Week of ELP and the thesis

I have spent so much time at the school as we have started rolling through the year. I am seeing changes in my room, and I know that every little layer that I have put into place in the first days will eventually start to pay off. I am already seeing it in my sophomore classes. They are incredible students, so willing to try new things and learn. I am very fortunate to be called their teacher. We are currently working through methods of persuasion if you are curious about the ELP...this is an acronym for Ethos, Logos, Pathos: methods of persuasion. We have watched videos, looked at ads, and we will begin the poster project next week to wrap the unit into a pretty little package. We will use these throughout the year as they approach all types of literature and writing essays.

My juniors and I are working our way around in the classroom. A class of 33 students packed into my 6th hour classroom like a can of sardines is a bit of a challenge, especially when I have several that are the best of friends, and they cannot seem to catch up on life outside of the classroom :) I do enjoy them, and I know that what I am teaching them will eventually click and start to move them in the right direction :) We are practicing the writing of strong thesis statements, which tends to be the hardest part to learn about writing- well aside from using complete sentences. They will get it. Thankfully, a few already do practice using complete sentences :) I love the texting world for this. The challenge is before me, and I embrace it :) We are making our way into writing a full essay while we explore the different modes of writing an essay.

The one area of change I am going to make: I need to set only one morning aside during every week for the 3 g's- the good news, good words, and good fun. This is a wonderful idea and would work wonderfully if I could get everyone on the same page where they come prepared to present everyday. As of right now, this is not happening, and the process is taking far too long. One of my sophomores pointed this fact out to me today when I announced that we are not presenting the 3 g's today due to the assignment time requirements, though I had already started the process of moving this to just one day...I love the student who speaks up and does what she can to make our classroom an efficient one. For the moment, we will present the 3 g's on Friday where we can look forward to them.

Even though I have had a wonderful week, I would be insane to say that I am not looking forward to the long weekend. I plan to spend a lot of time in my pool and with my family. I hope all will have a fantastic weekend and be ready to move Tuesday!