What I Did On My Long Weekend...

Happy President's Day!!

I've been working really hard lately to separate my "school" self from my "real" self, haha, and since I have started using my life planner I feel like it has made it so much easier! It has also made me really feel confident about organizing my time, with the musical in full swing this week, I find if I write things in pen for the future they are more likely to get done!

This week in class we are starting to wind up the poetry reading unit in LA1, and the poetry writing unit in LA2. So far, I think the students have enjoyed the Poem of Address the most, and I saw some really deep ideas come from them!

For Valentine's day, I created a "webquest" of Love Poems, and students had to select one and analyze the poem and do some research on the poet. It's been a great project, but I underestimated the time it would take, so it is continuing on into this week!

 I loved getting to incorporate some technology into this lesson, which I feel like I haven't been able to do as much this year trying to get adjusted to the textbook...

A sampling of the poems, there were over thirty listed...

Here is a sample student report. Rather than print them out, students posted them on Edmodo so that their class could see, and they will be asked to comment on them and read them. Saves paper, and they get to see each other's work!

*note that Allan is spelled wrong, and I am Mrs. White, but that's ok, whoops! :)

They were also asked to do some research and find six "quotes" from the author.

This week is library week, my favorite! In 8th Grade Language Arts this week, we are having a shared inquiry in the ET class, and starting argument in 8th grade regular. I have relied heavily on Teaching Argument Writing Grades 6-12 by George Hillocks, which I HIGHLY recommend, and I created a packet based on his lessons to use. I start with Toulmin's theory of argument, and then move into Forensic Argument, which students LOVE! We will finish with an argumentative paper on "Flowers for Algernon", in order to connect the text!

We are also starting the dance practices for "Guys and Dolls, Jr." so there will be a lot of tap dancing going on! :)

Since I don't share a lot of "non-teacher" stuff, I figured I would share what my life planner looks like. The picture above is already outdated, as I have filled in Monday. It is snowing like crazy here right now, but I got out this morning to exercise, and our Hickory BBQ Beef is in the crockpot and ready to come out in about twenty minutes!

This is my Fitness spread in my life planner, with a list of go to foods for Weight Watchers, as well as my fitness plan and records.

I also of course had to go to Michael's this weekend, so I used up the rest of my Christmas gift card and got these cute items! :)

My washi stash so far...

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!