Spring Break flew by. So has the entire month of April.
A few weeks ago I had a really fun day with my 8th graders. I tried something new. Which is sometimes a scary thing. But, most of the time it's a lot of fun. So, we've been working on historical fiction and have done a couple writing prompts to get them thinking in terms of being other characters. For the day's writing prompt, we did a musical chairs of sorts. The students had a writing prompt about World War II and were hiding a Jewish family. I had them write down their initial part of the stories and then they had to switch after about a minute. They went to someone else's story and read it, then added their own thinking to the writing for another minute. We did this four times, then the last minute they went back to their own writings. It was quite funny to watch them get a little mad, especially when another student took the story in a completely different way than what they wanted. Once they finished their stories they had a chance to read them to each other, I've never had so many hands in the air of students willing to read their stories aloud.
We did the whole process again today and they surprised me so much with how well they did. Their writing has surpassed my expectations this year. They have done so well and I'm so proud of how far they've come. A couple of students have even told me they are going to keep working on their stories even though they already got credit for them. This truly puts a smile on my face. When they are willing to continue writing even after the "grade is given," that's the best feeling.
We have about 13 days left of school. I don't know where the time has gone. This year has truly flown by and I can't believe I'm getting ready to end my second year of teaching.
Currently, I am standing in line waiting on buy one get one free from Chipotle for Teacher Appreciation Day. It's a nice treat after this very busy year. I'm looking forward to finishing up the next few weeks and have already started to plan for next year, which is insane to me. To think I've planned all the way through this year and that I'm ready for the next one already. I am in such a different spot in the year than I was last year. The amount of growing I have done in the past year is tremendous. I know it'll only get better from here for the next few years.
Love from the girl who has checked out of this year and is ready to hit the ground running next year.
