26.5 - Completed

Check.

Today, I finished the first semester of my 26th year.  What a semester!

Along with my normal schedule, I also included trips to visit my sister who has now been in the hospital for 13+ weeks.    From start through today, she is a miracle in the making.

I have enjoyed working with my six classes and getting to know them as the year progressed.  Two highlights?  The two who worked for the 100% and nearly accomplished their goals.  In my eyes, they succeeded.  Absolutely!  Good kids.  They will each go far.  Very.  A sophomore and a senior.  A female and a male.  A Hispanic and an African-American.  Contrasts.  Each the same.  Striving for more.  Just as I am.

This year, we were allowed to create our own units...and they are a work in progress.  Next year, they will be even better.  Guaranteed.  :)  Already, as I sit here, my mind begins planning for 2018...for two more new units, both based on classic texts:  To Kill a Mockingbird and The Crucible.  I most look forward to the engagement that each text will encourage.  Neither have I taught in several years, so, yes, the texts are in my bag, and part of the reading over this Christmas Break, will be these two texts.

My greatest struggle in the literacy classroom?  Covering it all!  Literary analysis, language skills, vocabulary, writing, projects...and...I really do try, though! We covered it all and more...each student blogs and are working on a novella...of My Story, a focus each chooses relating why each is who each is. For each of my five English classes, I am writing beside them.  My novella...may just be a novel!  Love it!

Outside the high school classroom, I taught a college class, further guiding future English teachers to more learn who they are, preparing for the ever-changing curriculum to which each seem devoted.  Together, we presented at the Arkansas Reading Association's Literacy Conference.  Ever since one of my grad professors asked me to present with her at a state conference, I, too, have followed in her footsteps, encouraging...okay, forcing!...my undergraduate students to present, also.  What a sweet detail to add to their resumes.  I just have to think...yes...this will place their resumes a step up from the competition.  I hope so!

Now...before I begin re-reading those classics, I do feel compelled to read a Christmas novel...or two...or five!  Currently, I am reading The Afterlife of Holly Chase, a chosen novel for The Young Adult Book Club within Good Reads.  So far, I am enjoying it...:)

Merry Christmas...and happy break...and enjoy reading!