"I don't like red pen ink..."

I got to see my Pre-APs for the second time today, and I handed back my responses to their intro cards. 2nd block seemed to really appreciate it and a few even thanked me as I handed them out, which was sweet. They were trading to see what I had written to the other, and when I handed Missy hers, she said, "Oh, this is for 5th block," and I said, "No, it's yours." And she read through it and laughed because we do have a Missy in 5th block but I just hadn't written hers out yet! :) One of my students even came up to me a few minutes we had left over at the end of 2nd and said, "I like the color pen you're using to grade. Not like my Biology teacher, who uses red ink and makes big marks across the page when you get something wrong!" And I said, "Yeah, I like all colors to grade except red. I don't like red pen ink very much. It makes you feel bad when you get something back! Then you don't even want to know what you missed because you hate looking at it!" She agreed and we laughed at the harshness of colored ink.

Missy made a transparency copy of my annotations on the Macbeth APMC to show the kids what "showing your work" looks like, and they were appalled. Got a few gasps and, "Are you serious??" from the crowd. Kinda made me giggle. We'll have to work on annotations and writing on texts more throughout this semester. I never learned how until college, so I know a framework for the students now will benefit them in the future -- even the present! I remember seeing an AHS freshman teacher annotating a short story with her students and it worked out great! I'll have to pull something out and do it with the blocks some time with Missy's permission.

Today a man crashed a plane into a building that houses federal offices (IRS) and hurt two people in the process. It caused South-bound 183 and Mo-Pac to close for what they're guesstimating a few days, which slowed my drive home. We watched coverage on it during lunch in the lounge, and I turned it on while I was finishing up some grading on White day Bless Me, Ultima quizzes during 4th block while Missy was with the cheerleaders.

Tonight I get to prep for leading 5th block in their storyboarding activity for Bless Me, Ultima since Missy will be on the way back from a Dr.'s appointment, so I'm having Jennifer sit in with me until she gets back. I'll just get them started and monitor until then. Can't wait!

For now I've got to finish up writing responses to my White day blocks to hand back!

Always looking forward to the next,
Ms. L