Snow Day

Holy Cats, guys, it snowed a lot yesterday and today. Many districts in the state said don't come to school, so I didn't. Fortunately, my contract doesn't make me come to school anyway, so I'm pretty thankful.

I slept in once I heard the official news. After that, I played some video games, ate lunch, and got myself caught up on my English 9 grading. All I have to do is enter my physical gradebook scores into the digital one, a process that isn't REALLY tedious but always feels tedious. With American Lit, I'm still not caught up, but I will be soon. As luck would have it, those students probably all could guess their grades.

Tomorrow is Game Day! Solid. Let me explain:
I asked my kids if they'd be interested in playing board games, video games, card games, and spatial puzzles after school some time, and I got more than a few yeses, so I'm staying after school tomorrow and hosting Game Day in my classroom. I'll have the Wii, a bunch of board games, a couple decks of cards, and my usual puzzles on all the desks, and we'll see where it goes. Some of the kids are really excited, and so am I, but I know enough to expect that there will be far fewer kids there than initially said they'd be there. That's just how people are. I'm also bringing candy, and if a student beats me in a game, I'll give them a piece of candy. I'm ready to bring the pain on Super Smash Brothers Melee, and I don't think they know what they're getting into. We'll hook the Wii into the projector, the REAL big screen. It's gonna be sweet.

So I guess this is a good week. Had a nice break today (it was going to be an early release anyway, plus four of my five hours were supposed to have a visit from the Link Crew, so the amount of content I was going to teach today was nothing). As long as my grades can get submitted by Monday, then I'm feeling fine and dandy. Good and Plenty. Bed Bath and Be-yond.

This has been a silly post for me. Here's something actually meaningful: I've been teaching Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson to my ninth graders. Most have been enjoying it, and I've been enjoying teaching it. It's touchy subject matter, and I have had to create alternate assignments for students who have asked (as any English teacher should be prepared to do with any text that could be challenged). However, in the post-reading paper I've assigned for it, I've read multiple papers already from people who have had personal connections with the book, and so far the response has been that the book is a fair perspective and reading it has been good for those people, even therapeutic. I know I've stated things in vague terms here, but I don't think I should get any more detailed than this.

Anyway, take care, and you'll probably hear from me about a month from now. Peace,

-Matt