And it just keeps coming...

I graded my 8 inch stack of papers this weekend. It really didn't take me that long, it was just a tedious task. That, and the essays really really disappointed me. I was really kind of upset because I put a lot of work into proofing their essays and telling them what they needed to do to get a better grade. Many of them just took their rough drafts home and typed them. It's like they didn't even look at all of my red comments across their papers. I know it's not my fault, but it still really frustrates me. I gave them the opportunity to redo it for a better grade, but the stipulation is that they have to conference with me before they rewrite it. That way I know that they are actually going to put some effort into changing the essay. Ah, I hope they turn out better.

Now I just have assignments coming in every day, so I'm constantly grading. I don't really have a problem with it, it's just that I feel kind of swamped all of a sudden. I won't be done with this cycle until the middle of May when we're done with the Pigman unit. I guess it boosts their grades if they're doing what they are supposed to.

I can't believe May is almost here! This year has just flown by. I just wish the weather would realize it's almost May. I had frost on my windows this morning...

Well, I should go get some bibliographies graded. At least these aren't as bad as I thought they were going to be (so far...)

Grading Homework...

So, I have a lot of papers to grade. I wasn't at school yesterday because I took a personal day, and it probably doesn't help that I collected three assignments today. On top of that, I have essays coming in tomorrow. Oh fun stuff. I was going to work on them today after school, but we had "rehearsal" for the talent show and then I was burning up. I meant to do some work at home. We'll see. Maybe I'll work on some of it after I get back from excercising. It wouldn't normally be that big of a deal, but midterms are due at 3 PM tomorrow. I don't think these grades are really going to affect them that much, but you never know. Oh well. They'll get graded when they get graded.

This weekend is Relays at Drake. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to try to head down or not. It was always easy to go to Relays when I lived on or around campus, but now I just have the feeling that it's going to be a bit difficult to find parking. Plus, it's going to rain this weekend so I really don't have any desire to go sit in the rain to watch a track meet. I've done enough of that in my lifetime.

I cannot believe how expensive gas is. It got to be $3.44 today, and that's the subsidized ethanol stuff. I don't really think that gas needs to be as high as it is. The oil companies do not need to be making millions of dollars in profits. I think they can take a profit hit in order to make gas more accessible for the common people. If this keeps up, I'm definitely not going back to Kansas for Labor Day, or anywhere else for that matter. Blah. Maybe it will go down...

The weather has been gorgeous! I couldn't have picked a better day for a personal day than yesterday. The sun shone all day and it was just perfect. It looks like there are some storms coming in tonight and it's only supposed to be in the high 50's to low 60's the rest of next week. It's almost May, I think it's time for some nice weather that lasts longer than 2 weeks.

Perhaps I should go look at the papers. No guarantee I'm going to get any of them graded...

7th Graders and Essays

Apparently if you don't make a 7th grader write an essay every week (and even if you did I'm afraid), they forget everything you ever taught them, especially opening statements and to NEVER use "I" in a formal paper. I've only proofread maybe half of them and I'm seriously about ready to blow up. I don't think it matters how many times you tell them and remind them about everything they've ever learned about essay writing; they're just going to forget it anyway. They don't care. I know I really shouldn't either, but it's frustrating. It's even more frustrating that I don't have them all.

It's amazing how many printers break and siblings steal essays when it comes time for an essay or project to be due. I love the "I'm done but I forgot it at home" excuse as well. I threatened to make them stay with me today to get it done, but I really didn't want to deal with kids today after school. Tomorrow, however, they will be staying after school because I have to have them proofread so they can have them back on Wednesday to finish the final draft by Friday. Ah!

I'm taking a personal day on Wednesday. I need it. The kids are starting to get crazy since the weather is nicer and they don't want to be inside. I understand, but that doesn't mean we don't still have school. It'll be interesting.

Here's to warm weather and Spring that finally decided to show up in Iowa! (And to getting the rest of my essays graded by tomorrow afternoon...)

Subjects and Verbs

Apparently 7th graders forget what a subject looks like and what a verb looks like after 3 months. This is despite the fact that we find the subjects and verbs every other day in our DOLs... I was just a little frustrated today. I didn't think the assignment was that hard. We were talking about simple and compound sentences, and all they had to do today was find the subjects and verbs in each. I didn't think it was that hard, but apparently we have forgotten everything we knew. For one class I had to go through a sentence and label every part of speech in it for us to remember what a subject was and what a verb was! Ah! I hope they have figured it out by tomorrow. It should be review.

Students are really starting to frustrate me. I guess I should say 2 of them are. One consistently misses my class but can somehow make it to school for the rest of the day. We made him go to another English class at the end of the day today. I'm tired of playing that game. Another one just refuses to do work for anyone, doesn't want help from any teacher, and lies about it when I ask him what homework he has. I know it's not my responsiblity to worry about them the way I do, or to get upset with them for their lack of responsibility and work ethic, but it bothers me. I think it's more because they make extra work for me to take care of because I have to reteach and keep bugging them to make sure they get their work in. It's just annoying. I know I shouldn't let it get to me, but I do.

We practiced today for our skit for the talent show next Friday. It's going to be fun! We're doing a version of the "Evolution of Dance" that's flying around youtube. I think the kids will enjoy it.

I'm going to use my weekend to plan The Pigman I think. I need to figure out exactly what I'm going to do with it. I have some ideas, I just need to find time to sort through the binder and put things down on paper. I need to do it this weekend because I'm going to have essays and multiple other assignments next week that need to get graded and taken care of.

