Starting Over

So after taking a week to step away from posting here and on Edmodo, I feel (slightly) refreshed and refocused, I thank Mary Beth for her post because I had a sigh of relief knowing I wasn't the only one feeling overwhelmed and lacking sleep. In fact at this point, I should probably own half of Starbucks. Anyone else find the smell/taste of a specialty coffee somehow has a calming effect?

The result of my "break" was this:

I taught a lesson with our honors class on Monday and it was the first time I was successful at getting them actively engaged in a discussion! I was even able to hold their attention until the very end of class, which is almost impossible to do because they get distracted very easily (I love 6th graders!). The lesson was introducing the students to the fantasy genre because they are starting the novel A Wizard in Earthsea. I showed a video clip that included all the elements of the genre and then asked them to come up with more characteristics. We were sharing as a class and built a list together so they could use it as a reference. This went so well, we went beyond discussion and started "debating" whether or not certain books or movies could be considered fantasy! Now it wasn't a critical discussion by any means, but my co-op and I were so excited the students were participating and not acting out that we just kept going. The best part of the day was two periods later, when four of the students came up to me and said they already started the book and it was exactly how I described it! My co-op emailed me today and said that every single student had at least finished the first chapter, and to be prepared because she was turning the class over to me on the days I am there!

It was one of those days when it hit me that I made the right decision and I was meant to be in the classroom. It definitely makes up for all of the stress staring me in the face as of late, and it gives me a little extra boost as this semester winds down.

On another note, the results of the 2011 Reading and Math Assessments of Grades 4 and 8 were released today and while I won't go into the stats (you can check the reading out here: http://nationsreportcard.gov/reading_2011/), I will say it's definitely worth taking the sample reading test question! It's interesting to turn things around and see what kind of questions the students are faced with. Here is the reading question: http://nationsreportcard.gov/reading_2011/sample_quest.asp.