over 490 & through the alley - to granny's house they'll go

I started with the junior classes this past week. They've been going pretty well. The 2nd period class, though... it's like pulling teeth to get them to do work! It's a much bigger class as well, so I feel like I'm running a circus act sometimes, but somehow we managed to make it through the week without falling behind the other class!

My sophomore class has continued to go well. The kids were rather squirrelly on Friday, but I guess that's to be expected. We've been reading Raisin in the Sun, and they are really into it! On Wednesday I was going to have them stop reading about 10 minutes early so I could give them some extra essay suggestions (plus it was a good stopping point), and when I told them to stop, they collectively started saying, "No - let's keep going!" And let's be honest, if these kids tell me they want to keep reading?!?! We will keep reading!!

I am starting Catcher in the Rye with the juniors, and I found this great story online to use as an introduction. It's called "Catcher in the Oatmeal," and it's basically the story of Goldilocks & the Three Bears - except it's written in 1st-person from the perspective of Goldilocks, and it's written in Holden Caulfield's voice - hilarious! So I had the kids read that & then I had them re-write Little Red Riding Hood in a 1st-person narrative style & I let them choose what voice they wanted to adopt. A lot of them, not surprisingly, wrote about "Little Red IN the Hood..." which was quite funny. I had one student who wrote from the wolf's perspective:
"So I knocked on the door, and I was like, "Granny - it's me! I got 40s and blunts for you!"
Ah, making real-life applications.....

Overall, things are still continuing to go well & I'm still enjoying it!