A day in photos!
Introductions! Isn't she adorable!
Cute!
Prewriting!
Sharing "Where I'm From" maps in pairs!
First draft!
Writing groups -- first attempt at revision
The strategy: Add, Subtract, and Rearrange!
Sharing their first drafts!
Aren't they the cutest kids EVER!
Evidence of adding, subtracting and rearranging!
Break time!
See how I arranged the room so that we can meet with the whole groups and then break out into small groups!
How incredibly awesome is that!
Sweet!
Red bean ice cream after 6 hours of teaching!
Delicious!
I had an awesome day!
I'm going to try and practice the examen process each night while I'm here. It is explained below.
It is about asking ourselves two questions: For what am I most grateful? For what am I least grateful? These questions help us identify moments of consolation and desolation. For centuries, prayerful people have found direction for their day and for their life by identifying these moments.
The two questions can be asked in other ways, such as: When did I feel most alive today? When did I feel life draining out of me? Or, what was today's high point? What was today's low point?
So, here goes ...
When did I feel most alive today?
I felt most alive working with the 8th graders who make up my first class, which runs from 9 am until noon. They were funny and joyful and creative. We made name tags and discussed three objects/symbols that reveal what we most wanted everyone in the room to know about us.
Then we wrote "Where I'm From" poems, worked in writing groups on revision, and read aloud what we'd written. It was delightful. There are only 10 students in the class, and the classroom is big enough for us to have a place to sit as a whole group as well as three separate tables for us to break out into writing/sharing groups.
Can I just say that it was TEACHER HEAVEN, pure and simple!
I also felt ALIVE and WELL when a kid named Steven figured out how to get my MAC to connect to the internet. Whoohoo!
(Insert "happy dance" here!)
I had thought I was going to be "suffering" using a PC with all the desktop icons labeled in Korean!
(Insert jumping for joy and clapping my hands here!)
Steven is my ROCK STAR! Making it work involved IP addresses, Pinging, Routers, and all kinds of other rigamarole that I know nothing about!
When did I feel the life draining out of me?
I don't know if it's the same thing as "the life draining out of me," but I feel utterly exhausted right now. My feet are swollen and I'm physically POOPED from the long day(s).
But it is a GOOD tired.
The second class period wasn't as fun as the first period. The students were more reluctant to participate, and it was a bit more like "pulling teeth" than it was with the first group. The class just had less energy due to the fact that it is held after lunch from 1 pm until 4 pm. (Or was it, perhaps, that I HAD LESS ENERGY?!) ;-0
So that's it for today!
