I did not explode. I can hardly believe it.
I went to bed relatively early because I just didn't want to look at my lesson plans. I vowed to get up at 5:00 to finish them. I got up at 5:15 or so, and I got a shower and all--even remembered to wear the necklace to match my kiddo with the same one today--got Saturday Academy stuff distributed by about 7:20 and got lesson plans in by 7:45. Granted, I promptly diverged from the beaten path of said lesson plans, but the relief of getting them in was enormous. A little aside on getting plans in: I have found it is a good idea to do my "7-11" summary* with the week's assignments for each class ahead of time as an e-mail draft and then worry about the actual plans later.
I did neglect to re-read the rest of
Night over the weekend (opting instead to finally enjoy the movie version of
Like Water for Chocolate--for which I recommend you just stick to the book) and was worried how discussion would go today, but the double-entry journals are a lifesaver. Everyone had something to say, and there was plenty to respond to.
Speaking of response, let us not forget bum fights. That's right,
bum fights. I was afraid of bringing it up when the passage where the Nazis threw out some breadcrumbs to the starving prisoners to watch them struggle for it, because if the goobs hadn't heard of it, then they might decide it was a good idea. God bless TI, who promptly mentioned the DVD's his friend let him. If fire could leap from my eyes when he told me that, it would have. He thought the idea was funny, but by the end, the rest of the class was disgusted and decided that it was no different from what the Nazis did to the Jews. *Phew!* Except one, but he worries me anyway. One of the exit slip questions was whether this young one should be counted as a realist or a pessimist--interesting responses, by the way.
Spanish went rather well, and most groups did some good reviewing with the activity where I hand them a pack of adjective cards and they just group them however they see fit (2 or more groups and being able to explain them is the only requirement). I was kind of worried at how badly they did spelling adjectives and using them in sentences for the quiz game, but I think they still learned and know what to buckle down on for the quiz tomorrow.
And though I may not have exploded, my tutoring session was about to. I'd say probably 10 of my English kids came to work on side projects, maybe 4 Spanish kids for tutoring, and 6 or 7 more for a quiz make-up, including my two team-test-takers (differentiation--not cheating, okay?). And THEN Coach Baker showed up, I thought to yank some of the volleyball players, but he was only checking up on a couple to see if they'd been AND had a question of his own he needed help with.
By the end, the testtaking team almost passed and passed (they do disagree sometimes), I figured out Bake's problem, and the English kids went home with some more side projects done, ready to be revised tomorrow.
Sigh with me now.
*PHEW!*
*
A summary simple enough you could give it to anyone you meet down at the 7-11, and they'd know what you were talking about.
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