End of the semester

December 17, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | No Comments

First semester is just about complete. Student grades are not finalized yet, but I will be mostly finished before I leave school on Friday. I am finishing grading papers turned in to me in the last day or two, especially the mystery stories by my Advanced English class. I enjoy reading them, and I especially enjoy reading each student’s self-evaluation of what makes them most proud or what they feel they learned from the project. I have read everything from feeling more confident about writing to having an understanding of the writing process. Several said they now know that published authors don’t just write something and call it finished — that writing takes time and work. Some said they had fun thinking up the story, and a couple said they were surprised at themselves because of the piece of writing they ended up producing. I will most likely have my regular ed students work on a similar project second semester.

All of my classes have been working on short stories the last couple of weeks. My Advanced English classes worked with Mrs. Hill last week on a short story, and then the Gifted coordinator from Merts came and conducted a discussion with them on Friday. All students read a story by Truman Capote, “A Christmas Memory,” and today all of my classes were in the computer lab writing a story on the topic “Delivery for You.”

In other school news, the new library is just about complete, and when school opens, Mrs. Rutland will be moving in to the expanded area. Because of that, students will not be able to check out books right away in January, but I know that she will be working hard to get ready to open. Students can borrow books from me, read books that they own, or, of course, borrow books from the public library. Our school AR list is posted on our school web site. Click faculty and then library, and then you will see the link to the list.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday. My daughter’s family will be coming on Christmas night to spend some days with us, and both my husband and I are excited to see our two grandsons. I am also happy that I will be able to spend extra time with my daughter and son-in-law who live here. We will all be watching the Sugar Bowl on January 2.