First Day!

So, I'm making sure to write this down now while I'm still in a state of giddy excitement.

Today was a lot of firsts for me--the first day of teaching in a new room, the first day of teaching Honors English II, the first day of teaching CWC English I. All in all it worked out really well. Here are some of the highlights of my day.

1. This just made my day. One of my students from last year was walking by and I wanted to show him that I had hung up his final project from last year (an amazing sketch of a mixture of ideas from Fahrenheit 451. He was surprised and impressed and told me that my class was one of the only English classes where he felt like he actually learned something. It's not being compared to other teachers that impresses me or makes me feel like I'm doing my job. It's when kids tell me that they're getting something out of my class. I'm constantly critiquing myself as a teacher and so while I appreciate praise from colleagues and parents, it's really when I see it in the kids. I want to see a change when they leave my class of not only their writing, but also their thinking. Can they read something and discover new ideas, question a text, or argue with an author. If they can do those sorts of things, then I feel better.

2. 6 Word Memoirs--There's currently a book published by Smith Magazine that has authors write in to describe their lives in 6 words. No more. No less. I tried this with my honors sophomores. They wrote the good, the bad, and the ugly. I was so impressed with so much of their work. I did it with them. Here's some of mine.

Sorry. You're thinking of my sister.

I'm not a brand name person.

Reading let me see the world.

3. Getting to ask the question, "If you could eat lunch with anyone in the world, living, dead, real, or fictional, who would it be and why?"

4. My 1984 discussion went okay. Hallelujah!

5. My honors kids didn't complain about an essay being due on Monday. Wahoo!

So, all in all today went pretty well. I'm off to our Pep Night. Gotta have school spirit. Care to answer that question? If not, my kids also got to answer the question, "If you could have any super power, what would it be and why?" I love those types of questions, even they are a bit cheesy.