The school year is winding down, but we still have a lot to do. I'm just glad the weather's been nicer - though this rain isn't really any fun.

Sunshine!!!!

I think Spring might actually be here!!! It's supposed to be 67 tomorrow and 70 on Wednesday! Yay!!! I'm not excited about the rain on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, but I'll take it as long as it's as gorgeous as they claim it's going to be!

I'm getting a bit nervous about the character sketches my students are going to be writing this week. I hope I'm setting them up correctly for it. It's just that there's so much information and they have so many choices. It might be easier to just give them a character, but then that doesn't give them any freedom. We'll see. I'm sure they'll be fine.

I was at school till around 4:30 today working on stuff for Pigman by Paul Zindel. I feel pretty good about it and I think it will be interesting for the kids. I also think they'll like the activites we do with the book. Now, I wish we could figure out something fun for Adam of the Road. Maybe I'll work on revising that unit this summer. Hey, it'll give me something to do!

I'm going to be a snake charmer in my dance studio's production of La Bayadere. I get to work with the 3 and 4 year olds in their snake dance. I'm really excited about it! I'm not going to do a whole lot - mostly just do the dance with them so they don't forget the steps, but it'll still be fun. At least I get to perform on stage again!

I should go to bed. I've been really tired lately and I don't really know why. Maybe it's because I actually have to get up on Saturday mornings now to go rehearse with the little ones, and I don't get to sleep in. Who knows.

I'm excited about sunny days and warm weather!

Thunderstorm!!!

I like thunderstorms. There's something about the pelting rain, the booming thunder, and the incessant lightening that is just amazing. Of course, I like being inside when they happen. I was out running errands today and happened to walk into my apartment a mere 15 minutes before the sky unleased and rain came down in buckets (ooooh, look at that figurative language!). Then, 15 minutes later, it was over. Fortunately, we were not in the really bad part of the storm and there were no tornadoes near me. Then, the sun came out. We haven't seen the sun since Monday, but it was gorgeous after the storm.

School's been pretty uneventful. Tomorrow I'm going to plan Pigman with one of the other teachers. That will make me feel much more confident about two weeks from now. Right now, I have no idea what I'm doing with that novel.

It's supposed to snow tomorrow and Saturday. Blah. However, next week is supposed to be sunny and in the 60's! I'll believe it when I see it.

That's all for now. CSI is on in 5 minutes!

I hate computers!

I know my post yesterday was practically last Thursday's post. I apologize. Here's a new one...

I hate computers.

My printer and I have been fighting for over an hour. I thought I finally got it to work, but alas, it has decided to still act stupid. I am hoping I can figure it out so I can print pictures from the poetry cafe. I guess we'll see.

Wish me luck.

Poetry Tests!

I really feel like I actually did something correct and worthwhile with this last poetry unit. We had a test last week, and I'll be honest, I was a little worried that my kids didn't "get" it. However, all three of my classes had an average of 42 out of 45 points! Therefore, I can conclude that my students actually learned something, and I actually taught them something. Now I just need to find time to sit down and figure out what I did in order for me to repeat my successes next year. Yay for me and for my students!

We're starting clauses (basically sentence writing, again) and character sketches this week. They seemed to get the clauses today, so I hope they do ok with the next stuff that's coming up. The character sketch stuff should be interesting. Their final project with it is an essay analyzing one of the characters. I'm still trying to figure out the logistics of writing the essay and then having time to rewrite another draft. I know some students will have no problem with finishing it in one day and then being bored with it on day 2, but then I have the problem of me having time to grade them and then get it back to them to do another draft. It wouldn't be so much of a problem except I took a personal day on that Wednesday, which just kind of messes things up. Oh well. I'm sure it will all work out. No use in worrying about it now.

It's finally starting to get warmer, although it's still supposed to be rainy and yucky the majority of this week. Spring is slowly on its way.

One of my students today told me he actually enjoyed coming to English class this year. That's what makes it all worthwhile. :)

Snow and Poetry

The last time I checked, it was April. I don't think you should get snow in April. I know some states do and it's just a fact of life, but in Iowa, I don't think you should. I'm tired of snow. I'm ready for Spring and green stuff and sunshine and birds chirping. This snow stuff needs to go away. Of course, it's the heavy wet snow that soaks everything you are wearing and leaves you freezing cold. Blah. I think it may have stopped by now, but that doesn't make things any better when it comes to my frozen feet. I hope it all melts away by tomorrow...

On a brighter note, all but 5 of my 55 students did very well on the figurative language test today! It seems that the majority of them finally understand what similes, metaphors, onomatapoeia, hyperbole, and alliteration are! Yay! It makes me feel good that they actually learned something!

We're starting character sketches next week where they have to find character traits and show the strenghts and weaknesses and motivation of the character. We're also going to be working on dependent and subordinate clauses, as well as simple, compound, and complex sentences. Oh yay. We'll see how all of that goes.

Tomorrow is our poetry cafe! Students will bring in food and drink and then share their two favorite poems with the class. They will have an assignment with it, of course, but it should be fun. My co-teacher came up with it. I think it's a great way of celebrating the end of the unit!

We got new computers for our computer carts today too! Yay for us. Unfortunately, the first class that got to use them didn't really have a chance because the internet went down. :( Tomorrow I hope they will all work!

Here's hoping for no more snow!