Day 9-11: September 5th-7th

I am really starting to feel those early mornings and late nights. If only my 11 month old would sleep all the way through the night! And if only my 3 year old stayed in bed until 8 am, instead of 6:30 am! I've been staying late about every day at school for the last two weeks to try to catch up on all the work. It always seems as if I had loads to do and not near enough time in the day to do it.  It is really a test to be able to juggle so many balls in the air at the same time. My hat is off to single mothers. I don't know how they do it; they are AMAZING! If you were to come over to my house right now, you would find a mountain of laundry piled up in the laundry room on the floor. You would find cheerios and a dirty bib on the floor. You would find toys strewn from hell to breakfast all throughout the house and there's likely to be a ring in the bathtub from bathing two small, dirty daycare bodies every night.
So far I have escaped getting any sick germs from the kids, but I am knocking on wood as I type. I keep a big bottle of sanitizer on my desk and I pretty much use it every time I touch something a student has just given me. I am sure I will not be lucky for too much longer! My friend Kris down the hall is another first year English teacher and she got sicker than a dog the second week of school and she STILL doesn't have her voice!
You may have noticed I am lumping a few days together. I barely have time to take a bathroom break, let alone sit down and type up an entry every day, so I have resolved to do my best to post as often as I can or at least once a week.
These days the kids wrote a new ending to Tell-Tale heart and then they read their new ending in small groups in class. The assignment was to help them better understand and apply the elements of story in their own writing. I believe we did the same with the 8th graders, only they wrote their new ending for Masque of the Red Death. The majority of the kids had a lot of fun with it and I had a handful of kids from each class that wanted to share their new endings with the entire class. One student, T (who also happens to be the class clown of 7th period), had the entire class laughing so hard that I saw several students with tears streaming down their faces. T also read his new ending with the best English accent he could muster, which added to the humor. I myself was laughing and was amazed at his creativity and his talent for not only writing, but for performing before an audience. It's no wonder I am always having to tell him to pipe down. 7th period continues to be a challenge, but curiously enough, they are the class with the most A students and only two students with an F. Classroom management is still a skill that I am working on daily with all of my kids.