Friday! I made it through my first week, and managed to blog every night (baby steps, baby steps). Today, outside of technology, was a fairly solid day. In my English 12 classes, we worked on the first steps of revising something that they had written. I showed them examples of handwritten lyrics by artists such as Jerry Garcia, Eddie Vedder, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, and Kurt Kobain. All of these handwritten lyrics had words or phrases crossed out or marked up in some way. I told them that even rockstars revise (I can't take credit for this as I stole the idea from Joe Akers with the HWP). I had them revise a sample paragraph I wrote, then I they worked with their partners to revise their own work. I wanted to see their revision process, and I'll be looking over those this weekend.
My students still weren't entered into the Read 180 system yet, so I had to again supplement material for the class along with them reading for 20 minutes.
One section of my English 12 class won a lottery of sorts, and everyone in the class was to be given a Chromebook (a laptop doesn't have an operating system and runs off Chrome and uses Googledocs). We went to the media today to pick up the Chromebooks and for the students to receive their orientation on how to use them. The students were all seated at tables of 4-5, and were dismissed by table to turn in their usage agreement in exchange for their new toy. As the students returned to their tables and attempted to log into their devices to behold the wonders their new temporarily personal devices would behold, the technology gremlins who torment my township took over. Only 5 of my 25 students were actually able to log into the devices, so my plan of showing them how to use them and their ins and outs was completely worthless. We made due in the media center, and I left with the hope that by Monday in class they could actually use the computers which were to be the text for my class.
Overall, the week went well. I'm freaking exhausted from teaching like I have never been before. The zombie 5k I ran this summer was a breeze compared to this week. The new schedule isn't as bad as I thought it would be, at least not after the first 4 days. A group of us teachers went out after school and had a meeting off-campus, which is at least a monthly Friday tradition. I love working with those people who I am very privileged to call my friends. As tired as I am, I sit here on my couch and am watching "Stand By Me". I feel suddenly refreshed and rejuvenated watching a screenplay by my favorite author about a writer who writes a story about he and his friends when they are 12 and the adventure they go on to see a dead body. The last line Richard Dryfus types into his computer resonates with me, and brings me back to my students. "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?" My students are older than 12, but its very cool to be a part of their lives they may never forget, even if its just as a vapor.
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