One More Week

This week was a pretty average week at school: a few ups a few downs. Overall, pretty solid. The new trend seems to be the beginning of the week starts off pretty rough (maybe including tears) and by the end of the week it feels okay again. Hopefully, this next week will start smoothly and end smoothly. Granted, it is the week before fall break and the kids are definitely going to be wound up. And let's be honest, I am looking forward to fall break as much, if not more than the students are.

Anyway, on Wednesday, I attended another training. This time, it was for Step Up to Writing, which is a supplemental program that focuses on, as you probably guessed, writing. Thankfully, this presenter was much better than the last one and the curriculum is actually really good stuff. I have been struggling a bit with teaching writing, so I am definitely going to start using this in my classroom. I don't remember if I was really a good writer or a bad writer in eighth grade, but my students really need some extra help in writing. It is difficult to teach because there is not an exact formula to follow; you give a writing assignment and everyone will do something different. You know good writing when you see it and you know bad writing when you see it, but how do you teach good writing? I am still figuring this out...

On a not related to school note, I went to see Anberlin last night in Tempe. It was truly awesome; the best concert I have been to.  They had the perfect combination of new songs (which are fantastic) and old favorites. They sadly did not play one of my favorites (Inevitable), but it was amazing regardless. Also, the lighting was really amazing. They had, what I am guessing, were a bunch LED light bars. Considering their newest album is titled "Dark is the Way. Light is a Place" it makes sense for them to have incredible lighting. I will post pictures on Facebook as soon as I find my camera cord.

This is a really short post, but that is probably okay considering most of my posts are pretty long. One more week and then a much desired week long break. Here's to hoping for a successful week!