The Day Came!

I knew the day would come and sure enough it did. I was good for so long. But last week I completely missed my blog. I should have seen it coming. But to be fair, last weekend I was tied up at the Regional Wrestling tournament Friday and Saturday, I coach at Hibriten, then drove to Pennsylvania and back Sunday and Monday. I spent this past weekend in Winston-Salem at the State Wrestling tournament, where I'm proud to say I coached four outstanding wrestlers. One of our wrestlers won the tournament earning himself a place in the trophy case as a State Champion and another finished third in the state, an impressive feat in itself.

But since I missed a week, I'll start there! The week of February 9th to 13th, I finished my switch with Mrs. Grogan and got all four classes back together at the beginning of the week. The end of the week, we played Baseball with Qwizdom. I created 50 questions from literary elements and grammar and loaded them into the program. It then splits the class into two teams and we play baseball. The team with the most correct answers win the situation (get the hit if they're batting or the out if they're fielding). All of the classes seemed to enjoy playing. I plan on adding more questions and playing again soon.

Thursday we had a slightly altered schedule due to the Locks Of Love program. It was very touching to see our kids give back and to hear the dedications that they made. That Friday, the 13th, we got ready for service with preservice rotations and watched Glory Road, continuing our exploration of Black History Month.

This past week was reduced to three days for me. I was out Monday with my daughter, coming back from Pennsylvania. Maggie had lost a filling and we drove to Pennsylvania to get it fixed. Yes I know there are quite capable dentists in North Carolina, but our dentist in Pennsylvania is also Maggie's uncle. I was out on Friday for the North Carolina State Wrestling Tournament. So the week seemed rushed to me.

The beginning of the week we journaled about the Uglies, reflecting on what we liked and didn't like about the book and how we worked with it. Then we read The Lady, or the Tiger by Frank R Stockton. The story is open ended and has always caused a lot of speculation as to what ultimately happens. I had the students finish the story from where the author leaves it open. They had an opportunity later in the week to share and the ones I heard were really good!

The second part of the week, we talked about Uglies, turned in books, and started our final project. While we read the novel, students were asked to keep track of quotes that were interesting, well written, or even confusing. Their task now is to take those quotes and make them into a "Found Poem". They need to either capture the events of the story or its essence. They then have to present the poem in some form. They are free to decide how to present the poem, but all poems must be at least 20 lines long. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished projects!

Friday they spent the day working service at a local school or agency. I hate that I missed the first day of service rotation! I'm looking forward to this week being a little less hectic than the last two!