"I've got the Second Week Blues.."

Hello, everyone!

Well, I survived my first week, and here I am: week 2, day 2.  I don't really have any blues about being at school, but I was extremely tired yesterday, though I am not sure why, and when another teacher asked me why I was so tired I told him, "I've got the Second Week Blues."  His response? "Me too."  Well this week started the actual teaching -- so I am about to find out if I have what it takes or if I am cut out for this whole "teaching thing" that's going on all around me.  Here's this week's agenda:

Yesterday: Writing Process Introduction -- I explained to the students that writing is a process. We went through all 11 steps from picking a style of writing through publishing.  By the end I asked them, "Who wishes we still wrote in the Kindergarten process: write, turn in, get an A?"  All the hands went up.  However, I am doing all this writing in-class because a lot of my students don't have access to a computer and they commute quite a distance to come to school; therefore, in-class insures they get it done and that they can ask questions if they need to.
Today: Narrative Introduction followed by 20 minutes of brainstorming.  They must come up with 3 different narrative ideas.
Wednesday: Grammar -- partner work on verbs for 15 minutes.  Pre-writing.
Thursday&Friday: Rough Draft workshops.

In addition to this we start every class with a journal topic and quote of the day.  They can journal about either.  Each journal is worth 1 point (so 5 points each week) and I play 2 songs from Pandora to time them.  If you went to high school at Boylan, yes, this is what Ms. Connell did. She's great!

Any suggestions, ideas, comments?? I'm open to them all.

Ms. Thompson :)

"Promise me you'll always remember: you're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." -A.A. Milne