Fifth Week and Optimistic Future Outlook

This summer has flown by and soon we will be turning the calendar once more. I usually get depressed when it's August 1st because I only have one more month to get ready for school to start. This year I am excited about the start of a new year. I am returning feeling like I have accomplished a lot. I finally received my master's degree in reading, and I am ready to delve into reader's workshop with renewed interest. I want to start a literacy committee and teacher book club where we can model mini-lessons with our colleagues and learn from each other. I plan to propose this to my principal this week. Since reader's workshop is new to our district, the teachers would benefit from a weekly meeting to share ideas. I'm also excited because I want to start a school-wide collection/campaign for "Pennies for Peace." Each grade level usually has a cause and this year I'm going to suggest that we unite and focus on one effort in order to reap the greatest reward. Also, I will be getting a SmartBoard for my classroom so I'm thrilled to be able to integrate technology into my daily lessons.

This is the fifth week of our precollege reading summer course. We've finished reading our core novel and the students are presenting their projects. I enjoy learning from the individual students and seeing their take on Afghanistan/Pakistan. It's been a good experience thus far and hopefully these students will feel prepared for what awaits them in the fall at MSU.