The school district where I work offers a college English class to our students and they can earn up to 6 college credits from a local community college.  In June, I had 20 interested students.  In order to get into this class, students had to  pass the college entrance exam.  Much to my amazement as well as the students, only a handful of them passed the college entrance exam!  The juniors in my honors English class are some of the best writers I have seen in a while and not all of them passed.  I couldn’t throw these students back into a “regular” English class. So with my principal’s approval I was able to offer many of these students the college level class without the local community college credit.  To my surprise, everyone I approached was interested in being in the class regardless of obtaining upper level credits or not.  That was not the only bridge they had to cross.  I assigned them One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and an essay to be e-mailed to me by July 23rd.  I was very thrilled to receive 17 papers from the 20 students who signed up for the course.  This is not an easy novel, it covers many different themes and issues that I look forward to discussing with them on the first day of school.  The second week of school my class has been assigned reading cards and a creative project.  Some students have already e-mailed me to get approval for their creative projects.  I am very pleased and proud of my students.  That’s what I call dedication and really wanting to grow and learn! 

Keep it up folks!

Today myself and some of my colleagues sat through six hours of training in regards to block scheduling.  It was a beautiful day after two days of rain.  Doesn’t that figure when I have some place to be all day inside!  I must confess that much of my thoughts have been channeled toward next year and teaching classes for 84 minutes as apposed to 38 minutes!  I couldn’t help but wonder what that kind of class would look like.  I couldn’t quite wrap my mind around it.  However, now, I feel a little bit better.  Our trainer from BOCES gave us several tried and true strategies that we could work with.  The best part was talking among ourselves and figuring out that we CAN do this!  We were able to brainstorm our current ideas and lesson plans and dissect them in order to make them work for a longer class period.  I have heard so many people tell me that I will just LOVE teaching on the block!   I wasn’t that easily sold.  After today, I realize that I am ready for a change and I am excited about changing the entire way that I run my class.  I think it will be kind of exciting!  Learning and change always keeps boredom at bay.

I was later informed that each of our class rooms will have a smart board! Oh, my! More new things!!!  But I understand that this will make learning easier and more interactive with the students.  If anyone has experience with the smart board, please share, because I don’t know anything about it.  I look to my readers to share their knowledge.