August 27/28/31

August 27 & 28
Two really busy days! August 27 was book talk day. Nine periods, and over 200 students came through for book talks with English classes to pick books for independent reading projects. Between Linda, Geralyn and myself, I think we talked about 35-40 books. Our winners were The Hunger Games, My Bloody Life, Monster, and Perfect Chemistry. By the end of the day, I was able book talk books I haven't even read.

August 31
Today was solo day. Linda was out, so I got to teach my first solo lesson: a research pathfinder for an English III's debate. I was able to update an existing pathfinder on Friday for the project. The first go-round was slightly better than disastrous. I later watched Geralyn give the lesson to another class, and she offered to let me do it again. It went MUCH better after watching the steps to take. I also was in charge of 3 freshmen accelerated English classes for their book talks, more independent reading. Luckily, we got restocked with some of the winners from last week, so it was easy to go it alone. I also supplemented with trailers from YouTube and SchoolTube to break up the monotony and allow the kids to hear about books that are not in my regular reading list.