writing roots. Even before I wanted to be a teacher I was a writer. Writing is a huge part of me that I have really let slip away. Especially after reading King's book, again, I am ready to get back at it...and I have the greatest class ever to help inspire me and keep me going this year!
I say it every year, but, I think this will be the BEST year yet <3
Peace, Love,
Ms. A :)
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