Great Week!

I can't think when I've had a better teaching week. The funny thing is, I'd actually been dreading it. You know how it is, trying to get your class "whipped" back into shape after a 2 week vacation, don't you? And then there was the pain of leaving family after our marvelous two-week visit with them. And then (I know, I know...I always tell my students not to use and then--and here I am doing it!) we walked in the door from the airport at 4am Monday morning.

But I had a great and giddy kind of week. I think it was discovering the post below, where I gave myself permission to feel for the rocks with my feet. Although a planner, I am intuitive in my teaching and I need to permit myself to flow with intuition.

• We did readers' theater with each chapter of our read-aloud: The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.
• There are plans in the works to do a book-wide readers' theater for other grades.
• We began to discover our Grammar Wizards. Can you imagine a class full of grinning students during grammar?
• Having the students design the groups for science was an inspired moment which led to finding a gift of inciteful analysis in one of my students--kudos to you, Alejandro!
• I realized that liunch-duty Thursday afternoons would be the PERFECT times to play math games.

Somehow, someway, we had a lot of fun and learned a ton. It doesn't get better than that.