keep it goin'

First thing first: HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMANDA MARIE!

Now. How's life? Life's okay. Life is life. Life goes on. This week drags on forever. The past week and a half all I've talked about is appositives and participles and the phrases they make. Let me tell you, that is some exciting stuff. I've cracked some of the corniest jokes I've ever thought up in my whole life this past week and a half. I became a cheerleader for appositives and participles, the whole time thinking to myself: And why do they need to know this? They don't read enough yet to even give a crap! They don't need to know the names! They just need to be able to write and read and like to do both! I would be happy with that. (And also knowing the basics of language, sentence structure and where to put those pesky punctuation marks) I mean, really, how many of you have ever been asked to pull apart all your sentences and label every. single. thing. you did. NO ONE DOES THAT! Raaaar. Other English teachers must think I am horrible for saying that. But I ask them: Who the hell needs this shit? What I keep telling my students that ask is that it will help them improve their writing, they'll feel smart and accomplished and they'll wow crowds of people at cocktail parties.
...Which brings me to the tea party. I came up with an idea to help review ideas and concepts for their semester exam: a tea party. I thought thinking about bringing in some articles and having them highlight and color and circle and stuff (they love that stuff!) to review grammar stuff was fun, but man! I blew my own mind with the idea of the tea party! They must "dress to impress", they have to try and use adjective clauses, appositives and participial phrases in their speech, they have to only talk about what we need to review: short story elements, Catcher in the Rye, grammar, and essay writing. They'll have a cheat sheet with topics to discuss and also a collection card to fill out, describing who they talked to, what they talked about and the clauses and phrases mentioned above used. So far, the kids seem to be interested/intrigued about the idea and a good chunk of them are excited about dressing up. Amazing.
Also, I read a part of Days of War, Nights of Love to two of my blocks and my 5th block LOVED it. You could hear the change in the room, all of a sudden it got really quiet and you could feel them listening. When I was done, they didn't really move and a few of them added, "I liked that. That made me think." That's why my 5th bell is really growing on me.
Other than all of that, nothing too exciting. I've been trying to find the good things in this small town and I've been trying to finish books and write more, generally keeping myself busy.