The Break that Never Ends!

That is what this two week break has felt like to me. It has been a nice, long break and something that I've needed. While I have done some school related work, most of my time has been devoted to doing absolutely as little as possible.

It is probably the first time since I've started teaching that I didn't spend the whole two weeks obsessing about the rest of the school year and/or grading papers! I can say unequivocally that not doing anything school related during this two week respite is one of the best decisions I've made.

While most of my blogging teaching colleagues go back to school tomorrow, I don't return until Tuesday. We do have a teacher inservice tomorrow, however, I've decided not to attend. Instead I am going to find out if my school is open (the teacher inservice is a field trip into the city during commuting hours - not my idea of fun) and if it is, I'll take my refrigerator, my radio and other stuff, and get those things back into my classroom. Otherwise I'll have to wait until Tuesday after school to do it.

As far as my literature unit goes, I have the first half of the book completed. I've also decided that I will let my GATE students decide which grade they want. Each day there will be tasks that need to be completed which I have put on a calendar. This calendar will be in the folder that I will be providing for each of my students. In order to get an "A" grade, students will need to complete all the tasks for the week (4 days of work), a "B" grade, students will complete 3 days of work, a "C" grade, 2 days and a "D" grade, 1 day. Students will be earning weekly grades on this, so that one week they can earn "A" grade and another week, they can earn a "C" grade.

I'm then thinking that perhaps for those students who have done ALL the work and have earned a 85% or better on all the quizzes, will not have to take the final test. (I know this goes against my earlier post about my son's Biology teacher, but I'm always willing to try new things!) All students will have to do a culminating project which will tie the book in with some portion of the civil rights movement.

So those are my thoughts on this. Now, I've got to get into the shower and get something accomplished, um, like get the Christmas stuff put away. Have a great day everyone!