She's Come Undone

Oh the bliss of summertime reading! At the beach, I began She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb, but the responsible side of myself has decided to put down the book in favor of planning my 10th grade curriculum for my first year teaching as today is August 1st. It's gone surprisingly well so far.

Coming of age. Lamb is showing a remarkable ability to demonstrate the coming of age of a young woman in his novel. I've felt a similar coming of age -- albeit round two or three for me as I begin to enter officially the working world. Today, I've been much more motivated than some earlier days when I've tried to work, granted it is only in the 10am hour. Somehow or another, my excitement of beginning to teach at Grafton has faded as my excitement of getting married to Scott has grown. I love this man, and yes, I do love teaching, but my thoughts keep returning to plans for the next big date in my life. I have an inkling that this blog will turn out to me trying to balance my personal and professional life -- especially this year.

With my sophomore English class, which possibly will be the inclusion class, I've tried to design it more around the textbook for the ease of the students and para-professionals as well as myself. I've mapped out a syllabus that (if all goes accordingly, which it may very easily not) allows us to finish all of the cultures before we begin to focus on the Silk Road. I've planned on doing most of the selections in the text, but we could cut them later if necessary. I'm worried I might have too much vocabulary (20 words every 2 weeks, but I can change if necessary). We're going to begin with poetry (reading Whitman and Hughes and writing our own) about America because I believe we need to see where we are to look at other cultures realistically. It will also be something good for me to post on the walls in class. Then we will move into world myths and folktales and then Africa. I've got a notebook of teaching materials to begin with and a calendar with blocks of time that hopefully I will be able to adhere to.

In 9th grade, we're jumping into cooperative learning groups and studying short stories, and then we'll transition into the research paper process. I believe I will focus more intently on my 9th grade writing and ease my 10th graders into it. Hopefully this will also help me grade it. My vocabulary words will be the same for the 9th and 10th grade though the quizzes will be different (9th - every week, 10th - every 2 weeks but I could accommodate my sp-ed students with one a week). In my head, I'm thinking I'll use some multiple choice questions for easier grading as well. I don't want to plan too much in detail because I think I'll feel too boxed in and not willing to change, which would be very bad for me.

On another personal note, I'll miss my drives with Katie, but at least I'm close to school this year. I'm sure we'll have the phone and email tied up frequently. :)