The warmth is back and so am I

Please don't hate me. I'm not dead, I'm not ignoring you, I'm just ridiculously busy.

Life is a little different now than the last time I posted, because I am now officially working in two buildings. I am continuing to teach Read180 at the ALC (it is now completely up and running and I'm really enjoying it) and I started teaching two sections of English 9 at the high school in January. That has been a huge challenge for a few reasons. First of all, I am constantly running back and forth between buildings with barely enough time to eat lunch. I have to dismantle and transport my computer several times a day and my copies never seem to get delivered to the right building. I miss being connected to my ALC kids throughout the day, and I am always the last one to hear the news. It was also a huge adjustment to go from teaching 14 kids at a time to 35. I feel like there are students that I don't even look at every given day, let alone connect with. It's an ugly thing, but it has been getting a little better.

Mock Trial season is officially over. We had our end of season banquet two weeks ago. Coaching an activity I'm not familiar with for the first time with very little guidance was extremely frustrating and terrifying at times, but I felt like I had the hang of it by the end. My attorney coach is very supportive, the kids are nice and we actually went to regional finals (but lost to Albert Lea).

Next week is the end of third quarter, followed by spring break. It feels like third quarter went by pretty quickly, and I'm making plans for what my classes will do for the end of the year.

Read180 did three workshops: One on graduation rates, one on tsunamis and one on South Africa. Next quarter we will do two more: one on crime scene investigation and another on cyberbullying.

English 9 studied short stories, the elements of fiction, poetry and we read The Pearl. Next quarter we'll do writing test prep, Romeo & Juliet and hopefully some lit circles and a multigenre paper.