Sunday, March 27, 2005

Sundays

For the past seven years, Sundays have never really been a sad thing. I knew I would sleep until at least nine, unless I had to work (in which case, I could sleep until eight) and I had brief days at school--a few classes a day where I would be the learner.

Now I'm back to how it was when I was a high school student. Sunday nights have become a bummer, particularly now that spring break is officially over and I keep wondering, "Where did it go?" I definitely am going to bed tonight with a mild panic--what could I have done that I didn't do? I know that's a pretty standard question, and that there's always something more, but I had hoped to essentially have the week planned out, and I still can't see beyond Tuesday. I just could use about two more days of vacation to do all of the things I should have done... Isn't that always the case though?

I also discovered that if you want to slow time down, teach. Lately, I had begun to think about how time speeds up as you get older. Maybe it's because we spend too much time looking forward to things, like Fridays and summers. :) When we're little, we live in "the now," so time doesn't seem to matter. We're worried about what we're going to do at recess, but even that's so far away, we're more worried about whether or not we really "get" cursive writing. And maybe we're even worried about what our classmates are doing to entertain themselves while they're not "getting" fractions.

Anyway.

Tomorrow, for 10B, they'll write in their journals, they'll copy definitions on vocabulary words, they'll get the handouts on poetry and journal prompts (I didn't change what I have from before, but that's OK--I can revise as I go), they'll have lunch and when they return, they'll have a reading quiz, and the rest of the class period, they can have for finishing a scene they were writing from the novel using vocab words. For Journalism, I'm going to have them write a journal entry where they write a news-style article about their spring break. Then they will partner up with someone and interview them about their spring break, taking notes in their journal. They'll take their notes and write an article about their partner's spring break. They'll compare and see how different the article is--the first-hand account versus the interview. Then they'll have a chance to do some peer editing of each other's press conference article from last Wednesday's mock press conference. If we still have time, I'm going to have four copies of eight different articles on Stephen Glass printed out, and they'll get into small groups and discuss those articles and the portrait it paints of Stephen Glass. (I had wanted to show the 60 Minutes interview with him, but I would have to re-rent the video and yesterday was Easter, so everything was closed. Dangit.)

OK, I've got a thousand things before I can actually sleep, so wish me luck on my second week of student teaching... I'm actually more wary this Sunday night then I was the first Sunday!

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