It Didn’t Happen

I feel like this entry is going to be a bit rushed.  It is already 10 pm, I just finished meal prepping for the week, and I still have to shower!  I wanted to get so much more accomplished this weekend, but it didn’t happen.

And that’s okay.  That is another aspect of myself I am working on this year, trying not to beat myself up when things don’t go as planned.  I made an honest effort after all and while I may not have accomplished everything I wanted to, it isn’t like I wasted this weekend.  This weekend was spent doing laundry, spending time with my family, and even doing a little prepping for the coming school week.  I would honestly say I accomplished a lot.

That being said, the first week with students was fairly successful as well.  I have some good students this year and the first week was spent focusing on building community and (attempting) to learn names.  My College English class collaborated on a mission statement for the class, my AP English Language made observations about text from a simple line scramble activity, and even my English 11 class had some fun stories to share with me during their composition of personal narratives.

I honestly didn’t mean to spend so much time on some of the things that we did (namely the mission statement), but I felt that it really tied in to my idea of making the Composition class into a true writing community that we could all contribute to throughout the year.  I had students in small groups composing their mission statements for the class and then I took them and “riffed” them into one cohesive mission statement.  The next step is to look at the commentary they left for me and polish it up!  I took a peek at what they had so far and I have to say I am very excited for it.  I’ll make sure to post it when it is finalized.

I also really enjoyed implementing “Rounds” in the classroom.  I got to hear students praise each other’s works, writings, and ideas.  It was very encouraging (which was a big focus for them in crafting their mission statement).

I hope I can keep it up.  This weekend did not allow for a lot of time to read narratives like I wanted to, so I have already fallen behind in that regard.  I won’t be able to stay late tomorrow either.  But, as I said, I am going to try to not focus on those things and focus on what I DID accomplish.  It feels like a lot if nothing else.

Here’s to an awesome second week.  I hope next weekend might be less busy so I can dedicate more time to a proper blog entry.