Today is the halfway mark of summer school. Unfortunately, I'm not there today due to my body being ridiculous. Or maybe my body is being ridiculous because it's been pushed too much lately? Possible.
However, teaching summer school has been awesome. Did I just say that? It has, though! Granted going from 7:15-1:00 without a lunch break or anything longer than 15 minutes is intense, I'm also having a lot of fun. I wasn't sure what it would be like to try to teach three-four weeks of material in one week, but I've managed to make it work. We just WORK. We also have fun. I also plan more stuff than I ever thought I could. I've tried new things, done the tried and true, and had some pretty solid results.
Most of the students in my class are going to be juniors and seniors who for whatever reason failed 9th grade English back in the day. I'm still trying to figure out how some of them failed it because they're pretty damn smart. I'm guessing they didn't find it necessary to go to school or do work. Thankfully, the majority of them have seen the error of their ways. When I have time I'm going to type some of their poems on here. Blew me away.
We started our novel unit, and I decided to teach Sold, which is my passion. It is quickly becoming theirs. I know some of them were like what is this when we first started reading. The beginning is deep but I think the depth is sometimes lost on teenagers. Yesterday, we hit the city. We hit the Happiness House, which is anything but happy. They were hooked. One girl even finished the book!
The past week and a half has been good for me. It rekindled my passion to teach (it kind of burns out at the end of the year) and brought some self-confidence back. It also made me realize how much more difficult it is to teach 9th graders. 9th graders are something else, so it's been refreshing to teache upperclassmen.
I am also ready for summer. I need it.
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