Pi Day | The Ides of March | St. Patrick's day | What a week!

The week before spring break was another chapter in this chaotic race to commencement.

 My MT is amazing and even she was exhausted. Every teacher walked around with a face that said either, "I'm smiling through it" or "Geez, is it Friday yet?" and that was just on Monday. My sophomores were doing their final paper which was a 12 paragraph essay comparing (through analyses we had already completed) Angelou's "The Lesson" and Robert Frost's "Design." It was a very in depth essay that we started on Thursday. To be honest, I should have scheduled that to be finished on Friday the week before. With spring in the air, the kids were having a hard time focusing on the writing. They were behaving a little spacey which for this group is pretty rare.

Tuesday was pie day and some of the kids were excited about that, but on Wednesday when I mentioned the Ides of March, everyone looked at me like I was bonkers. I expected that though, so I explained the significance to them. When I explained that the Ides of March was a bad omen because of Julius Ceasar's soothsayer, one of my students let me know it was his birthday... oops.

The closing of the week - though it meant that spring break was finally upon us, it also meant the end of my poetry unit. This was my first 6 week unit that I designed and taught all on my own. At the end of class, I explained to my students that this was the first unit I had designed on my own and how much I appreciated their help. They gave me a standing ovation. Can you believe it? A standing ovation for poetry. To say I was excited would have been an understatement. It melted my heart, and I had to go all professional not to tear up. Now, thinking back on it, I am tearing up. In the moment, I of course curtsied said thank you and got us back on track. I asked the students to rank how they liked the creative writing lessons we did. I was happy to see that it was pretty split. Some students enjoyed the imitation poems, others the sonnets, some liked doing the two sided poems and a few liked the how to poems. It showed me that with the creative writing lessons, some liked everything and ranked those the highest. Everyone participated in ranking the poems and I let them know how much I appreciated their feedback.

All in all, the week ended on a good note. Now I'm hoping and praying to pass the KTPT, so I can get over the next hurdle. This race has yet to be won!